Jay Evensen
  • Front Page
  • Opinions
  • Second Thoughts
  • Portfolio
  • Awards
  • About

We all have a responsibility for law enforcement

1/20/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Years ago, as a cub police reporter in Las Vegas, I rode along in a squad car to get a feel for the raw realities of law enforcement.

Las Vegas may be a unique place for someone in a uniform that symbolizes limits and authority. A lot of people come there to escape that stuff. But the lessons of that night apply fairly equally anywhere in the country.
At one point, we pulled to the side of the road near the famed Glitter Gulch. As hundreds of people wandered around the squad car on the way in and out of casinos, the officer taught me a lesson.

The only thing keeping us safe right now, he said, is the basic decency and respect for the law among the majority of these people. They keep everything in check. If it weren’t so, police wouldn’t stand a chance.

But policing would be a lot easier if the few who lack such respect and decency had flashing warning lights above them.

Author George Orwell, whose famous book, “1984” explored the awful consequences of police and government abusing authority, struck a different tone when he said of police, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

The people of the Wasatch Front were reminded of this Sunday morning when gunfire shattered the calm of a quiet Holladay neighborhood. Now we mourn the death of one of those “rough men,” who really wasn’t so rough at all, unless that is a euphemism for brave and duty-bound. A husband and father of three, Unified Police officer Douglas Scott Barney was shot in the head while pursuing a man who had fled the scene of a nearby car accident. His colleague, officer Jon Richey, also was shot but has since been released from the hospital. The suspect, Cory Lee Henderson died in a subsequent shootout.

All of this happened within hours of police receiving a chilling phone call in Danville, Ohio. “My ex-boyfriend’s out in camo looking to kill a cop,” a young woman’s voice said. “He’s got guns on him.”

Not long after, officer Thomas Cottrell was found dead.

These are the first two officers to die in the line of duty in 2016.
For several months, Americans have been engaged in an intense discussion about police force, the training needed for confrontations, allegations of racial hatred and the militarization of law enforcement. These are painful, important topics, but they should be conducted in the right perspective.

Some officers are corrupt. Some abuse power. But most do not, and they face the potential of life-threatening danger every moment they are on duty, even when responding to a routine traffic accident. What is utterly and agonizingly bitter is that an officer has to go down for that lesson to become apparent.

Despite all the protests and what the Washington Post described Tuesday as a feeling of increasing anxiousness among police, fewer officers died in the line of duty in 2015 than the year before. The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 39 died by gunfire last year, compared with 47 in 2014. By comparison, in 1975, 144 officers were killed by gunfire.

As with so many other measurements of violence and crime, statistics show things are getting better, while the public dialog indicates the opposite.

But statistics don’t matter when faced with an officer down.

This time, there aren’t likely to be many questions about the use of force. This time, there will be no protests. The bad guy struck first.

But as Salt Lake City’s new mayor, Jackie Biskupski, said regarding a different investigation involving an officer who survived an attack and killed the suspect,
“We cannot circle the wagons against each other in an effort to improve our justice system."

What we can do is realize, as my officer friend taught long ago, that we all have a stake in law and order, and that the first thing to consider is how dangerous and unpredictable life is for those rough men and women we rely on so we can sleep at night.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Search this site


    Like what you read here?

      Please subscribe below, and we'll let you know when there is a new opinion.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture

    The author

    Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    Campaign 2012
    Congress
    Crime
    Culture
    Iran
    Oil And Gas
    Poverty
    Steroids
    Taxes
    Utah
    Washington
    World Events
    World Events

    Links

    Deseret News
    Newslink
    Marianne Evensen's blog

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.