🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
"It's not illegal to be black." That was the response to far too many calls from the residents of an upscale, liberal suburb of Chicago during my six-year tenure as a 911 dispatcher.
The reports of a "suspicious person" would come in over the emergency and non-emergency phone lines into the police communications center. When asked for a description, the callers would often identify the suspect as "a black man" whose "suspicious activity" consisted of walking in the caller's neighborhood.
Even in the most affluent areas, racism knows no color, religion, financial status or political affiliation. When people perceive a threat to their personal safety and property values, the public face of their morals and values is peeled off, exposing their true feelings about people of color.
It would have been dishonest to label an entire community based on a handful of bigots residing there. Just as it is asinine to demonize an entire profession because of the actions of a very few bad apples. Every profession has bad actors. Public safety professionals such as police officers, firefighters and even 911 dispatchers are not immune.
But the overwhelming majority of police officers honor their oath to serve and protect, putting their own lives on the line with every shift. And during this time of national turmoil, they need more support—not less.
Black lives do matter. There is no doubt that our country has a history of racism and inequality. We are not perfect—far from it. But the beauty of Western civilization and a democracy such as ours is that over time, we right our wrongs. And that is why I love America.
But the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization has nothing to do with enhancing the safety and improving the quality of life for African Americans. BLM is about dismantling law enforcement in the course of a far-left political revolution. One can support an idea but not the people who have hijacked it.
Those to whom black lives truly matter should focus on reforming certain aspects of law enforcement—not defunding it or vilifying the profession.
Between the press and progressives demonizing law enforcement, what would possess any individual to aspire to become a cop?
I know from personal interactions that younger cops are thinking of leaving the profession because it is regarded as evil by so many. Who would want to spend 30 years working in a vocation that society looks upon with disdain?
Veteran cops are considering taking early retirement. Officers with decades of ties to communities and neighborhoods—people you want interacting with the public—are now handing in their paperwork. Why would they want to continue doing a job that is regarded with so much contempt, let alone is life-threatening?
When someone places a 911 call, there's a good chance it's one of the caller's worst moments of his or her life. From medical emergencies and missing children, to domestic violence, armed robberies and the unimaginable, a well-trained police officer is crucial to resolving the situation. That individual is a citizen's best friend in a time of need.
The very idea of "defunding the police" and "dismantling" police departments can only be described as foolhardy—even deadly.
Who will stop that drunk driver before he kills someone? Who will investigate screams and gunshots heard down the street? Who will respond to the armed robber breaking into your home? Who may start CPR because he/she arrived before the paramedics were on scene? Be careful what you wish for.
All roads lead to your town. Rape and murder don't happen only in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. In one of the wealthiest and best educated communities in America, every emergency imaginable was called in.
Reforms should be an ongoing process. Police departments need more funding to bring on more officers and attract more qualified, better educated cops with more than just a high school diploma or two years of college. Four-year degrees and specialized sensitivity/diversity training for future cops should be mandatory. Many professions require continuing education and updated certification. Law enforcement should be no different. Officers deserve to receive training in various forms of communicating with the public. Union contracts should be written to weed out bad officers, not protect them.
These ideas should be implemented by industry professionals, not politicians. It is the political class in major cities that created the current crisis. Do not rely on them to now resolve it.
Paul Miller is president and executive director of the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Follow him on Twitter at @pauliespoint.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
