‘Peace officers’ can often diffuse volatile situations, saving lives
Editor:
Elmira in the 1970s: Retired Police Chief Eugene “Gene” Golden, my father, walked up to Karam’s Corner Grocery Store. A newly formed SWAT team, in armor, were deploying to rush a home. Dad approached the officer in charge, “What’s going on Joe?”
“John Smith (alias) is threatening to shoot up the neighborhood with his shot gun.”
“I know John. He’s mentally ill. Let me try to talk with him.”
“Are you sure?” responded Joe. Dad assured him that it would be OK.
Dad knocked on the door, “John, it’s Gene Golden.”
John opened the door.
Seeing an open beer on the table, “John, are you going to invite me in for a beer, or what?”
John reluctantly did. The shotgun was on the table. They talked.
After a few minutes, John had surrendered the gun to Dad and walked outside with him. He went peacefully with the police.
Several months later, in Elmira, the SWAT team surrounded a housing project in center town. The situation was similar. They sent in a robot. Then they stormed the place. One police officer was shot and killed.
It came out, after months of investigation, that the officer had been killed by “friendly” fire.
My father, admittedly was a big man, great athlete in his youth and had arrested many violent people, including, forcibly a famous serial killer, Freddie Wood. He contended that “a police officer shouldn’t have to draw his gun more than a few times in his career.”
Interestingly in about 1993, Jerry Orbach, a police detective on Law and Order, said much the same thing. (By the way, I see Law and Order as being the most fair, respectful and realistic show on police and prosecution. In my opinion, most others are not respectful to police.)
It’s hard to know how many police officers are injured and killed by “friendly fire.” (There are innocent bystander victims as well.) Not all police departments share statistics with the FBI. And like the banks, schools, Catholic and other churches, Boy Scouts, there’s a tendency to hide problems. Example: with NFL footballer/soldier Pat Tillman, the Army withheld that he’d been the victim of “friendly fire.”
I worked in criminal justice from 1959 to 2007 for 2 counties, NY State and Genesee Hospital Domestic Violence Program. I disarmed several violent men and physically intervened in domestic violent instances, among most dangerous for police to answer. In all instances, I controlled the situations without needing to use force. Police and Probation were called “Peace Officers.”
I recently heard a speech by the head of Police Training for New York State. He calls police “warriors.” Who are we at war with – fellow citizens and humans? Fellow police? Studies show that police commit crime at about the same rate as average Americans.
We now know that to be true about priests, other clergy, bank and school employees. Various studies show that major corporations have committed at least 5 felonies, another that 91% have committed at least two, that they were caught at.
The upper classes and connected get different results than the poor and worker classes. Quality of defense lawyers and ability to afford expensive defense and get bailed out makes a huge difference, as well as preferential treatment.
In my opinion we expect the impossible from police and fail to support them.
In the past, our current president blocked many safety procedures that would have protected police and made their job safer and more doable:
- He illegally purged 500,000 violent fringe folks from justice records.
- Suspended rule that would have prohibited mentally ill from having guns.
- Barred Social Security from sharing info on mental illness.
- Halted required child safety devices on guns.
- Deregulated exportation of “assault” weapons.
“Warriors” or Peace Officers? I asked my sister, Rosanne Leach, who’s worked as a mental health nurse in the community and at Rochester State Hospital, whether she’d ever worried about our father coming home from work in his 34 years. We both agreed we hadn’t.
Police training now seems to make a mantra out of its dangers. Police work is more dangerous than a lot of jobs. But many other jobs are more dangerous, notably construction and farming.
By the way, Eugene F. Golden was named “New York State Police Chief of the Year” in 1962, among other awards for his leadership in the field.
My father and I say “Peace Officers.”
Robert E. Golden
Kent
Golden, a former Orleans County Director of Probation and member of NYS Probation Commission, worked 43 years in criminal justice. He plans to follow up with a series of articles on police, including the difficult and even impossible expectations we, the public have.
