Are Phoenix police ready to police themselves?

Those who toil in stressful professions rely to a degree on black humor to get them through the daily strain and unpleasant realities of their jobs.

They make jokes that no one is meant to hear except those with whom they work. Soldiers do it. Doctors and nurses. Journalists.

And, yes, police officers.

This is different, however.

This is ugly and destructive and dangerous.

Not long ago ABC15’s Dave Biscobing broke the story of a “challenge coin” being circulated within the Phoenix Police Department that depicts a protester who was shot in the groin with a smoke canister during an antiTrump demonstration in August 2017. On the front is a caricature of the protester being struck with the words “Good Night Left Nut,” an ugly homage to the neo-Nazi slogan “Good Night Left Side.”

Reporting in The Arizona Republic described how officers passed the commemorative coin around after purchasing it, and how patches and stickers were purchased online.

Information about the coin appeared in lawsuit filed by Advocacy groups Puente and Poder in Action.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona is working with the groups.

Attorney Jared Keenan said, “The fact this coin is produced and traded among the officers indicates they celebrate and relish in violent behavior against peaceful protesters. They certainly wouldn’t be open about cheering their violence if they were any repercussions.”

City officials say they are investigating the situation. They say hate speech is not acceptable.

City Manager Ed Zuercher said an investigation would be led by Ballard Spahr, a national law firm based in Philadelphia.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said, “It will not be tolerated. We will take disciplinary action against officers involved in any illegal or unethical behavior.”

The officers who traded the “commemorative coin” forgot that the most valuable currency police forces trade in is trust.

And their account has been running low.

In August a Gallup poll indicated that for the first time in modern memory fewer than half of Americans said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the police.

At the same time, surveys of police officers show them often feeling abandoned and embattled by their communities.

But, here’s the difference.

Police officers swear an oath. In Phoenix, that oath not only promises to defend the Constitution and the laws of the state but also to

“faithfully and their duties.

Just about all of the officers I’ve met and written about over the years have done just that. Some at the cost of their lives.

No matter how abandoned or embattled they may have felt at one time or another, they would not have stood armin-arm or protected neo-Nazi wannabes

impartially”

discharge within their ranks.

If departments don’t root them out now, the trust they need to function won’t ever be restored. An outside investigation is fine. But it shouldn’t be necessary. They should want to do it themselves.

The sad reality is that officers are not always going to deal with individuals who approach them “faithfully and impartially.” But those individuals didn’t swear an oath to do so.

Police officers do.