Hiring retired cops sounds good, but…

I like to give credit for good ideas, when possible, so I sent an email to City Councilwoman member Cherelle Parker for her idea to hire retired cops to help fill the decimated ranks of men and women in blue.

It was explained in this inquirer story.  

There’s one problem with her solution, one I spelled out in a lengthy report in February 2021.

It was the “why” behind cops retiring in record numbers, not just here, but across the nation. 

They were demoralized by the explosive contempt heaped on them in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, including demands from the Left to “defund the police.”

In fairness, despite what some on the Right say, President Joe Biden never said that. In fact, he said police need more resources, not fewer. 

But other Democrats did say that, and now party leaders are trying like Houdini to escape the handcuffs that connect them to the idiotic idea that during a time of rising crime we need fewer cops.

In Philadelphia, conversations with police convinced me they were sick of being scapegoated, and felt they got little support from the public, none from City Hall and the police commissioner.

They were able to shrug off decades of being called “pigs,” but the knee-jerk defunding — which actually happened in maybe 20 cities — was the last straw.

It’s worth noting that “defund” cries usually come more from white progressive who live in safety, than from residents of Black neighborhoods who live under the gun. 

In Black neighborhoods 81% of the residents want the same or more of a police presence.

Only 19% want less of a police presence.

I would be less than honest if I did not say that Black Americans have more suspicion toward police than whites. Yet despite that they want to see them in their neighborhoods, perhaps showing more courtesy.

Back to Parker’s idea.

She has to reach out to them. 

“Until their service is publically appreciated, I think you will have a hard slog,” I wrote to her. “Perhaps a Police Appreciation Day — if you dare.”

Maybe “dare” is now the wrong word.

I think the anti-cop fever that gripped some quarters of America has broken.

The Squad shot its load, and Americans are moving away from that hateful rhetoric to understanding how vulnerable we are without the thin blue line.