Letter from a Street Cop

I’ve been a street cop for 26 years.  I use the term “street cop” because I’ve never taken a job that wasn’t waist deep in the fray of violence and suffering that surrounds unknowing communities across the country. Communities that are only blissfully ignorant of the violence, danger, and horror that surrounds them on a daily basis.  

My entire career, I’ve either been in gangs, narcotics, SWAT or on the road as a beat cop the entire time.  I don’t tell you this as a way of bragging, but just as a snapshot of my experience, that it might lend credence to the stories I tell you.

Foot pursuits are one of the most absolutely most dangerous things a human being to do.  We pay police officers across the country to engage in foot pursuits for us to keep the wolves from our doors.  I was recently in a foot pursuit where I avulsed my hamstring.  Major surgery.  Stem cells.  Nine metal anchors.  

And that was a safe foot pursuit.  It was safe, because it was over before it started.  Before evaluating the video, it’s important to note that all foot pursuits end in violence.  There are no “time outs.”  Once a suspect choses to run and an officer chooses to chase him, it is mutually accepted that there will be violence.  The only dispute is who the victor will be.  

 I can say from personal experience that the fear of physical harm or death makes an otherwise rational, normal human being capable of unspeakable acts of violence.  Saying it’s a “battle for survival” is cliche.  I call it a “battle not to die.”   

Name another profession where that is a daily mental rehearsal.  That being said, when an officer choses to initiate a foot pursuit (I say “choses” because there is no policy or law requiring officers to chase people on foot) he or she voluntarily signs up to play a deadly game of “try not to die.” As a side note, I predict that in our lifetime(s), we will see a moratorium on foot pursuits.  Like vehicle pursuits, foot pursuits will go the way of the Dodo.

On this video, brave officers from one of the most dangerous police stations on planet Earth, Shootin’ Newton, were working enforcement.  It is well known that traffic stops are one of our last remaining tools for initiating contact with people in high crime areas.   

As police are continuously cut down at the knees and stripped of their abilities to do their jobs in the name of “Criminal Justice Reform,” a staunch knowledge of the vehicle code is one of our last tools for enforcement.

When a suspect choses to flee from police, it is never for anything “good.” When a suspect flees a car at night in the projects, it can only be for something “incredibly bad.”  One of the most astonishing aspects of police work in an “urban” environment is the fact that, almost literally, no one has a job.  

The section 8 scam artists and welfare queens have mastered the art of gaming the taxpayers.  Bounce from baby momma to baby momma. Impregnate as many women as possible. She gets the welfare benefits and you get the flophouse benefits. Symbiotic.  

Any police activity in the projects will gather a crowd of 50-100 men, women and children within one minute. Whether it be an innocuous, uneventful traffic stop or a foot pursuit that ends in gunplay, the song remains insane. Imagine an entire giant housing complex comprised solely of people who have been taught two things: They are victims of white racism and police are the enemy. It’s a war zone. For real.

It was surely not the first time these officers had run through this housing complex. They were well aware that a hostile mob would surround and video tape (albeit redundantly) their every move. One hundred black George Hollidays looking for a payout.  It’s like being hounded by the paparazzi only you’re not famous and the photographers want to ruin your life.  

When the officers took off running after the driver of the car, their entire being was focused on capturing him.  They knew danger was afoot and had drawn their weapons, wisely, in anticipation of danger.  Now, as a person with an astoundingly perilous resume and a trove of legitimate street experience, I can tell you the last thing these officers expected was an unrelated, unprovoked ambush.  

Tunnel vision is real.  You focus on the person running from you. I can honestly say that in the hundreds of foot pursuits I’ve been directly involved in, I’ve never anticipated a third party to cut me off and start shooting me. I start every day of my life watching content posted by Colin Flaherty.  Twenty six years of pent up disbelief and anger are finally given a voice through him. 

Even with a full career and a daily dose of reality from Colin, I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this video.  There is a war on cops.  A presidential administration succeeded in forever vilifying its nation’s police while simultaneously granting blacks crime as their new entitlement.  

The vehicle was stopped for committing an overt vehicle code violation (no reason whatsoevah).  The driver fled from the vehicle with a gun in his hand so the police chased him (for no reason whatsoevah).  A third party intentionally cut off the police and began shooting a uniformed police officer.  The wounded police officer returned fire (for no reason whatsoevah).  An angry mob (in the middle of the night, mind you) swarmed on the wounded policeman and his partner, Obama phones glowing in the evening darkness, waiting to capture the footage that would be a payday for them.  

If you listen to the video, you can hear the crowd calling the officers “motherfuckers” whilst damning them to hell.  You know, for the egregious act of shooting back at someone who was shooting you.  I don’t know how anyone even applies for this job anymore.  I personally can’t wait to get out.  

My friends worked that station with LAPD.  My friend told me a story of fishing line being strung across the “cut” of the projects.  The residents knew about the line and avoided it.  But an unknowing, brave police officer would not.  One officer ran into the fishing line and spent about two weeks in the ICU recovering.  

Attacking police is the new normal.  Setting traps for them is the new normal.  Shooting them is the new normal.  Videoing them and calling them “motherfucker” after a fresh bout of “try not to die” is the new normal.  Black criminality, entitlement, and victimhood are the new normal.  Killing cops is becoming the new norm.  It’s all because of White racism.  You knoooowwwwww iiiiiiiiittttttt!!!!

I’m glad the officers involved are OK.  

They will never be the same, but they’re OK.  The projects will always be dens of crime and violence.  Cops will continue to wade into that fray. Blacks will continue to attack and ambush us…forever.

We’ll come to work anyway.  Maybe remind the few, if ill of us they speak, that we are all that stands between the monsters and the week.