Today there are more cameras per square foot of landscape than ever before, and as we law enforcement professionals do our jobs, that means more people than ever creating footage so we can be targeted, second-guessed, falsely reported and more. The fact that this has been done time and again — in addition to video being edited to increase sensationalism and then falsely reported on ad nauseam — has created a societal atmosphere of distrust as it concerns the public we serve and those of us who serve it. Our challenge is that too many people are so eager to show law enforcement professionals doing something wrong. What’s lost is the realization that part of our job is to arrest people and if they don’t go 100 percent willingly, we have to fight them into handcuffs.
Yep, there’s that word “fight.” Many people think we are too eager for it. Many people think we enjoy it. Many people think we take personal pleasure in delivering pain to others. Those beliefs, as misguided as they may be, seem to be growing because of a mainstream media push to present us in exactly that light: power-hungry, blood-thirsty, egotistical, abusive and more. But what is the reality?
The reality is that our job demands we enforce the law. Since those who break the law have demonstrated their lack of respect for the law already, it’s beyond ridiculous to simply assume that all criminals, upon hearing the words, “You’re under arrest,” will turn around, put their hands behind their backs (backs together, thumbs facing out, please) and accept having their freedom taken away. Instead, it’s much wiser — and proven as a reality — to assume that they will fight. They will resist arrest.
When a suspect fights us, we have to assume, for our own safety, their intent to defeat or destroy an adversary. We, the law enforcement professionals (i.e. street warriors), cannot accept defeat because all too often “defeat” and “death” become synonymous. If a suspect beats us in a fight and can take control of our weapon, baton, knife or handcuffs, they can use them to kill us. People seem to forget that when we fight a person to subdue them and handcuff them that we are bound by a few laws and plenty of agency guidelines. We use, “that minimum force necessary to take control of or subdue the suspect.” Minimum force. That means we do as little harm as is possible to succeed in attaining our goal of arresting a person. Our challenge is that they are bound by no such limitations and are all too often willing to kill us simply because it’s the easier thing to do if they have the right weapon or think they can take ours.
Society has bought into the idea that we street warriors are out for blood, that we just like to hurt people, that we are power-hungry and get our egos stroked by exercising unnecessary power over a suspect. That is true less than 0.0001 percent of the time in my opinion. Our challenge is that too many folks are taking videos that show us doing our jobs professionally. They then edit a five minute video down to twelve seconds and show the only piece of the video that shows any behavior that might be questionable, then they try to punish us for it.
We have to do our job. We also have to go home at the end of our shift. Continue to use that minimum force which is necessary and be comfortable with what you see in the mirror before you go to bed each night. Let your soul be at peace and let karma deal with those who target us unfairly.
That’s how you avoid or minimize stress concerns.
Stay safe!
Lt. Frank Borelli (ret)
