2015/05/19

Michael Heise | FilmingCops.com

Last week was annual “Police Week” in Washington, D.C. Officers and representatives from all over the country were in attendence to show their support of police who are killed on the job.

2014 saw 127 officers killed, one of the safest years on record to be a police officer, while an unprecedented 1000+ citizens were killed by police in the same year.

Kerry Picket of The Daily Caller was on the scene to interview officers about their feelings on police work.

Officers told her that they have stopped engaging in proactive policing, that is the practice of deterring criminal activity by showing police presence and engaging the public to learn their concerns, thereby preventing crime from taking place in the first place.

In contrast, responding to a complaint after a crime has been committed is reactive policing. “I’m hearing it from guys who were go-getters, who would go out here and get the guns and the bad guys and drugs. They’re hands-off now,” a shift commander told the Sun.

“I’ve never seen so many dejected faces.”

Other officers described having bottles thrown at their cruisers.

Of course, these same officers are quick to play up the victim role in these encounters, instead of examining what would cause somebody to throw a bottle at an armed vehicle driven by somebody who could legally and “legitimately” arrest and cage them for doing so, a clear act of distrust and outrage.

One officer cited this loss of trust as the reason behind the lowering morale amongst police officers, saying “Morale is low because we don’t have the public’s backing. I pulled a guy over, recently. He was a drunk driver. He said, ‘Fuck you, I hate cops.”

Yet, the president of The Fraternal Order Of Police says that the problem is the shrinking ability to recruit new officers that is causing low morale, saying “For the last six or eight years, proactive law enforcement has come to a stop because of shortage of personnel.”

Indeed, hiring of police officers has dropped dramatically in recent years, and it’s not for a lack of effort on the part of the police.

From NYPD to small town police departments, people just don’t appear to want to be police officers at the moment. Some police departments are resorting to hiring non-citizen immigrants to become officers.

It’s interesting to note the police mindset on this issue. THEY are the victim. Those nasty citizens aren’t arbitrarily respecting them and kissing their feet anymore and it’s their fault that the cops can’t be energized about the job.

It never crosses their minds that it’s the police showing up to protests with military gear — or averaging about 3 citizen deaths a day; or hostile attitudes toward citizens being the norm; or commonly released videos of brutality, and a general perception of “us vs them” — that these are the true causes of people not wanting to associate with them anymore.

Watch the full documentary “America’s Largest Street Gang” below to learn how brutal and violent police departments have become: