Want to be a Cop?

It is a new year. Are you thinking of a new occupation? Want to be a cop? If you care about your life, I’m not sure it is a good occupation any more. The uniform is disrespected and frankly a cop is simply a target to any gun holding thug. Gangs are increasing and are policing their own territory in their own way with gang on gang violence. A cop is only in the way and someone to shoot at randomly or to dare them to shoot them. If you get shot by a cop chances are you can win millions of dollars in the courts and the cop’s career is gone and the cop goes to jail. So the sentiment on the streets is to taunt a cop and simply ignore the cop’s demands.

In Chicago the number of dead bodies since last New Year’s Day has risen dramatically. More than 700 people were murdered and over 4,000 shot. That is more people than in New York and Los Angeles combined. Gangs, guns and drugs is the cause for the chaos in Chicago but more importantly the spirit of the cops are gone. There is a drop in the type of police work that is so important to preventing crime. They are not investigating crimes because the community isn’t cooperating. Without the respect of a community it is hard to get anything done. The dead and wounded are simply removed with a grim efficiency. Murder is becoming normal in Chicago. Many days three murders a day. The churches pray for a low body count.

59 gangs are at war over territory in drugs in   Chicago’s west and south sides. There are killings over trash talk to each other.  There is anger and distrust everywhere and the communities seem to be abandoned. Children are afraid to go out of their homes for fear of being shot and killed by random gun fire. When is enough  enough? The data from inside the police department says it all. As killings rose, police activity declined. In August of 2015 police questioned 49,257 people about crimes.  A year later in 2016 the amount of police questions dropped to 8,859 cases being questioned and investigated thoroughly with cooperation from the public. How can a cop help a community when the community won’t talk? That is down 80% in just one year.

Arrests were off by 1/3 by 10,154 people. You can’t arrest if you don’t have a suspect. The morale of a cop these days is the lowest ever. Cops have a stressful job on a good day. They are called to deal with the lowest of the low every day. Most of their interaction is with a bad citizen not a good one. Now they also have to deal with the fear of being randomly shot because they have the courage to wear a uniform or be disrespected when they arrive to a call. Now the cell phone videos are on after the cop is disrespected and forced to take action on a unruly person trying to punch, slap or take the officer’s gun. So now a cop is stepping back. Good luck without a dedicated police officer respected in your community in this New Year. You are going to need it.