By Jim Glennon
If government entities openly defy their own laws, thumb their noses at state and federal statutes, disregard court decisions and dismiss rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States, what should we expect from everyday citizens?
Adherence to local laws?
Cooperation with the police?
Civil obedience?
A reduction in crime?
No!
We should expect the exact opposite of course, which is already evident and in plain view throughout the country.
Emboldened criminals are openly defying our laws.
Brazen thefts and robberies are regular occurrences.
Car jackings are an epidemic.
Violent crimes are near record highs.
Attacks on the police are up.
Fear among the citizenry is widespread!
Many areas are on the cusp of anarchy.
And why shouldn’t they be with so many violations of government regulations and laws being ignored by so many systems of the government and people with power?
A very recent example:
This is not an article about the Second Amendment, its purpose, or the right of the citizenry to bear arms. That said, a lawsuit filed by a Hawaiian citizen who was arrested for carrying a firearm encapsulates a growing and very dangerous trend throughout our country; government bodies and politicians simply choosing to ignore laws with which they don’t agree.
A Hawaiian citizen, Christopher Wilson, was arrested in 2017 and charged with improperly holding a firearm and ammunition. According to media reports Wilson didn’t have a permit for his weapon nor did he apply for one. Wilson argued that the laws of Hawaii violated the Constitution’s Second Amendment and eventually the case wound up in front of Hawaii’s Supreme Court.
Well, last week that judicial body decided they didn’t care about decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court or for that matter, the Constitution of the United States.
In their own decision the justices said, “Article I, section 17 of the Hawaii Constitution mirrors the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. We read those words differently than the current United States Supreme Court. We hold that in Hawaii there is no state constitutional right to carry a firearm in public.”
Incredibly the jurists then addressed the general “vibe” for those living in Hawaii.
“The spirit of Aloha clashes with a federally-mandated lifestyle that lets citizens walk around with deadly weapons during day-to-day activities. The history of the Hawaiian Islands does not include a society where armed people move about the community to possibly combat the deadly aims of others.”
According to multiple news outlets, Justice Todd Eddins, who authored the 53-page opinion, cited the HBO TV series The Wire. “The thing about the old days, they the old days. As the world turns, it makes no sense for contemporary society to pledge allegiance to the founding era’s culture, realities, laws, and understanding of the Constitution.”
Huh?
I’m not a legal expert but The Constitution isn’t a guideline, policy or regulatory recommendation, The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the whole, of what is, the United States of America!
Isn’t it?
The Fallout
This is just one of countless examples of different government bodies and/or politicians deciding which laws should be followed and which ones can be ignored. In the worst-case scenarios, some local, state, and federal entities have become obstructionists of their own codified laws as well as federal statutes.
Some examples:
- Sanctuary cities and states who flagrantly disregard immigration laws.
- Police agencies who are under orders not to cooperate with federal agencies and refuse to follow lawful orders from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
- State statutes that preclude police officers from making traffic stops for violations of other state statutes.
- Police officers ordered to ‘stand down’ as rioters burn shops, businesses and buildings, including government structures.
- Selective prosecution of public figures.
- Prosecutors who ignore legal charging parameters and refuse to enhance felonies and instead reduce charges to misdemeanors.
- Dropping charges in spite of solid evidence.
- Prosecutorial policies that prohibit police from enforcing certain codified crimes from prostitution and retail theft, to resisting arrest and obstructing justice.
All of these are examples of a massive cultural shift in our society that for centuries focused on public safety, the rule of law and holding criminals responsible for their conduct.
This begs the question, what is the obvious fallout that follows those in power refusing to enforce statutes and ignoring case laws from higher levels of courts?
Well, besides the inevitable and predictable higher crime rates, including carjackings, assaults and murders, police are more hesitant to do their job than ever.
The Police are Stuck
With all of the aforementioned instability reference enforcement focus, our nation’s police officers are very often confused on what it is they should do and can do.
Countless officers have abandoned the concept of proactive policing for fear that stepping over a politically ambiguous line could cause them and their families to suffer irreparable personal harm.
Morale is crashing across the country. Officers are retiring early or quitting outright. And a majority of officers have decided that they will not recommend law enforcement as a profession to young people. All of this has resulted in critically dwindling recruitment numbers. Consequently, agencies are struggling with staffing and manpower levels that are dangerously low.
To combat these problems, agencies have had to react. Many have lowered their standards for hiring officers. “Poaching” from other agencies is now commonplace.
Restructuring manpower—borrowing from Peter to pay Paul so to speak—such as agencies eliminating highly productive enforcement teams, reducing investigations divisions, abandoning K-9 programs and community outreach initiatives is also prevalent.
Some major cities are experiencing such dramatic manpower shortages that 911 calls go unanswered or response times are measured in hours rather than minutes.
Consequently, all of this exacerbates the problems communities are facing when it comes to criminality, fear of victimization and general public safety.
Conclusion
When the ‘powers that be’ flout laws, disregard court orders, snub decisions by higher courts and selectively enforce state statutes, the police are forced to live in a state of both frustration and confusion.
I’ve been travelling the country interacting with police officers for more than 25 years. In my more than four decades in the profession, I’ve never seen such uncertainty and low levels of morale among rank-and-file officers.
A few months ago, I wrote an article, Leadership Ethics: No Longer Required? that, as the title suggests, focused on the ethical failings among leadership in this country. I received a massive number of emails from officers, including bosses, who expressed their own views on this issue and what they see as the inevitable result if the country doesn’t again find its moral compass and adhere to the spirit of our laws. None, and I mean none, of their predictions was anything but dire.
Openly ignoring or disparaging our laws by those in power are resulting in a breakdown of social norms. When societal norms are disrupted to this level, fear and uncertainty shroud the general psyche of the citizenry. Law enforcement loses its equilibrium and confidence in purpose. Criminals pounce and prey on the weak with complete impunity.
When the custodians of our legal system openly violate their oaths of office, commit crimes with no apology and escape responsibility, what would we, as a society, expect as the fallout?
Bottom line: If our leaders find no reason to follow rules and laws and denigrate those who believe they should, why would the police feel a need to try and enforce them?
Worse, why would the criminal element fear committing crimes?
I’ll tell you, right now, they don’t.
A course correction is essential—and it has to happen right now!
If it doesn’t, where will we be two years from now?
I shudder to think.
THOUGHTS? E-mail us at: editor@calibrepress.com
*** Editor’s note: Check out a recent hour-long interview with Jim Glennon on “ILEETA Live” recorded HERE.
Interesting is that while departments encourage officers to not enforce laws or be active are strictly enforcing agency policy.
The departments want to ignore state laws but then are strict by the book to agency policy. Don’t run radar for speeding. But here is a write up for a cop driving too fast to a call.
What lawful orders were disobeyed from ICE? If the Feds won’t protect our borders someone else has to.
Michael Ponti, You are correct!
Texas is taking action for those exact things the author is complaining about. The article has concern about government entities NOT following laws? That is precisely why Texas is standing up to the Feds. The Feds refuse to enforce the laws, so TEXAS IS TAKING CHARGE of the situation. One of the main purposes for our constitution is to give power to the people and limit the power of the federal government. The second amendment has more importance than just hunting rights and defending your home (although those are important); it was put in place to prevent a federal government that becomes too powerful, corrupt and out of control. We have reached that point. So, Texas has said ENOUGH, get out of our way, we are protecting our borders as a sovereign state and protecting our citizens and the citizens of the United States.
Your article is excellent. The opinion of the Hawaiian Jurist is so appalling, so astounding and confounding my jaw should be on the floor. But we know to expect nothing different from large metropolitan areas throughout America.
Spot on article (as always) by Jim. I’m afraid we have passed the point of no return. Every officer with a brain has shut down and doing only the bare minimum. Show up after the fact and write a report. There are still some young, idealistic officers out there trying to make a difference. They are proactively hunting bad people. And, they don’t last. The agency admins are firing those proactive officers at the cyclic rate. Trust me….I teach at my own agency’s academy. We have garbage applicants. Our admin types are running off the remaining proactive officers. The remainder of the officers are laying low hoping to survive till retirement. I plan to retire in a few years and watch the world burn.
With the current situation in Texas blasted all over the news, we are all very aware of this climate. To put my “what if” hat on for a moment… what if the federal government was responsible for setting terms of naturalization and immigration? What if that was their job? What if the definition of RESPONSIBILITY meant that it is your job to fulfill those duties?
Yes the tone here is a bit sarcastic, but the point is: if immigration is the Fed’s job to fulfill, but they allow sanctuary cities which violates their own duties, then by what authority does the federal government have to enforce anything? They have created this environment where the kids do whatever and ignore what dad says (although, I think Texas is exempt because they are actually doing the federal government’s job in its absence).
I know I at least stay in my lane and follow the laws of State and Constitution, which say zero about politics and party affiliation! Maybe that’s my prior military service speaking where I swore to uphold the Constitution and not a person.
I recently spoke with an LEO in another municipality about a woman begging in the middle of the road that stepped from behind a stopped car into the lane in which I was traveling. The response was a shoulder shrug and that they had no interest in enforcing that. A state law. One that protects the driver and the pedestrian. I explained how we operate in my jurisdiction, using discretion, not writing tickets all day long, but still focused on public safety. This was the perfect example of public safety!
Perhaps THIS is what that Blue Line really is: walking the narrow line, doing what’s right even when both sides try to push us off of it. I am not disillusioned and my morale is just fine because if I do my job, but the justice system stops short, I still did my job. It’s mental resiliency.
If anyone under my small span of control decides to enforce a law of this state when they see it being violated, I will support them even if another aspect of the justice system or a politician does not. I see it as part of teaching the newer officers that integrity trumps everything and good community policing matters.
If we don’t behave this way then why do we even bother with that fancy oath we all take with our hand raised?
Jim, very good article.
What I find very disturbing is a trend that began at least 20 years ago or longer with what I call willful obedience to the law. If I feel like obeying the law, I will, and if I don’t well as long as I did not kill anyone give me a break. The criminal element in our society seems to benefit from this attitude which is reflected by the way crimes, specifically felonies are prosecuted and sentencing is based upon the nature of the crime and what were the results of that crime. Example, the subject stole a car but he did not crash it. The subject broke into the residence but he did not hurt anyone, the subjects robbed the bank but no one was hurt,, the subject drove recklessly under the influence of drugs and alcohol but he smashed his car into a telephone poll. How about the 3 strikes and your out laws in California. Commit at least 3 felonies before you are incarcerated I don’t know exactly what felonies you can commit but again another example of minimizing the violent actions of the criminal element.
I personally believe in police and community policing, however that only goes so far. I suggest the biggest advocates of community policing try or attempt to arrest a subject who does not want to be arrested. When dealing with individuals that rolled through a stop sign or or a red light or Mom and six kids in in a van , going to a sports event of course give them a break. I like to believe in my 33 years as a Patrol Officer I did the job by the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law which enabled me to have lots of friends within the community, so if I needed help they would jump in and help me instead of watching the action in front of them, from their front porch
We find that no one is so quick to become a law enforcement officer because of the lack of support for law enforcement across the country. Recently we observed 2 NYPD Officers attempting to arrest an individual and they are attacked by a mob of individuals, the officers were kicked and punched by several individuals and finally when backup arrived were able to arrest the subjects. The subjects were arrested and from what I understand released from jail within an hour of the arrest, and upon leaving the holding facility flipped everyone off and were ready to get on a bus and head to a sanctuary city, on the west coast. This was stopped by the authorities, when they learned they were possibly illegal immigrants.
Jim, in your article you wrote we need a course correction. This is absolutely true, we need to have common sense laws that we all can live with and understand. Sometimes on this job you need the wisdom of Solomon to make decisions and most of the time those decisions are made by erring on the side of caution to protect and serve, everyone in our society.
Jim, thank you for all you do for all of us.
You are spot on sir, but unfortunately, I do not see things getting better. When you have the breakdown of morals and rules and corrupt leadership you have the collapse of society as history shows us. Sadly our country is destroying history so our young people can’t even learn on what not or what to do.
I’ve been LE for 20 years in Arizona. My agency does not tell us NOT to enforce laws, on the contrary we enforce all laws. My squad continuously seek out the law breakers on a daily basis, WE ARE NOT STUCK!. I don’t take orders from ICE, if they don’t like it they can step off. We do not ignore anything around here, if you don’t believe it come out here and break any law see what happens.
After reading your article, I came across this study which may be interesting/informative: https://www.crimrxiv.com/pub/gz8byg7v/release/2 It’s a study done among municipal police chiefs across the nation essentially summarizing the amount of beleaguerment felt post-George Floyd.
It is astounding to observe the disrespect afforded to the US Constitution, by not only our state and local politicians but those in the federal government as well. The examples listed in your article are being demonstrated in all corners of our country. I am not an alarmist, but I have once again relegated myself to “full-time carry.”
It is easy to fall into the “Gloom and Doom” mentality, especially nowadays with how mainstream media reports, as well as social media in general. (Mainstream media is in the business to make money, and finding error in law enforcement makes them money).
Our society has had its ups and downs. As a society we’ve made terrible errors, and then learned from those mistakes. With technology progressing as fast as it is it becomes difficult for individuals to adapt to the changes, and consequently laws and training have problems keeping up with change.
I’m old enough to remember the stormy and turbulent 1960s, as well as the challenges of change in the 1970s. While it was a difficult time, as a society we adjusted and came out stronger.
While I agree I’ve never seen so many prosecutors more obsessed with prosecuting law enforcement, we need to remember that so many of the tools we use in law enforcement now for clearing cases are also in the hands of those who are inclined to blame all their anger on law enforcement. We are under a microscope as never before.
Ours is still a noble tradition, and as we’ve seen, society still depends on law enforcement heavily, despite how much they don’t want to admit it. Our noble servants continue to serve, and thus allow society and individuals to progress and prosper.
I too am concerned that there will more turbulent times in our future that we will be underprepared to address, but I look at the enthusiasm and dedication that our people have, and I remain confident law and order will prevail.
To me, the Hawaii example appears to have the potential of being more than the run-of-the mill rogue states that have radical government bodies making kooky decisions. Isn’t this the stuff of violent revolution, civil war, or secession?
The only ones with a positive view of the future of LE are the administrators who lead from the rear. We get told “you are too negative. You need to be positive. Things will get better”. Well, those of us actually on the front lines have given up. We know you administrators don’t have our backs. We know you will throw us to the wolves as soon as bad things happen. We know the public, for the most part, hates us. America is roughly divided 50/50 liberal vs conservative. We lost the liberals years ago but at least we had the conservatives. Well, post COVID we lost the conservatives. No one cares any more. If you are one of us still out on the front lines you know, no one cares about us. So, either get out now or, if you are close to retirement, lay low and coast to retirement. That used to be the mindset of liberal areas like Minneapolis only. Now….it’s everywhere. Smile and wave. Only way to be.