The American Law-enforcement

The American Law-enforcement is under siege . Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said today on“America’s FOX News Headquarters” that police badges have become targets. Lewis remarked that the overwhelming majority of Americans support law enforcement, but he said part of society hates police officers. He also charged Black Lives Matter with perpetuating violence . It is merely that police departments have been discomfited by the fact that Black Lives Matter and other movements have picked up momentum in the wake of the shootings of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Sam DuBose, Walter Scott, James Boyd and others  (1)>>“We’ve got police officers right now who are hesitating to do their jobs and hesitating to use deadly force, and when you hesitate, you die,” he said. “There are cemeteries across this country that are full of great cops who hesitated to pull that trigger and died.” Rolling Stone magazine last December put out an interesting article which I will quote here :

"Law-enforcement resources are now distributed so unevenly, and justice is being administered with such brazen inconsistency, that people everywhere are going to start questioning the basic political authority of law enforcement. And they're mostly going to be right to do it, and when they do, it's going to create problems that will make the post-Ferguson unrest seem minor."

FEW doubt that there is something seriously wrong with policing in America. Far too many people, chiefly young black men, are dying at the hands of police. Every new police scandal invites more hand-wringing over a law-enforcement system that often seems racist and unjust. Yet few also doubt that most police officers are decent people who “risk their own safety for ours every single day,” as President Barack Obama put it recently.While newly available data show that law enforcement deaths did rise from 2013 to 2014, a closer analysis shows that 2013 may have been the aberration, with an unusually low number of police deaths, while 2014 marked a return to the recent norm. law enforcement officers throughout the country say they feel under siege after a string of deadly attacks on police. This distrust of police, coming in the wake of controversial deaths by officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere, helps fuel the bloodshed, they say. But there's no evidence of the so-called Ferguson effect -- that police are hesitating to do their jobs -- or that criminals are being emboldened by the rhetoric. They're not doing their jobs any differently. The job is harder in the last year, but they aren't just lying down. The growing fear factor might be the case between the civilian and the law, "Black Lives Matter" became a rallying cry of protesters around the country last year after a white police officer in Ferguson killed unarmed black teen Michael Brown, and a black man named Eric Garner died from an apparent chokehold by a white New York police officer. The Texas officer Cpl. Wayne Curry , like anyone who wears a badge, said he has had his share of run-ins with those who harbor a dislike of the police. But when people have stepped up to him, he said, it is "more likely they want to buy me dinner." The killing was the latest in a spate of deadly attacks in which police officers have been the targets. Last week, two Louisiana officers were killed in separate incidents and two officers in Mississippi died in May when they came under fire during a traffic stop. At least 25 police killings in New York, Pennsylvania, San Jose and elsewhere have rattled police already this year. The federal government exercises a limited role in overseeing police departments. In the wake of a scandal involving police corruption or violence in a major city, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division may launch investigations for "patterns and practices" that violate the civil rights of residents, as it has in Baltimore. But the decentralized nature of law enforcement in the US means that in most cases police reform will have to be implemented at the state and local level. Building trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they serve has long been a priority for police leaders. Recently, heightened awareness of incidents of gross police misconduct, often amplified by new technologies, has helped lead to the creation of The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, led by Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, which has provided a roadmap for law enforcement agencies to self-assess and begin focusing on areas where they have opportunities to improve on their service delivery and increase their legitimacy. Every justified use of force begins as an offense against the officer, whether resisting or assault. Stop dropping charges where police are crime victims. Stop writing checks to every arrestee who says “boo!” Let us sue bad guys. Give us police leaders and prosecutors who know that a crime against the police is a crime against everyone’s peace and dignity. We really do carry the badge on your behalf. 

NOTES AND COMMENTS:
 (1)>> Police Officers . Yes there are good officers , but some I wonder .Many police officers seem to have this "Us against the world attitude". And, every one  that  has shot unarmed civilians seems to have a number of guns at home. Is that the Siege Mentality? They've been militarized and trained to think like that.Obviously The Times is right that the police are now facing a new foe, the public. But what is missing in this article is the root of this animosity. To me it's a no-brainer. ("Police worry about their own safety after killings: 'It's a different world,'" Aug. 31)