All I have heard all of my life is how we need to retrain the police. I think they have been retrained enough. I think it’s time we retrain our society. We as a society don’t take responsibility for our shortcomings. We spoil our children to the point they don’t even respect us.
I was a police officer some years ago and arrested a young man. While at the jail, he told me he was going to lie about what was going on. He with all the confidence in the world said they would believe him before they would believe some dumb cop. There you have it, folks. I see all those respectful children burning cars and buildings and looting, and I sit back and think, “Boy, their parents must be proud of all those non-violent demonstrators.”
Fortunately, the judge didn’t feel the same way. Policemen/women are a crosscut of our society, so you have no one to blame but yourselves for the problem officers. During hiring they try to weed out the questionable ones, but it’s not a perfect world.
All these review boards aren’t going to solve the problem. You need to support administrators when they address problems and quit thinking they are always trying to hide something.
I’ve seen officers terminated for things that weren’t even addressed in public employment. I have worked in both.
The problem with law enforcement, which has always been the case, is departments are run by incompetent politicians who think they are immediate experts the minute they are elected. Most have never worked in law enforcement, but the chiefs have to listen or they are fired for doing their job, even if it’s right.
A lot of this unrest could have been avoided if you would just retrain your children. Maybe hold education to a more nonliberal agenda and include more about some of our shortcomings in history so they can really learn something besides rioting and looting.
Norman Steen, Sandy
Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible