truthvoice https://truthvoice.com Wed, 22 May 2019 09:16:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1 https://i0.wp.com/truthvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-truthvoice-logo21-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 truthvoice https://truthvoice.com 32 32 194740597 Fewer Bad Cops? Yes. Good Cops? No https://truthvoice.com/2015/09/less-bad-cops-yes-good-cops-no/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=less-bad-cops-yes-good-cops-no Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:16:50 +0000 http://truthvoice.com/2015/09/less-bad-cops-yes-good-cops-no/

– By Jordan Freshour

"Hi, buddy! I'm your friendly neighborhood police officer! Would you like a glass of water?"

“Hi, buddy! I’m your friendly neighborhood police officer! Would you like a glass of water?”

Recently, I talked to one of those “good” police officers. You know, the kind that doesn’t shoot your dog for fun, or take lewd pictures of little girls. One of the things in which he prided himself was “staying humble” on the job; for example: not citing a driver for speeding if (s)he has a good attitude and good excuse – like running late for work. Although this is far better than a psychopathic, rage-filled racist shooting a man in the head for no front license plate, this hardly qualifies a law enforcement officer (LEO) as “good.”

I won’t spend too much time explaining the fundamental problem with modern policing. Many who will read this know cops are not all bad because of individual intentions, but because the nature of their job. Each cop has extra rights to incarcerate your body and confiscate your property. Every police officer must protect the interests of the state before the interests of the public. All LEOs are paid with stolen tax money. These reasons and many more are why all cops are bad.

But those reasons are merely descriptions of the justice system, right? They don’t speak to the intentions or desires of all cops, right? There are some who want a better way, right? Well, let’s look at the example of Mr. Humble Police Officer above. Let’s call him Officer Squiggly.

This is Officer Piggly, not Officer Squiggly.

This is Officer Piggly, not Officer Squiggly.

Officer Squiggly might not profile you for wearing a hoodie or making eye contact, but he certainly will violate your right to travel for moving above an arbitrarily-selected rate of speed. Officer Squiggly might not hurl condescending remarks at you because of racism or bigotry, but he will still expect you to comply with all of his orders out of fear. Officer Squiggly might not beat or shoot you to death over made-up charges, but he still reserves the discretion to cite you, which if not paid will result in a higher fines or even imprisonment.

These are all things Officer Squiggly – a sentient human being – has the ability to not do, yet he does them anyway. Surely he has incentives to make multiple traffic stops every day, but isn’t that the point of having principles? They don’t come with exceptions? These actions would be insane for any non-officer to do to somebody else.

Imagine you’re running late to lunch with a friend. Suppose you were speeding to get there, and upon arrival you tersely mention to your friend the brisk flight for punctuality you had just completed. Now, imagine if your friend quickly pulled out his pen, and on a napkin wrote you – in the name of public safety – a bill for $200, claiming your cranky tone and dangerous driving is the reason. And if you don’t pay the bill soon, your friend will personally make sure you won’t be allowed to drive by locking you in his basement. Would you feel like your friend has your best interest in mind? Would you describe that person as “good” afterwards? Is the quality of your life then improved after being extorted and threatened? Of course not! You would tell your buddy he’s crazy, and if he keeps that shit up you aren’t going to talk to him ever again!

So, Officer Squiggly, I would like to let you know that while I applaud you for not using excessive force while on duty, you still use force. Thinking it is morally acceptable to inconvenience the lives of others in the way that you do is a mistake. Nobody wants you to tell them how to drive. Nobody wants a speeding ticket. Nobody wants pulled over. Even if your potential victim is being reckless, your admonishment is not going to make people drive better – ever. It will never happen. That’s not how people work.

"Do you have any idea how much overtime you are paying me this week?"

“Do you have any idea how much overtime you are paying me this week?”

Officer Squiggly, if you’re reading this, you may be less bad, but don’t call yourself humble. I appreciate your aversion to violence, but me and most others are not going to meet you at a shoot out between gang members – we are going to meet you after you use those bright lights and shiny badge to give us anxiety attacks and ruin our schedules for the day.

Good people don’t do that. So, stand up for something and stop extorting the time and money of others. Ignore your supervisor’s expectations for revenue collection and start looking for a private security job (I know a couple guys who would hire you). And in the mean time, if you’re really concerned about somebody’s driving, run the license plate, send ’em a Facebook message, and offer to buy the person a coffee. That may sound a little creepy, but don’t pretend like you aren’t stalking people on Facebook anyway.

Thanks.
]]>
1449
Cut the Head off the Beast https://truthvoice.com/2015/03/cut-the-head-off-the-beast/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cut-the-head-off-the-beast Tue, 17 Mar 2015 08:57:56 +0000 http://truthvoice.com/2015/03/cut-the-head-off-the-beast/
Cut the Head off the Beast

Recently I’ve been wondering why the mainstream media is so terrible at reporting accurate or concerning details of supposed criminal activity. There never seems to be any real ‘story.’ No background information, no character description, no follow-up – just vague details in politically-correct language. With so much controversy between law enforcement officers and civilians recently, why wouldn’t a reporter, editor, or publisher want to get to know the whole story? When people die, are arrested, or stolen from, it’s a tragedy. Fellow citizens deserve to know the humanity of it all – right?

On Saturday, March 14th, I was able to see some of the bigger picture.

That evening, the local mainstream news in Dayton, Ohio reported on a police stand-off in West Carrollton, a neighboring suburb. I paid particular attention to it because earlier the same day, another standoff had occurred in Dayton. The ‘breaking’ story I saw on my News Feed read,

“Officers from multiple departments are assisting West Carrollton police at the scene, including the [SWAT team].

A man inside the home reportedly has access to weapons and body armor, according to dispatch reports.”

A friend who is a local journalist for several alternative news outlets encouraged me to go and inquire further, as the initial report was too ambiguous. Having multiple encounters with police officers before, I knew that a press release so vague could mean anything. I’ve seen friends arrested for bogus charges, only to see him/her made into a ‘bad guy’ later on. The first thing I thought was, “Is the man in that home going to be ok?”

Since I lived nearby, I grabbed my phone and went to the scene of the standoff. After briefly talking to a group of neighbors who were standing by the blocked-off street, I proceeded to walk up the half block to talk to one of the officers. Immediately I was approached by a sergeant who strutted menacingly toward me, telling me to leave. I asked him who I could talk to instead, and was given a made-up answer. I walked back and a (much friendlier) volunteer firefighter repeated the same information I already had.

About 30 minutes later, the standoff ended with the man being arrested, and no shots fired. As the mainstream media was preparing an interview with the lieutenant, the same sergeant who asked me to leave the scene earlier came down the hill and starting chatting up the locals and media personnel like he was Barney Fife, while ignoring me, the one with a camera pointed at him. I then watched the reporter interview the lieutenant and was appalled. There was no meaningful questions being asked about the man in custody, no concern whether or not the arrest was legitimate, and no skepticism at the necessity of sending multiple police departments and a SWAT team to surround a suburban home. It was frankly pathetic.

The lieutenant said the man had called a suicide hotline, and threatened to harm himself. After a tip by the hotline, West Carrollton police sent a patrol to the home to conduct a welfare check. When the man refused to allow the police entry, the other units were dispatched. The initial report of weapons and body armor appeared to be a farce, as the “peace” officers had now acquired a search warrant and were looking inside the residence for weapons, unsure if there were any to begin with. When asked what charges were to be filed, the lieutenant only specified “inducing panic.”

I could prattle on about the stupidity of arresting a man for “inducing panic” when it was law enforcement who sent out an armored truck full of men with assault rifles. I could take this opportunity to chastise the West Carrollton Police Department for imprisoning a man who had not committed a crime. I could mention the psychological harm jail could cause to a person in need of counseling or medicine for mental sickness. But that’s not why I’m writing this.

I’m writing this because the world needs to know their reporters, news anchors, editors, and publishers are cheating them. When information is presented to us so casually, so methodically, so absent of detail, it enables us to become calloused and indifferent to our fellow man. It is the excuse people need to scapegoat innocent victims for their own problems and shortcomings. It fuels the inexplicable hatred for the John Crawfords, Tamir Rices, and Eric Garners of the world when they deserve justice so badly. When humanity is omitted from these tragedies, when aggressive journalism is replaced with press releases, when our “news” is nothing more than a police department write-up designed to omit law enforcement accountability, your local and national news persons rob the rest us of dignity.

The state’s law enforcement agencies exist by fiat, not for justice. Likewise, mainstream media exists for revenue and power, not news. Fortunately, we are all the solution to this. Any one of us with some amount of confidence and a smartphone can change the face of news and law enforcement as we know it. Alternative media is the solution, and all of us are the journalists. It’s no longer enough to share the right Facebook posts anymore, but instead we must get our hands dirty and risk something to show the rest of the world the humanity – and truth – of every encounter a police officer has with a citizen. This is the only way to stop the injustice and collusion of the police and media together.

I regret not performing my own interview with the lieutenant, but I have to start somewhere. It has been a long process in my life to go from a LEO apologist to where I am now. However, I would not have made it to this point without the right people pushing me to be a voice for truth, and it is not going to stop here. I encourage you to do the same. We all must recognize that if any of us can accurately see the problem, then we have no choice but to apply the solution ourselves.

Go out there and record the cops. Buy a police scanner and dispatch yourself to protect the lives of others. Get connected with like-minded people and work together whenever possible. Mainstream media is as much Leviathan as your local PD, and together we can cut the head off the beast.

]]>
958