Finneran: Stop Shooting Cops

Friday, March 20, 2015

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Cops get shot. Evil people celebrate. Cops get ambushed. Evil people celebrate. Cops die. Evil people laugh.

That psychopath in New York guns down two cops whose particular duty on the day they died was the protection of honest and innocent law-abiding folks from marauding human crime waves like him. Their assignment brought them into a neighborhood where people are regularly assaulted, robbed, and frightened. Those people—victims past, present, and future-- welcome the presence of police officers as first-hand evidence that someone really does care about their safety and protection. However, it seems that the thin blue line which protects all of us from the barbarity and chaos of evil people gets thinner every day.

MESSAGE # 1: Yes, black lives matter.

MESSAGE # 2: Stop shooting cops.

MESSAGE # 3: Don’t shoot, rob, or assault anyone. Grow up and act right with everyone. You’re not a victim so lose the attitude.

A true story from more than twenty years ago while campaigning in Mattapan: The mother of three or four elementary and middle school-age kids described them to me as “24/7 kids”. This was well before the phrase “24/7” had become so commonplace. I was puzzled and I asked her to explain her description. Here’s what she said—“Mr. Finneran, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week these children are in the house with me. I don’t dare let them out of the house, not even to play ball in the street right out front. It’s too dangerous out there and I don’t want to lose them”.

What a heart-wrenching sadness there was in her voice. She was afraid for her children and afraid for herself. She knew that her “24/7” vigilance was not a full, fair, or fun life for her children but she dared not test her grim daily routine with their lives. I’ll never forget her love for them and her fear for them. Not that it’s entirely relevant, but the woman was black and her fears were triggered by black hoodlums.

So yes, black lives matter, including most especially hers and her children’s lives. If only the hoodlums cared……….but they don’t. Their depravity endangers everyone---cops, young mothers, and children who simply yearn to run and play outside.

No one can deny that there are racist cops. Of course there are, just as there are racist teachers, investment bankers, professors, pols, and plumbers. I suspect that the percentage of racists is about the same in every trade or profession. And I suspect that the percentage of black and Hispanic and Asian racists is about the same as that of white racists. Those sad realities should never be used by anyone anywhere anytime to justify the targeting and ambush of police officers.

I pose a question for those who see the nation’s police officers as an oppressive occupying force in the community, as agents of a system that is designed to keep people down in economic and social bondage: Are you ready to leave your family, friends, and neighbors to the tender mercies of the lawless thugs around the corner? Are you sure that this “occupying force” which you so detest and denounce is not your family’s first, last, and best line of defense against the chaos of the lawless? How long do you think it would be before that thin line of safety vanishes? Don’t take the current relative safety of your neighborhood streets for granted. The bell tolls quickly for you and me.

And by the way, the lives of all the residents in that Mattapan neighborhood, mothers, fathers, and children, were immeasurably improved when the police, black and white, put on a steady show of force, targeting guns and gangs and drugs. They targeted behavior, bad behavior not blackness, and hundreds of black families were and are eternally grateful.

I make no excuses for bad cops. The many many good cops know that they get unfairly labeled by the actions of a very few. That’s not news to anyone---think of priests and ministers, pols and bankers, and any other profession or calling. The remedy is not to hang every priest or banker. The remedy is to steadily remove the bad ones, excising the few blotches on the profession while still serving and protecting the public.

The remedy is not another ambush. Stop shooting cops.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.