GUEST COMMENTARY: BY JOHNNY BARNES
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 9, 2020 — While I have been encouraged by the demographics of the demonstrations, the call for defunding the Police seems to me misguided and misplaced. Those who make this call may not have had experience with individuals who need policing; not necessarily incarceration, but at least rehabilitation, if convicted. We don’t need more men and women in our prisons, we need less. Nearly 2.5 million are incarcerated in America’s prisons and jails, more than any other country in the world. Here, we will put you behind bars.
Without the Police, however, who will confront those dudes determined to do wrong? In the Army, I was a Combat Engineer Officer, whose job was to build bridges and blow them up, while being shot at. There is little that scares me. But, there are some dudes out in those streets that do strike a bit of fear in me, as they would in you. Who will confront them, if we have no Police? Now, we don’t need John Wayne type police. Our Chief, Peter Newsham, seems to reflect the values of this Community; as did Deputy Chief Dianne Groomes when she was with D.C. MPD and Ron Hampton, who spent 28 years and never once used his service revolver. Ron practiced Community Policing and collared as many of the truly criminal as anyone.
It saddened me to see Mayor Bowser’s Work of Art defaced by the very people who she defended and joined with, simply because they believe they know what we need. It’s good to have goals, but we must have goals that take us to a desirable and better end. Defunding the Police does not and will not. Limiting police weaponry does and will. Police Departments don’t need tanks or artillery. They need better training and limits on the use of force. They don’t need aircraft to hover over peaceful protesters. That money can go to counselors, mental health professionals, education and jobs. Police don’t need qualified immunity. That is a license to kill; a prescription for disaster.
When I was a young man, I preferred to blow bridges up. Today, I know its best that we build bridges. That is and should be the goal of this Movement, not the precipitous notion of eliminating the Police.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Johnny Barnes is a Trial Attorney and Expert on Civil Liberties and the Federal and Local Legislative Process. He spent more than a quarter of a century in various Congressional staff positions, including service as Chief of Staff for three Members of Congress. Barnes recently retired after serving a decade as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union for the Nation’s Capital.
