Thin Blue Line of Blackmail

Cops in America are under siege. Relentless and unfair attacks on our law enforcement professionals by activists, civil rights leaders, libertarians, and pundits have apparently driven our fearless boys and girls in blue into hiding.

Image courtesy of The Swamp.

“In many parts of the country, police have gone to ground.” Says Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD officer and current professor of law and police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The professor suggests in a recent Opinion piece that we are conditioning our constabulary to avoid confrontations with the public. Officers who insolently worm their way into their community with respectful engagement he says are “threatened by HQ that they’ll find themselves on a list of ‘troublemakers.’” Obviously, this is a dangerous situation; we don’t want our police to have to choose between getting in trouble with their union or protecting the public — they’re only human.

The calls for body cameras and other devices to maintain accountability and credibility are a wasteful extravagance according to Professor O’Donnell. Far easier for us to simply trust that the people we hire to…