Reality Check

31 August 2019

 

President Patrick J. Lynch

Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York

125 Broad Street, 11th Floor

New York, NY  10004

 

Dear President Lynch:

 

I hope the summer is treating you well outside of the suicide issue and your current frustration with the Mayor and the Commissioner.  You are truly living, “Per Crucem, Ad Lucem”.  Yeah, I went to Catholic Schools but instead of Holy Ghost Fathers I had Faithful Companions of Jesus, Benedictines, and Jesuits.  The Jesuits instilled in me a respect for absolute truth. It is in that spirit today that I write to you today even though I am sure after you read this, you’re going to wish I was dead.

 

My father was a Member of NAGE and my mother was a member of AFSCME.  Candidates I have worked for, and even the few times when I was a candidate, have been endorsed by 100’s of union locals.  Yes, there is always that one, like the school teachers in Rhode Island two decades ago, where things get “out of form” but for the most part I’m a union guy.  I even walked with CWA when they went out on strike within the proximity of a Young Democrats Convention.

 

I also have a rule about not using “political techniques” against police officers on the force at current.  I have always considered them to be out of bounds. Why?? Because rattling a cop on the beat, even with the best of intentions and purposes could result in that cop making a mistake on the street which might lead to somebody else getting killed.  No one needs that reality.

 

Every time a racial incident happens, do friends and I get together and talk about what we could do??  Of course especially if the racism is clear. However, we never make those thoughts known because some copycat could come along and use those methods against a good cop.  We can’t let that genie leave the bottle.

 

However, cops no longer on the force may or may not count.  For instance, I just wrote this about Officer Pantaleo: https://quahogsunited.home.blog/2019/08/28/wheres-the-pantaleo-cash-going/

 

There will be like efforts against the two cops who traded rape for probation recently.  I told you that you were going to hate me.

 

Where are these efforts headed??  That I do not know. Yes, people find the Pantaleo decision filled with injustice.  However, based on what his life might be like now, what free market punishment is out there that fits the crime and makes sense??  I do not know. In the Brooklyn rape case, more anger is aimed at the judge. Due to both ballot fusion and New York’s election of judges, exhibiting displeasure is easy.  When it comes to the Detectives, that again gets tricky because what kind of lives do they have after this even though the punishment was not just??

 

Please do not feel alone.  Tax revenues in Galveston, Texas, remember walking a guy through the streets while on horseback, and Ascension Parish in Louisiana, where they detained a man for 4 days even though he had a social security card in his pocket, are about to be disrupted.  Since no one died or got raped in those cases, they’re not the only ones but good examples, going after the officers, who are still officers bringing up the “not on the job” rule, did not make sense.

 

Just to get it out of the way, I’m not a fan of the Mayor.  This is not about that or him or the Commissioner. By the way, be honest, Pantaleo alone did not bring your relationship with them to where it currently stands.  There is no way that is true. I’m not asking you to reveal anything – just be aware that folks wonder how it got to zero to here so quickly. I’m sure the Mayor’s personality had something to do with it.

 

After you’ve read this far and told all your friends why I should end up with a bullet in my head, you might want to consider how you have reached this point.  Yes, this is different than a gang trying to hurt your son. These are regular everyday citizens using the free market to correct what we find to be injustice even if it all might just become a fact finding mission with little resolution.  Understanding why this is happening will also bring some light to the suicide situation.

 

In short, you are losing the everyday citizen.  The racist and the old person still roots for you.  The millennial and those of us in Gen X do not. Why??  Donald Trump.

 

You used to be our protector.  You used to be the keeper of the rules.  You used to be law and order itself. Now, you have become the enforcement agency of a known white nationalist.  No, you are not on the level of ICE or CBP yet but you are getting there.

 

There have always been dirty cops.  There have always been racist cops including actual KKK members drawn into the job.  However, in the past, when you were our protectors, we gave you the benefit of the doubt.  We figured the good cops vastly outnumbered the bad cops and the police would police the police.  That thought is no longer true except among the elderly.

 

Under Trump, hate crimes have skyrocketed.  We know, due to all the videos we see, that it has also driven up white supremacist employment in every police deprtment.  We all live in fear that one of our black friends will ask why they are being detained and end up getting shot. Therefore, whether it’s informing you about crime or testifying on your behalf, many people are now more reticent.  Now, the moment an incident happens, the reaction is not “Let’s wait and see and give the cop the benefit of the doubt.” The reaction is, “Racist cop is taking advantage of the environment Trump has created.” While Pantaleo happened before Trump, the punishment didn’t happen until now.

 

This also explains the rash of suicides.  I should tell you that I have two almost suicide attempts and only my Dialectical Behavioral Therapy skills saved me.  If any of your Officers are out on that edge and want to learn DBT, I’m sure we can all get together and find them some therapists that teach it.  Along with that, I’m celebrating almost 17 years in recovery. While helping others, I’ve disrupted another 29 suicides. For some reason, the universe has taught me more about suicide than I really want to know.

 

Your Officers feel lost and unwanted because of Trump.  Simply stated, they used to be cheered for and now they are cheered against.  They used to be able to rely on people protecting them in the street; now your officers have things thrown at them, see Philadelphia.  All that creates a loss of purpose. The loss of purpose creates spiral thoughts that start with, “I made the wrong career choice – can’t they see what I’ve sacrificed” and ends with them eating their gun.

 

It’s not all bad news.  You could choose to be a leader.  You could choose to take the nation in a new direction.  You could stay up and say, ”Excuse me Mr. President, the cop on the beat is not ICE, not CBP.  We are here to protect the neighborhood, not carry out some sick white nationalist agenda where kids receiving cancer treatments are taken off machines and sent to foreign countries to die.”

 

You could make sure that every law enforcement agency in the country no longer cooperates with ICE and CBP since their members are not law enforcement nor do they have the temperament of law enforcement.  I have never seen a cop try to drive a car through a bunch of protesters. By the way, you should see what is planned for him.

 

So by now, you still hate me and want to shoot me or you have hopefully started to consider what Trump is doing to you on the street everyday.  70% of Americans want the old non racist society back. That change can begin with you. Suicide will drop. Citizens will no longer engage in free market “justice correction” because the police will once again police the police.

 

Or you can do nothing but rail against the Mayor and watch good cops commit suicide needlessly.  Which world do you want to live in?? That choice is yours.

 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

 

Sincerely,

 

Robert T. Oliveira

315-864-1229