Guest Columnist Michael K. Broughton
When you need help, when you run to the telephone and punch 9-1-1, who do you want to show-up at your front door? The King Fish? Barney Fife? Fred Sanford? Archie Bunker?
Or Bubba, a pig farmer from the Boot Heel who got a police job because his/her politician cousin garnered political favor from the Board of Police Commissioners?
Or, perhaps, an officer who owes his/her allegiance to a local thug who captured a political office and, with that office, the power to influence and effect police hiring and other law enforcement operations in your neighborhood?
Or would you prefer that the cop who arrives at your door be a well-educated, well-trained, highly motivated law enforcement “professional” whose thoughts and actions are rational and reasonable, devoid of prejudice, a person who actually gives a damn about his/her chosen occupation, the city and the citizens he/she serves, and – above all – the rule of law?
Whom do you prefer? Take your pick!
Think about it! What if the cop with whom you must deal happens to be a hoodlum in cop’s clothing? What if he/she is one of those cops who got their job at the behest of a corrupt politician, a gangster in politicians’ clothing? A cop beholding not to the rule of law, but to the abject rules of the mobsters running rampant in your streets? He or she is certain to favor the criminal, the abhorrent in society, and without doubt, the corruption that got them their police paycheck, promotion or favorable assignment. What then? Who do you call when the cops are gangsters? Ghost Busters?
As Americans, we enjoy a form of government that is based on a constitution which is the cornerstone of the American rule of law. It provides certain inalienable rights to all citizens. We most often refer to these rights as our freedoms. There are many.
There are also many laws, laws which are most often intended to protect us in some fashion, usually from criminals and criminal acts. Politicians create these laws, and the police are responsible for enforcing the laws in concert with the letter and intent of each.
It all looks good on paper, but the fact of the matter is our freedoms aren’t free. Our freedoms and our laws offer protection to citizens only if they are appropriately created and properly administered.
So there are inherent responsibilities associated with our freedoms and laws, some being incumbent to the politicians who create them, some to the police who administer them at street level. Other responsibilities, those of greater weight, lie with the citizenry, for it is they who must create their government.
Citizens who demand honest, responsible government will achieve it. Those who turn a blind eye to government will indubitably get a government wrought with corruption. The police department is an entity of government, so the department will be a mirror image of the government that runs it. As the government goes, so goes the police department.
Elections will soon be upon us, and among those in the election mix will be politicians promising the fabled chicken in every pot and return of the St. Louis Police Department to City control. If you want honest and responsible government, select those for whom you vote very carefully. It will be the voting citizens who usher the politicians into office, be they scoundrel or saint.
Broughton is a former City cop and columnist for The Gendarme, the publication of the St. Louis Police Officers Association.