To the editor:
Reacting to the George Floyd murder, Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender advocated dismantling the Police Department. During a CNN interview on June 8, her response when asked, “Who do I call when my home is broken into?” was, “Outside of privilege, calling the police actually caused more harm.”
Why disparage her entire police department over the actions of one officer? A 2016 U.S. Dept. of Justice study by Phillip Stinson reviewed 500 metropolitan police departments for officers arrested for offences. Results revealed Minneapolis officers were arrested at low rate of 1.9 percent. This data can be furthur interpreted by this author that 98 percent of Minneapolis police officers are law abiding citizens trying to do a good job.
Metropolitan police agencies are no different than other large institutions which contain “rotten apples.” A 2006 publication in the Journal of Law-Medicine reported a felony conviction rate of U.S. medical doctors at a low 0.04 percent; additionally, in 2004 the John Jay Report revealed a Roman Catholic Priest sexual misconduct rate of 4.0 percent. All large institutions need mechanisms for supervisors to identify/remove such “rotten apples.” Most supervisors foreknow such “rotten apples” as exemplified by the Catholic Bishop’s relocation of sex offending priests to evade public knowledge.
Police maintain civil order for the common good, enabling a stable environment for commerce, property ownership, and the “general welfare.” To “dismantle” the Minneapolis police department may be considered intentional harm to the general population. Police absence would create anarchy in unprotected Minneapolis. Similar naïveté existed during the 2011 Arab Spring, which removed autocratic leaders to allow putative democracy. Lawlessness rapidly deteriorated into competing militias and unrelenting anarchy leading to present day Syria, Yemen and Libya. Similarly, the civilian populations in 1937 Nanking, 1945 Berlin, and 1994 Rwanda, were savaged by bestial lawlessness when civil order disintegrated.
If institutional racism exists in U.S. police departments why are one million legal immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds eagerly entering our country every year? Additionally, why are Spanish-speaking foreigners flooding our southern border and voluntarily surrendering to U.S. Border Police? These immigrants and foreigners know that American constabularies are among the world’s best. Before recklessly dismantling the Minneapolis police, Lisa Bender needs to read author Phillip Bobbitt’s words: “Once law has been swept away, there remains no restraint on the competition for power.”