"If you are out there protesting, even if your message is hostile to law enforcement, that is your right and we will protect you. But if you commit a crime, you will be arrested. You will be arrested with dignity and respect, but you will be arrested and you will go to jail," Detroit Police Chief James Craig, an African-American native of the city, who began his law enforcement career in the Motor City in 1977.
Detroit also has had its share of unrest and disturbances over racial justice this summer of 2020, but the rule of law is still being enforced, the police department is majority black and while protests have been frequent, vandalism, looting and violence have all been at a minimum.
Closer to home, in Georgia's capital city of Atlanta, the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks in a Wendy's parking lot in southwest Atlanta following an unsuccessful arrest attempt weeks ago was certainly a tragedy. The following night, protesters set that Wendy's ablaze, and armed activists for weeks have turned the surrounding area into a nighttime version of Seattle's now-defunct "CHOP" zone.
And this weekend, almost in that same Wendy's parking lot, a small 8-year old child was shot and killed, along with two adults in three separate shootings over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The child was the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting, the other two shootings are still under investigation, among 6 shooting incidents inside Atlanta city limits this holiday weekend, injuring 25 and including 3 fatalities.
Along with the fireworks in Manhattan, overnight 41 New Yorkers were shot (including 4 fatalities), this just days after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio shifted $1-billion in budget funding away from the New York City Police Department, which has overseen declining violent crime rates and murders previously in the nation's most populous city to 30-year lows. Last year on this same night, there were only 9 shootings (one fatality) and 2 stabbings citywide.
And yet, across the nation, along with this moment of reckoning, wake-up call and legitimate discussions to revisit police training as well as doing more to weed out rogue police officers with a history of aggressive behavior, we hear repeated calls to Defund the Police.
In the Classic City of Athens, home to the University of Georgia and a community of nearly 125,000 (when school is in), the Athens/Clarke County Commission considered a proposal just days before the new fiscal year began on July 1, 2020, to begin a 50-percent reduction in funding of the Athens/Clarke County Police Department over the next decade. Late and loud community opposition resulted in a vote of 7-2 opposing the defunding, but the overall budget only passed by a vote of 6-3. The issue is not done being discussed, and with the make-up of that commission changing, it will be re-visited.
Perhaps in an ideal world, we would not need police officers or sheriff deputies. However as much as I love this country and great state, we do not live in that ideal world. And though violent crime in much of America has been trending down for decades now, we can largely thank policing for getting us there.
The Georgia Sheriffs' Association are longtime friends and clients of mine, and I have tremendous respect and admiration for law enforcement and other first responders of all stripes. And though they are admittedly not perfect, they are daily sent out to deal with the worst of us.
Though I support additional training in de-escalation, racial justice and non-aggressive methods of control/containment, we have to remember that the work we send our police and deputies out to handle every night is messy and dangerous stuff.
As America turns 244, we are at a fragile juncture. Yet there is not a lot of patience to turn or right this incredibly large and diverse ship. But within law enforcement and criminal justice, there is much of the system worth saving and amending. In Georgia we spent three legislative sessions creating accountability courts, reforming sentencing and juvenile justice, and the return of offenders to the general population once time and sentence have been served. Now let us turn our attention to the front end of the law enforcement pipeline.
But defund the police? That is a recipe for lawlessness, anarchy, and disaster. Because when crimes and domestic disturbances occur, and they will, and when the sh__ begins to hit the fan. Who are you gonna call? Ghostbusters?
