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Yet here we are:
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sounded like the parent of a pre-schooler saying some people picked up “bad habits” during the COVID isolation. He made the statement during a closed-door public safety roundtable held in Pueblo, Colorado, a community of 120,000 suffering from the same challenges of violent crime and police staffing seen throughout the country.
The rhetoric of political responses to the uptick in lawlessness rarely includes the term “personal responsibility”. It seems that the term is reserved for mask mandates and vaccinations. In the politics of crime, the blame doesn’t focus on people choosing to kill, steal, and destroy. It’s the gun. It’s the bad cops. It’s the drugs. It’s the prison system. It’s the economy. It’s the pandemic. Of course, when it comes to the pandemic, all the blame goes to personal responsibility on the ignorant, selfish dolts who don’t want to wear masks and get a third vaccine poke. Murder me it’s not really your fault. I catch COVID, dammit why did you do that to me?
The largest teacher’s union decries the “school to prison pipeline” perpetuated by school resource officers picking on marginalized students, and mean immigration officers making families comply with the law. A Manhattan District Attorney announced that as long as an armed robber doesn’t actually pull the trigger of the gun they are pointing at the convenience store clerk’s head, the robbery will become a misdemeanor theft. As long as a burglar targets only sheds and storage lockers, there may be no prosecution at all. Drug dealers have to be involved in additional crimes to face prosecution. DA Alvin Bragg just doesn’t like to see anyone sent to prison, bless their hearts.
A program in San Francisco will pay people identified as violence-prone as much as $500 a month to not shoot people. Even police reform advocate Al Sharpton is complaining that they are locking up toothpaste at the drugstores because of rampant theft of even low-dollar items. Journalist Tom Zytaruk has observed, “Criminal recidivists are trained to know that despite all the finger-wagging and stern admonishments enunciated by judge after judge, this forgiving criminal justice system of ours, predicated on the concept that human beings are inherently good, keeps reinforcing the message that somehow society has failed the offenders rather than the message that they themselves are personally accountable for the choices they make.” I came across Zytaruk’s comment as one of the very few results that popped up on an internet search for the words personal responsibility and crime. The concept is not creating much chatter among policy wonks and politicians’ speech writers. And Zytaruk is Canadian.
But don’t take too much personal responsibility like buying a gun or determining to protect your home or family. That would be paranoid, promote violence, and give testimony to your belief that the government can’t protect you 24/7.
During the aforementioned Colorado roundtable, Weiser also said “A lot of the concerns we talked about were young people who may have gotten some of these bad habits, may not have the same family and community connections. I also think the availability of both drugs and guns are fueling more violent crimes.” Drugs light up and force themselves into the veins and lungs. Guns leap into the hands of young people and create an irresistible vibration that causes assaults and robberies. In a discussion about doubling murder rates, increased domestic violence, and even higher fatality rates due to reckless and drugged driving, Weiser couches the topics in the category of “bad habits”.
Could it be that politicians attacking law enforcement has become a bad habit? Could it be that letting violent criminals roam the streets on no-bail release, easy probation, and lax prosecution has become a bad habit? Could it be that blaming everything but the individual has become a bad habit?
Maybe Weiser is right, we have picked up a few bad habits.
Joel is a retired police chief. He is an award winning writer, college professor, trainer, and first responder chaplain. He is the author of several law enforcement related books and articles. Shults currently serves as a municipal judge and a coroner’s investigator in rural southern Colorado.
Joel can be found on twitter @chiefshults, and online at joelshults.blogspot.com, and streetsmartforce.com.
29 comments:
Until people decide to no longer be afraid to admit that the little black, thug, hood -rat criminals are the ones committing all of the crimes nothing will change! Look at the statistics!
Pledge fund?
I'm always amazed at the woke media who are happy to give a suspect description right down to "blue nike high tops with a sponge Bob logo" yet refuse to say the suspect is an African American Male.
One more body dropped in the hood last night and it barely makes the local news.
1251, its amazing how people act like black people are so bad, but no one on cedarposts ever speaks about the problems that exist within the CMPD. We hired a homeless person from a halfway house. Open question to all the rookies from the past 2 years...why did you sign up after witnessing all the past issues of the last 5 years? Was it for need of money or pure desperation? What inspired you to do a job that 1000s are walking away from? A cop sent a letter to the media saying "I quit".
8:18 Black people aren't so bad, many are wonderful people doing as best they can, hard working, honest people. Yet for some reason the vast majority are scammers, and cheats, thieves, and violent felons. 10-1 in Charlotte and it would be 20-1 if we actually enforced the law. Look at the excuses you're only arresting me because I'm black and they actually believe that. Unlit the black community admits that they are the problem the problem will not end. I'm embarrassed that my cousin is a damn here hold my beer idiot. Is it not time that you are embarrassed that your cousin brags about the stolen Glock he has in his dodge charger that has a stolen tag and no insurance?
^^I think you are touching on local government jobs in general. You need to learn to expect nothing from govco employees, regardless of the agency or title. CMS is the worst example of them all. Parks and Rec is trash, as well.
Why is it that every time without fail, when I’m out and about and I get a huge whiff of marijuana, I look around me and either see a car occupied by a black person(s) or a black person or group is black persons (more likely) is walking past me or near me? I even had some service done at my house the other day and dude comes in reeking of weed and wouldn’t ya know it, he was black. I know plenty of white folks smoke weed, but it’s got to be embarrassing to live life like that constantly reeking of weed unless your some kind of rapper like Snoop Dog or Bob Marley.
8:45 PM I am embarrassed that my brother is a 32 year old thug that is so self absorbed and thinks everyone owes him something. Everything bad is always someone else's fault. His entire thought process is messed up. Dad was too hard. His mom always tried to cover for him. He found bad friends and Parents on opposite ends. He is one messed up white boy. My point is that friends striving to live in low places and lack of parents on the same page with no expectation of personal responsibility can really mess you up. We no longer teach personal responsibility to kids these days and this does them no favors. We would rather pander to idiots.
BTW I think the social issues are by design more than a bad habit. although I do appreciate that someone recognizes that there is a problem.
You realize that CMPD Command wrote up a couple of cops for finding weed in a car owned by DaBaby. That thug came here from Ohio shot and killed a kid in Walmart is arrested time and time again yet no convictions and now lives in a 2 million dollar house and claims Charlotte as his home. Vi Lyles even publicly thanked DaBaby for feeding a bunch of ghetto moms during Christmas. Its all a scam. He's about six months from being Tupac'd Mexicans not happy about his side gig.
Can we get a DaBaby statue at Trade/Tryon if this happens? Charloot needs something visual for the hood to worship.
8:46 hits the nail squarely. All govco is a complete joke, especially in Charlotte. It's for people who can't handle private sector and think they should get a pension after 20/25/30 years. I admire sanitation folks...they hustle. I really admire them at Republic or a private company. They know they'll get fired for smoking weed at lunch, and they get raises that are on merit and performance. I'm told in CDOT, you have to be an LGBT and a POC to get promoted, which explains how bad the road conditions are in your dump of a city.
I thought democrats wanted to abort DaBaby.
Just wait until they legalize marijuana, then see how bad it gets! They can't regulate alcohol well enough yet, and you know how bad that it is!
CMPD started going down hill when they hired a police chief who didn't have a college degree and didn't meet the minimum requirements for the job! Oh wait, he was black!
CMPD demanded a 15% raise or they would go to Raleigh. Well, it looks like they is still here so you can imagine that no more is coming after that bluff. It's like they don't understand how business works at all. Some people just love to complain.
Hahahahah. a 15% raise! That's rich. Especially when the next CMS super will certainly be Black and make more than the last underqualified super. And City Council needs to give themselves a raise. And the city has to pony up for Mayor Vi's equity initiatives. You all will be lucky if you aren't filling the tanks on your dime and having to get reimbursed.
But plenty of city employees get to take their cars home. Oh, and Vicki now gets a cut of your secondary employment pay. 15% lolololol
@1426 how is Vicky getting a cut of our off duty check?
What we need is a chief that has balls and a sense of realism for what we go through shift after shift. I remember Putney would visit each shift at each division and address concerns with officers. JJ hasn't visited anyone, does not care about making a good change for our department. Instead he makes a mockery of our department by 1. CHIK FILA 2. CORE 4 AND 3. CMPD SERVES. How can this man get some sleep when he knows his officers are miserable? A smart thing would he to allow officers to vote for things we want. A simple beard and outer carrier change would greatly impact the department and make many come here.
3:35 Foster is one the "vendors" bidding on the contract to manage the secondary work she's started some tech operation to "help" the city manage off duty requests.
534, I think our department has had a long list of dirty cops that are stealing money from the taxpayers. We had an old detective in Freedom Division not showing up to work but still logging 100s of hours of labor. They caught him with GPS. Michell Hummel hadn't supervised an actual working officer in her last 10 years. 100s of employees steal their check every week with no tangible results to show for the $$$. This stuff has always existed from the city government. They will line up for charity events and then do no actual work at the office. Vicki was a crown example of all talk no walk.
“ A simple beard and outer carrier change would greatly impact the department and make many come here.” If that’s all it takes to make you guys happy…CMPD is in bad shape.
0930hours...its just like the Central guy that said rounding up teenagers on scooters is "real police work". Beards and outer vests are unprofessional and not necessary for most of the department, as they do not perform high risk warrants and house searches. They would look like the G4S guys at the transit center.(just standing around and being worthless)
sorry 2130hours...didn't see the PM at first.
Honestly what would make me happy is if we raise our standards back to the early 2000s.
9:10...Start by getting rid of all of the command staff who are more concerned about their next promotion than the welfare of their officers!
I’m not democrat but want to know what is being done to get Sheriff McFake voted out.
Get to the polls! If you want change then VOTE! The only way to institute change is to vote and encourage everyone you know to vote. That is the only way that we will regain control of Charlotte. Change starts from the top...
Outer carriers are well documented to relieve back and hip problems. If you are an all show no go cop. You can wear your class As and tie. There are cleaner carriers than the POB version. That would help relive physical issues.
Beards is a silly thing this younger group is hung up on. Only if you really have a skin problem. It's a stupid battle to be having. There are much more important issues.
Promotions, high healthcare costs, short staffing and or total misuse of personnel, magistrates violating state law giving bond to violent gun offenses. Nepotism and favoritism. Claiming diversity matters while ignoring Asian and Hispanic officers. Catering to young officer leaving veterans burned out which destroys morale. Where's the rewards for years of loyalty? Weak self serving leadership.
Liars keeping their jobs and getting cushy assignments. ..... and so on and so forth. But yes beards are good for morale. Please children. Please
"Sloppy Joe" McGarity?
Everytime my family goes to the grocery store we run into Police officers or firefighters and they both always say the same thing. They are short staffed and they are required to work mandatory overtime. Recently we contacted a few members of city council and we were told only a few fire and police complain. We find this hard to believe because in the course of over two years we have talked to 100 or so police and fire at the store and other places and they all say the same thing. People are leaving for other places and everyone is just tired of management treating them like a number. A police officer pointed me to this site. What can the community do to help? You already work too many hours and working more seems insane
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