#5-All Board Members Will Have An Axe To Grind With The PD.
We have all heard it before----every jail in the country is full of innocent people. Don’t believe it? Just ask them. Well, before we laugh ourselves silly, I have one name to mention. Barry Scheck. But shall we proceed?
There Is No Axe In Sight
To think that everybody has a personal axe to grind with the police is to say nobody wants a police department and that subject has already been covered on this blog. If you missed it, I’ll sum it up: Wrong. We citizens thought up the concept of a local police department. We are willing to fork over the cash to finance it. Now all of a sudden, we don’t want police? Let’s get some realism.
The only way a citizen could come close to having an axe to grind is if he has been obviously abused, mistreated, or worse, lied about by a cop. Even the least educated among us has been known to quote the words “innocent until proven guilty”. If a citizen has been treated in a way that violates that ethic, they don’t like it. The wound goes very, very deep.
Police, hear this----Before there were cops, there was a desire for justice, and all of us know it. You’re existence is the RESULT of that desire, and your paychecks are the proof of it. We don’t hate police, we hate inappropriate and destructive workmanship, like every other employer in the world.
No axe there.
Even in an extreme case, the abused citizen only has interest in the specific cop who cheated him out of his rights and justice. It only spreads beyond that if the citizen is ignored and the bad cop is believed by IA and the Chief and continues to collect more victims. At that point, we start to think in terms of corruption, but not axes.
Corrupt Cops See The Fictitious Axe
Corruption is a systemic problem that only a Citizen Review Board can address. It is understandable by anyone, and does not take on the personal attribute required to wield an axe. As an analogy, we know the difference between getting a bad meal at a restaurant and thinking the chef is “out to get us”. Cops, however, seem more prone to the reversed and paranoid pattern of thinking. Why is this? Guilty conscience? Yes.
Having suspicion or proof of corruption is the genesis for axe grinding against any PD. It is the point where all faith is lost and the worst becomes the expected. Cop, ask yourself, what would make that happen?
Cops who lie, cheat, steal, murder, extort, rape, blackmail, and so on? (Just read the papers; it’s all there.)
THAT’S what causes anyone to grind his axe. If a cop ever wonders where a particular citizen gets it, he can just look in the mirror for the explanation.
Once Again, The CRB To The Rescue
But wait! We are talking a Citizen Review Board here, not a guy who may have a case to bring. No oversight board is made up of one person or decision maker. Citizens who serve on any CRB have only one thing on their minds, and that is getting the PD of their choice, a group decision, determined by public vote. No oversight panel is there to sentence every cop to eternal damnation. They know what isn’t proper cop material and behavior according to their wishes for their city, and they are there to accomplish that. With hire & fire, the sculpting would take effect for more accurate police department service. There is no axe to grind in a functioning CRB with teeth, just progress toward public satisfaction and appreciation of police work as performed. Both sides win, because they are finally on the same page.
(Hey….could it be…..that a cop has an axe to grind against anyone who wants a CRB? No, no, never mind. They are sworn and dedicated to the job of working for ALL of us, right?)
Cops, don’t worry, just do what we want you to do, and all will be fine.
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