Today’s entry: Hello Brian, I would like to share with you my personal experience as a Miami-Dade Police Officer/Sergeant. I was in the district when the death of Arthur McDuffie occurred. When the riots started on May 17, 1980, I was there, I could tell you even before the riots we had people leaving the Dept. On May 18, I watched the looting and burning at my post with another Officer and 4-5 national guardsmen who had no bullets in their guns. I was given explicit instructions not to turn back traffic and let it burn.
Thereafter the Public Safety Dept had a mass exodus, I went from an 8-man squad to a 3-man squad. The district was massively undermanned nobody wanted to work overtime, officers left the profession altogether or went to other Police Departments upstate or out of state. We were told by our squad Sgt.and Platoon Lieutenant. Go out, answer calls, write your report, go hide, back each other up, don't get hurt, don't do any Proactive Police work.
Crime skyrocketed. The citizens started to cry to county commission about long response times and lack of enforcement of any laws. When I checked into service, it was not unusual for the dispatcher to advise the Sgt she was holding over a hundred calls, robberies, burglaries, basically, all we had time to respond to was in progress.
Bottom line, the people get the type of policing they demand. And no, I do NOT condone the unjustifiable killing of another human by police. On Monday I spoke to a BSO deputy sitting outside my gym in Cooper City. He said he was a few years away from retiring and was considering going early. He also told me the: McDuffie-Ferguson' effect was happening here already.
Thanks for a great radio show and your common sense commentary.
Bottom Line: Political correctness kills and those who allow for it are too blame as well. That’s what comes to mind. We’re at an important moment in our country’s history. A series of events all pulling in the same direction that if allowed to persist will make us less safe. It's long been said that the United States could never be defeated on the battlefield. It’d have to come from within. That's what this is. What we’re being faced with is a political movement aiming to seize incremental control of our communities and eventually our country. Let’s review the facts. Does the left stand with your 2nd amendment right to obtain firearms to defend your property and liberty or against it? Does the left stand with the greater than 800,000 law enforcement professionals who put their lives on the line daily to keep us safe or with those who seek to defund and dismantle them? Does the left stand with law-abiding citizens, made fearful and victimized by illegal protesters or the lawbreaking protesters?
He mentioned we get the policing we demand. The same is true when it comes to freedom and liberty. If it up to the left would they have fought the American Revolution to provide for freedom? But here’s the thing. The battle for freedom never ends. There are always those desirous of taking it away from us and the biggest battle for freedom isn’t currently on a battlefield. It is here at home. Starting with George Floyd, all protests, all violence over the top racial narratives have been based on a false premise. To date, there’s not any evidence that race had anything to do with the death or George Floyd and it certainly wasn’t the catalyst for the killing of Rayshard Brooks. Yet look at what’s happened? Why? Facts were never established before narratives were embraced and political correctness adhered to by the masses. Radical organizations, which masquerade under the pretense of equality are embraced through ignorance until they undermine law enforcement. Then they take over. Some of it is over like in the streets of Seattle. Some of it is more civilized, like through winning elective offices. All of it leads to the same place.
It’s important that we back the hundreds of thousands of law enforcement professionals who protect us daily during this difficult time for them. It’s important that we speak for true equality which is not done through racial divide but through inclusion. In the words of MLK. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Does that sound like a message that’s more congruent with Black Lives Matter or all lives matter? As long as we embrace false narratives and identify separately by something as superficial as race, by those who seek to divide us out of their own agenda, we are denying Dr. King his dream and we risk making our country and our community less safe.
Juneteenth is a recognition of the legal end of slavery. Similar to today the risk to the country came from within. It was a battle between left and right. Right and wrong. Juneteenth exists because Republicans successfully defeated Democrats on the battlefield to provide freedom for slaves and to begin to right the wrongs of racists. Interesting how Democrats have been proponents of gun control. Anyway, learn your history, inform yourself, and then inform others. There are two sides to stories and one side to facts. History, real history, is anything but politically correct and freedom will never be free.
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