Former officers say police scrutiny unfair, lacks context
By Senators Paul Davis, David Burns and Scott Cyrway
It seems like every day there’s some new video involving police officers that’s gone viral and is dominating the cable news outlets. Invariably, according to police critics, it depicts officers abusing their authority and roughing up citizens.
The phenomenon is a direct result of technology: These days many people are equipped with a cellphone that has a video camera. This has allowed some to capture confrontations-usually only part of confrontations-between police and members of the public that sometimes tell the whole story, but more often than not don’t.
The unfortunate narrative that is emerging is that there is an epidemic of police brutality sweeping the nation and only now it’s being documented with video. Somehow, the thinking goes, police are anxious to hurt and even kill citizens and are just looking for an excuse.
This is absolute nonsense.
The truth of the matter is that every day, unfortunately, there are confrontations between members of the public and police who are hired to enforce the law in a nation that has more than 300 million citizens and about one million police officers.
What happened in Ferguson, Missouri has nothing to do with what happened in New York, Cleveland, Baltimore, or anywhere else. Any time there is a police incident with a member of the public that involves injury or death to that individual, the incident is investigated by local, state, and in some cases federal officials to determine whether the officers involved acted appropriately.
Yet to watch the news these days, one would think that the police across the nation were involved in an organized, coordinated war on innocent people.
We are all former law enforcement officials who are now serving in the Maine Legislature.
It is very discouraging for us to see this ongoing assault on police officers, 99 percent of whom represent the best of our communities and all share the common goal of wanting to protect the public.
It is a sad fact of life that a small number of citizens die during violent encounters with police officers. There is nothing new about this unfortunate circumstance. Officers are trained to deescalate tense situations and do everything within their power to protect all lives. Sometimes they are given no other choice but to defend themselves and other members of the public.
Here’s something you likely haven’t heard in the non-stop coverage of so-called police brutality: This year is a little more than half over, and already 64 police officers around the country have died in the line of duty. After automobile accidents, the leading cause of death for those officers was gunfire.
They are 64 individuals who took an oath to protect the public. They put on the uniform one morning not realizing they would not return home to see their families.
We have made household names of the people who died in encounters with police, most of whom had criminal records and initiated the confrontations. Yet we barely hear a peep from the media about the officers who died on the job.
Maybe we would hear more about our brave officers if people used their cell phones to record officers when they are arresting a violent criminal, putting their lives on the line to save someone in danger, responding to a domestic violence call, or simply deescalating a tense situation like they do every day.
We are not asking you to put police officers on a pedestal and say they are right 100 percent of the time. But we would like to see more respect for those who are doing their level best to protect the public.
Sen. Paul Davis is also a retired Maine state trooper who represents Senate District 4. Sen. David Burns is a also retired Maine state trooper who represents Senate District 6. Sen. Scott Cyrway is a retired Kennebec County Sheriff’s deputy who represents Senate District 16.
