Those Who Tarnish The Shield

Everyone who knows me knows that I both admire police officers and once served as a police officer.  In this very blog I have honored many fallen officers and spoke of other officers who were involved in deadly situations but survived.  I believe that most officers are like most other people, that is they want to do good work at a job they love or at least like.  I believe that most officers take their job as a "calling" and most officers want to do their job well, to serve citizens well, and above all, to always uphold and honor the badge and the ideals that badge represents.

When I was in college prior to becoming a police officer, or more technically, a PEACE officer, I learned early on the significance of the police badge.  The proper name of the badge is the "shield."  Yes, the badge was called the shield because it was derived from the shields carried by the kings' personal soldiers in ancient and medieval times.  As the years passed and "policing" progressed towards professionalization, the shield carried by the kings' soldiers became the "badge" that was given to those persons who were entrusted to enforce laws  and maintain order.  The miniature shield or badge came to symbolize that the person so entrusted with this emblem was sworn to uphold the law, to protect innocent persons, and to preserve the peace while carrying out all these functions.

It is very hard to explain the feeling of pride and the sense of responsibility that I had when I was sworn in and the badge, my shield, was pinned to my uniform shirt.  I took very seriously the oath, in which I swore to uphold the law, to protect the innocent, and to never stain the honor of the shield.  I can say in my career I never did anything to dishonor the badge or the office of policeman.  Conversely, I could never understand those persons who could wear the badge and claim the title of peace officer, while secretly committing crimes even as they enforced the law against other criminals.  I was always ashamed of these kind of officers, and, if they were proven guilty, I always hoped they would get severe prisons terms that fit the seriousness of their crimes.

So it is with a sad heart that I write these words today, that I speak about several peace officers who are suspected of committing crimes that are made all the more terrible because the crimes were committed by peace officers, most of who were working as officers at the time of their suspected misconduct.  In Big Spring, the next large town to the east of Midland, a police officer there has been arrested for sexual assault of a young lady who came to this officer for protection and safety, not more sexual and physical assault.  One allegation is that one of the sexual assaults took place in the Police Building itself.  I am the first to say that a person, including an accused police officer, is innocent until tried and found guilty.  So I hope that justice is served, and I hope this young lady is able to feel safe while in the proximity of other police officers who have dealings with her.

In Fort Stockton a male officer and female officer who are dating each other have been indicted for injury to a child.  Additionally the female officer was charged with family assault causing injury (for another older child), and the male officer was charged with failing to act as a police officer and protect the small child from the mother, who was striking him repeatedly with a belt.  Further, the male officer failed to report this incident to the Fort Stockton Police Department.  Both officers, under indictment, resigned from the police department.  Again, they are innocent until proven guilty.  If they are indeed guilty of these crimes I hope that they serve well-deserved time in prison, and of course lose their licenses to practice as police officers in Texas.  I hope also they pray for forgiveness, if they, or one of them did beat this child while the other stood by.  Otherwise, I believe an especially hot place waits for all child abusers, not just these two.

Meanwhile in the Houston area, a sheriff's deputy and her husband are now charged with murder after the husband confronted an intoxicated man who was urinating outside of a Denny's Restaurant.  The confrontation turned into a physical altercation and eventually the drunk man was pinned to the ground by the other man.  Witnesses felt that the man was choking the drunk individual and began shouting at him to stop.  The sheriff's deputy, off-duty at the time, arrived at the Denny's in a separate vehicle.  She was alleged not only to have failed to stop her husband from choking the drunk man, but she herself began kicking and hitting the man.   When the man began to fade and eventually passed out, the sheriff's deputy still did not ask her husband to stop choking the man.  He was taken away unconscious by ambulance.  He died three days later, having never regained consciousness. 

These are three examples of officers who allegedly committed crimes, but they represent only a tiny fraction of the officers working around the state.  There are several thousand police officers in Texas who do their jobs with honor and distinction every day of the year, for years on end, many retiring after decades of honorable service to the people of Texas.  I will not be silent on the subject of police officers who break the very laws they are paid to enforce, who break the faith of the very people who entrust then to wear the shield.  These people, once convicted of crimes, should be removed from police service, never to be able to wear a badge again.  Not only that, these officers, if convicted, should rightly serve the time appointed to them in prisons good enough for all criminals in Texas.

I will always honor and respect police officers, and I will always hope that the ideals represented by the small shield will always inspire true police officers to strive to reach the ideals.  It is true that officers fall short, but it is also true that these officers do their best each day, are willing to face grave danger every day, even to look into the face of death every day, and protect you and me from criminals, including those police officers who choose to turn their back on the oath to which they all swore, and to tarnish the shields they once proudly pinned to their chests, emblems of the faith placed in them by you and me.

May God bless all honest and good-hearted peace officers in Texas, in the United States, and around the world....

And may God Bless America

End of Watch: Officer Shana Tedder, Texas Department Of Criminal Justice, Gatesville TX - June 9, 2017

I admire anyone who can work as a Correctional Officer, in Texas or anywhere else.  I spent over a decade as a Texas Peace Officer and I can assure you that I felt much safer on the mean streets than I imagine that a Correctional Officer can feel while surrounded by hundreds of people who want to hurt or kill him or her, people who have the numbers and the advantage all on their side.  As a police officer I have faced two, sometimes three people alone, but never twenty or thirty, or even a who cell block full.  I would much rather face an armed assailant one on one then to try to supervise many people who are supposedly unarmed, but any one of whom could possess some weapon clandestinely made and concealed.

On the other end of the prisoner spectrum, the Correctional Officer may be called upon at any time to try to subdue an unarmed but very strong, very violent person.  The act of using one's physical power to subdue to a violent person can pose as much of a risk as attempting to disarm an armed prisoner.  Officer Tedder was in fact involved in an incident in which she had to subdue a violent prisoner.  The incident left Officer Tedder exhausted, as it would any person.  Officer Tedder had trouble breathing after the incident and decided to walk to another area of the unit to rest and recover.  A short time later she collapsed.  Fellow Correctional Officers came to her aid and performed CPR but were unable to revive Officer Tedder.  She was pronounced dead a short time later.  Medical authorities suspect that Correctional Officer Shana Tedder suffered a heart attack during her contact with the prisoner.

As I said before, I would not be willing to do the job that Correctional Officers  are called upon by society to do.  Frankly, I do not have the nerve to be locked in the prison with all those prisoners.  There was a time that Correctional Officers were viewed as ranking lower on the scale of "importance" than "real" Peace Officers.  The truth is that Correctional Officers face all the dangers that policemen face and more, and may do it with far less help than would be available to officers on the street.  Now I am proud but saddened to honor Shana Tedder, Correctional Officer, with the honor due all Texas Officers who give their lives in the line of duty.  Correctional Officer Tedder, thank you for your years of service to the people of Texas.  May you rest in peace.

I pray that the Good Shepherd comforts Officer Tedder's family and her fellow workers who must go on with their work inside of Texas prisons even as they are in the full grip of shock and pain at her loss.  And I pray for the safety of those that must carry on in our state and national prisons, and in local detention centers everywhere.