Defund the police? You can’t be serious

To the Times:

I have to laugh - to keep from crying! - when I hear people calling for the abolition or defunding of police.

As a former police officer and past president of a PA FOP lodge, I worked with and had to defend “good” and “bad” officers. The majority - no, greater than 90 percent - were good officers who wouldn’t put up with bad officers who abused their authority. No one wants to work with those officers, for they frequently escalate situations, causing trouble, or worse, for citizens and fellow officers.

I remember the case of one officer that we had to defend who we were pretty sure abused a citizen. We got him off, but I let him know, not in a nice way, at the little event celebrating

Mail:

his clearance, that I didn’t think that he was innocent and that we wouldn’t go to bat for him a second time if a similar situation arose. I was actually trying to draw a reaction from him but he didn’t bite. Anyway, he got the message, and left the department no long after.

Some of the people calling for less police or less funds for police have put forth ridiculous proposals like “we’ll send social workers to domestic disturbances.” Are you kidding me?! Those calls are some of the most dangerous that police respond to every day, for they can turn violent, or deadly, in a minute. That might work in a country with few or no guns, but this is America. And this is just one example of the dangerous calls

Letters to the Editor, 639S. Chester Road Swarthmore, PA 19081

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our police respond every day.

Until recently, police, fireman, and soldiers were the professionals most likely to be referred to as heroes. Not to take anything away from the doctors and nurses who have done a fantastic job during this pandemic, but the police seem to have been forgotten because of the actions of a few bad eggs(“few” relative to the total number of officers). They, police officers and firemen, get up every day, or night, put on their uniforms, then say goodbye to their families, never knowing if they’ll be coming home to them at the end of their shifts.

If that doesn’t define a hero, I’m asking someone to give me a better definition!

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