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Another officers take. I believe we need a whole lot of more officers like this.

With thanks to HollyB for posting this to me.

This was posted on FB today
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“ I feel like I do a very good job at keeping my personal opinions to myself. However with this, I cannot.

The George Floyd incident.

I want to apologize in advance to anyone that may be offended or disagree with what I am going to say. These statements are my own opinion and in no way reflect the opinions of any department(s) or other officers - just myself:

As an Officer, this deeply hurts my heart. I want those who read this to know that there are MANY officers shaking their heads in disappointment right now. We are people too and we know when something is wrong.

I’ve been blessed to work for a department that has religiously preached, “Once the cuffs are on, the fight is over.”

I’ve had several situations where a fight will continue after the cuffs have been placed on an arrestee but, that’s not what I mean by my previous statement.

What I meant by my statement is this:

Regardless of the crime, once a person is in handcuffs you have to treat them accordingly. There is zero need to continuously use force unless you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO; to maintain the arrestee’s safety, surrounding citizen’s safety, other officer’s saftey, or your own safety. I do not feel or see an immediate threat here.

As Officers, we’ve all been taught that once we have someone in custody, that arrestee essentially becomes our “baby”. At that point, we are required to take care of that person until they are passed through a chain of custody (hospital, intake center, juvenile center). We are fully responsible for that person because we have essentially taken their freedoms of movement and decisions away. That person now falls on our hands. We MUST take care of that person.

If someone is saying, “I can’t breathe!” It’s the job of the officer to make sure that person CAN breathe. If someone says, “I need medical attention” or they complain of pain, it’s the job of the Officer to see that the arrestee receives the proper medical attention he/she is entitled to.
If you see that your subject is not awake or breathing, you better stop and immediately revert to your other job training skill of being a life saver instead of a law enforcer. If you can’t do that, you damn sure better call someone who can (EMS, Fire, or another trained officer).

Yes, I have had to use force on people while they’re in handcuffs. However, I have not drove my knee in to someone’s neck for the duration of 10 minutes. There’s thousands of ways to control someone. They’re just as effective but, not nearly as dangerous. The force used did not fit the severity of the crime that was claimed to have been committed.

If you’re okay with this use of force on someone who is handcuffed, I personally feel you need to take one of these courses of action:

1) Turn in your badge before you tarnish it for the rest of us.

That’s it, that’s the only course of action you should and need to take.

I read a comment earlier in a thread where a person stated, “Well what if he had a gun before this and that’s why they’re doing it?”

Well, the fact of that matter is that he DID NOT and the “what if” game is absolutely asinine in this situation. Even if he did, once in custody....we are going to revert back to a comment I made earlier....”the fight is over.”
I’ve arrested countless people who have used weapons in the commission of violent crimes. I’ve also arrested people who have pointed weapons directly at me.
After a person is in handcuffs, it DOES NOT matter what happened before the arrest. I’m sorry but, it just doesn’t. I’m sure plenty of officers will disagree with me and I’m sure some will even refuse to work with me over that statement. Events that happen before a subject is placed in to custody does not give anyone the right to batter, beat, or suffocate the arrestee once they are secured in handcuffs. Any different logic of thinking is absolutely WRONG in this line of work. Any Officer with integrity and morals will tell you that.
Thankfully, I’ve been blessed to work with Officers and for a department that teaches and thinks this way as well.
Does that mean I’m going to drop my guard with the arrestee? Absolutely not. I still have a job to do and that person is going to jail for a reason. Make no mistake, I know how to do my job and I know complacency will kill you in this line of work. Does that mean placing your full body-weight on someone’s neck for 10 minutes is appropriate? HELL NO.
There’s a thousand other ways that man could’ve been kept under control. All are less dangerous and just as, if not MORE, effective.

I know this is going to resurface debates on police & prejudice. Let me say to you all...
I am sincerely sorry.
I see this video and I empathize with you. I understand why you are so frustrated. I know I am not African American so, I would never try to act like I’ve been in your shoes before. That would be terribly disrespectful. But, please hear what I have to say...

I have personally never worked with a prejudice police officer. In fact, some of my favorite zone/beat partners are African American and they are FANTASTIC people/officers. I work with wonderful officers who are gay or bisexual. I work with wonderful officers of all races, religions, sexes and creeds - all of them are absolutely amazing. The color of your skin, the person you love, the God you worship does not define what kind of person you are. Most police officers realize this and do not use those factors as leverage to form an unfair or biased opinion on the individuals they are called to assist/help/arrest. We are taught to be fair and impartial at all times. That is extremely important to myself and all the officers I work with. Many officers realize that we are only people; we just wear a different uniform to work. We all wake up and put our pants on the same way (unless you do some funky ass way but, that’s a conversation for a different time, ya big weirdo). We all bleed red. We all die. We all get buried in a six foot hole. We are all human-beings.
Most officers are extremely humble; we realize that we are no better than the people we interact with on a day-to-day basis. After all, we work for a specific city and the citizens who live in that city. We can’t properly work for the citizens if we walk around believing that we are better than them. That’s not how this job works. We have to be open and willing to listen to all your problems, concerns, worries, and questions. With that said, I can also say I HEAR YOU, I SEE YOU, I CARE ABOUT YOU. I see and understand why you are all concerned. I’m here to help alleviate those concerns for you. We, as the police, are here to help you, not harm you. We genuinely care about you, all of you.”