Prejudiced Persecution of Police

by

Sgt. Jeff Baker

 

Every once in awhile, the men and women of the Omaha Police Department feel as though they are alone in the phenomena that is what I like to call the 3Ps:

"Prejudiced Persecution of Police"

Of course, we know this sort of thing happens and has happened with great regularity for years in cities like Los Angeles. But we, as cops within our local communities, all have our own crosses to bear. It often seems as though "it" could never be worse than right here, right now, with two OPD officers having been charged with manslaughter and another with assault in the last three years.

It IS bad here, and is getting bad all across the national LE community. The propaganda machine, fueled by bias, ill will and cynicism, has begun firing on all cylinders in Cincinnati, Ohio. A short excerpt from the latest news makes you wonder if the newspaper reporters have boilerplate language they can run with, only having to change the names and places of the "travesties" perpetrated upon them by police officers. Particularly white police officers:

"Council members also called for a special prosecutor, an immediate grand jury investigation and a new policy against racial profiling. Some members of Cincinnati's African-American community called for the federal help because they believe Mr. Owensby was stopped by police only because he was black."

For the whole enchilada:

http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/11/14/loc_police_coverup.html And here's a recent story about a report from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. They interviewed some locals, myself included, for this story in the Omaha World-Herald. In case you hadn't seen it, here's a link on it. I'll be writing about this matter in the next month's issue of our union newspaper - it's a situation we'll need to keep our eyes on, in my opinion, regardless of what color uniform we wear or what streets we patrol: http://www.omaha.com/index.atp?u_div=3&u_hdg=0&u_sid=32559 

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