Stinkin' Public Employees!

Over the last few weeks I have noticed that there is a backing away by the main stream media, excluding faux news, of denigrating our public employees.  Public employees have been the favorite target of the radical right for some time, exploding in the massive protests in Wisconsin this past winter over Scott Walker giving millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporations, then crying that the public employees were breaking the budget and therefore had to give up collective bargaining.  John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, tried more of the same, resulting in more protests.   

Then we arrived at the protests in New York in front of Wall Street the past weeks.  For several days the protesters and the police occupied the same space in relative comfort, laughing and joking with each other.  The police were respectful of the citizen’s rights to peaceably assemble, and the citizens respected the authority of the police.  Then we witnessed the arrival of Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna – or as Jon Stewart called him, Tony Bolony.  He was really obvious because apparently in the NYPD the upper echelon of officers wear white shirts in contrast with the blue shirts of the rank and file.  This wretched individual began pepper spraying the faces of women who were peacefully protesting, causing them great pain and anguish.  Some of the blue shirts were heard making really uncomplimentary comments about his actions, but they couldn’t really do much because he was obviously their superior officer.  Reluctantly the NYPD, after several days, realized the incident needed to be investigated.  Since this apparently was one rogue officer, I do hope someone looks into his finances and background.  Has he had an infusion of cash anywhere in his family?  Does he have a troubled history? Since I am automatically suspicious of incidents like this, I wonder if he was given incentives by whomever to create a riot in order to vilify the protesters.  The majority of the officers on scene should be commended for their professional behavior.   There will always be areas of the country, or areas within an otherwise professionally run department, that need to be straightened up.  That is an understood.  But other than those areas, I believe that the majority of officers act in a professional and respectful manner.

When I was still in office we had an incident in our county that was very disturbing to me.  Our deputies were called, at night, to a derelict trailer park for a disturbance of the peace.  While there they realized that one of the disturbers had an outstanding arrest warrant.  In the effort to arrest him, the man died.  The public outcry of police brutality was horrendous.  Many demands were made that the deputies should be suspended, they should be arrested, etc.  Fortunately, although the incident occurred at night, the deputies had remained in view of their own video camera.  What was recorded were the deputies going about their business in a calm and professional manner.  Why had the man died?  He was coming down from a meth high, was drunk, and died from what is known as excited delirium.  In short, his heart exploded. 

What was very demoralizing for our deputies was that not one representative of the media gave them the benefit of the doubt.  They were accused immediately, simply because they were law enforcement.  There was one woman who was leading the charge against the deputies.  She was so adamant in her accusations I finally wrote a very short letter to the editor asking if the deputies were found innocent, would she be as vocal in declaring their innocence as she was in declaring them guilty before a trial.  I was concentrating on her, and hadn’t realized that short two inch letter was the only support they received from anyone, anywhere.  In my mind, that was unacceptable.  Had they gone to trial and found to be guilty, throw the book at them.  But at least wait until the investigation is complete!

Our society has gone bonkers, in my opinion, by immediately assuming that if it is a public employee, be it a teacher, firefighter, police, or any other, they are automatically wrong.  Ronald Reagan started this with his, “Government is not the solution; government is the problem”.  Well, he was wrong. 

Fortunately, I do believe people are beginning to realize that.