On President Trump and the Police

There will never be a "good" time to announce one's political affiliations in public.  I figure that early in this blogging endeavor will be as good a time as any.  In these deeply divided political times, it's better to just go ahead and get it out there, to rip off the Band- aid, so to speak.

I'm a registered Republican, but just barely any more.  During the 2016 primaries, I was a "NeverTrumper" and ended up voting strategically for Ted Cruz when the Kentucky caucus came around.  (One thing I will never forgive Rand Paul for is his idiotic vanity candidacy for President.  I blame him and at least a dozen of the other GOP vanity candidates in 2016 for Trump more than any other individual factor.)

At any rate, when election day rolled around in November, I found myself planning to skip voting for POTUS and to only cast a ballot for Congressman Andy Barr.  In the question of which candidate was the lesser evil between Trump and Hillary Clinton, I had decided Trump was better on balance if for no other reason than his statements in favor of law and order. 

And yet, a lesser evil is still evil.  I figured that Trump was going to win KY by double digits anyway, so he wasn't going to need my vote and I didn't need to trouble my conscience.  Pro- police rhetoric and pandering aside, I wasn't sold on Mr. Trump's supposed business acumen or in agreement with his personal morality.  I also was (and remain) unconvinced that his reputation for "fighting" that his die- hard fans seem to like so much is worth anything if he is unable to fight effectively.  So far as I'm concerned, the jury is very much out on whether or not there has been much "winning" to get tired of, as Mr. Trump promised during the campaign.

At any rate, when I arrived at my polling place I learned that Evan McMullin had made the ballot in KY, so I cast a protest vote for him against the whole stupid system and went on to work.  Like most people that day, I thought the election was going to be close, but that Hillary would easily pull it out in the Electoral College.  

And then Trump won.  Which, as a registered member of Team Red, I must admit I enjoyed very much that night.  The tears of Hillary supporters and the looks of depression on the television anchors as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania fell into Trump's column were delicious.

It's all been (mostly) downhill from there, of course, but I will happily point out one area where Mr.Trump's decency (such as it is) shines through compared to what we could have expected from Mrs. Clinton: his respect and treatment of first responders. The difference was placed into sharp relief by an incident this week in Indianapolis.

While escorting the Presidential motorcade to the airport, Ofc. Robert Turner was involved in a motorcycle crash.  Upon arriving at the airport, President Trump delayed the take off of Air Force One until he could speak to Ofc. Turner personally by telephone.  The Indianapolis PD posted video of the call to their Twitter feed.

On the other hand, Mrs. Clinton's private disrespect of law enforcement, particularly of those unfortunate enough to be assigned to her protective detail, is legendary. 

Of course, Mrs. Clinton is not alone among Democrats who share disdain for the police, as well as military service members.  Frankly, much of our current problems between police and the black community can be traced all the way back to President Obama's decision to stick his nose into a relatively minor confrontation between the police and a black home owner back in 2009.  Obama decided to opine that the "police acted stupidly," while also admitting that he knew little about the facts.  That comment pretty much set the tone for the rest of his administration when it came to law enforcement matters. 

My favorite image from the "Beer Summit" that Obama held at the White House to try to gloss over his earlier idiocy is this one:

Some wag on some right-wing website I was following at the time labeled this picture "A cop, Skip, and a chump from the White House."  I think that the picture pretty much sums up the position of law enforcement under Obama.  The officer at the center of the controversy, Sgt. James Crowley, is helping his elderly antagonist, Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, whose profligate use of the race card and life- long membership in the Coalition of the Perpetually Aggrieved touched off the whole stupid situation, down the stairs while Obama walks merrily along his way, oblivious to the damage his statements and demeanor have done to the national discourse and doing exactly nothing to actually "help." 

The difference between how Trump values those who serve and how Democrats treat them is the difference between night and day.  I certainly appreciate the change in tone.

The Only Unbreakable Law is the Law of Unintended Consequences

The Lexington Herald- Leader ran an article on September 25, 2017 about the number of truant students, particularly the number of habitually truant students,  in the Commonwealth.  The main thrust of the article was that the Commonwealth has a very high number of truant students, especially as compared to other states.

This should surprise exactly no one.  Ever since the legislature decided in its infinite wisdom that the key to getting a handle on KY's previous drop- out crisis was to simply make it so that students can't drop out until they turn 18, an explosion in the number of truancy cases was inevitable.

You see, just because you pass a law doesn't mean that the law is going to be followed.  Students who were already prone to dropping out (legally) before their 18th birthday still drop out. They just walk away from school and the only difference is that there is now pressure on the system to prosecute them as truants.  They didn't stop "dropouts." They just created more criminals- excuse me- juvenile offenders.

That system is entirely broken, by the way.  A couple of years ago I was sentenced to serve on one of the myriad "do gooder" boards that our society creates from time to time in the interest of solving some intractable problem or other.  The focus of this particular waste of time was truancy and runaway kids.

Shortly after school resumed following the Christmas/ Holiday/ Winter Solstice break of that particular year, a representative on the board from the county attorney's office told us that the juvenile court docket for hearing truancy cases was full until June.  Essentially, halfway into the school year there was no point in sending any new truancy cases through the juvenile justice system anymore because the offenders wouldn't be getting a hearing until after school had ended for the year.

I managed to escape that particular board, so I don't have any personal knowledge of the situation today.  I can't imagine that it's any better.

So this happened...

On September 25, 2017 Patrol Sgt. Christopher Morrow of the Lexington Police Department was arrested after being indicted for Rape in the 1st degree by the Fayette County Grand Jury.

Departmental policy prohibits me from discussing much about this matter, although technically it's not a Lexington PD case as the primary investigation was done by the Kentucky State Police.  However, the purpose of this blog was to be fearless in expressing my opinions about police issues and criminal matters in Central KY.  I've known that this matter was brewing for weeks.  Of course it would break into the public consciousness the day after I started this blog. There's nothing like getting your first gut- check of your integrity before you've even figured out exactly how all of the website buttons work.

So, with all of that in mind, I will offer the following three observations, none of which address any of the details of this case that are not yet a matter of public record.  As various facts of this case are entered into the public record through the local media I may address some of them.

1.  If the old saying about a good prosecutor being able to get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich is generally true, so is the reverse.  A good prosecutor (or even a mediocre one) can get a grand jury to fail to indict a case if they want the matter to go away.  In my experience, any adult sexual assault case that has even a whiff of a potential loss around it gets spiked.

It is significantly harder to get a conviction in an adult sexual assault case than a child sexual assault case for many reasons, but one of the primary reasons is that (generally speaking) there are no lesser included offenses in an adult sexual assault as there are in most child sexual assaults.  A jury has to either unanimously agree that the sexual encounter was forcible in nature or the suspect can't be found guilty of anything.

In the case of a sexual assault involving a child, force is either not an issue because it's not an element of the offense or there are lesser offenses, that are still felonies, based on the age of the child victim that a jury can "compromise" on when deliberating if one or more of them don't believe that the suspect used force to accomplish the assault. Getting a conviction for a lesser statutory offense because one juror refused to believe that the suspect physically forced the victim to have sex may not be perfect justice, but a win is a win and most felony level child sex offenses still carry heavy incarceration penalties and the lifetime registration as a sex offender for those convicted of them. It's "worth it" to roll the dice with a jury in those cases, specifically weaker cases, because the prosecutor can still expect to get a win overall.

The same is true for most criminal offenses, such as assault and even homicide.  Those offenses have degrees of seriousness that a jury can debate and come to a consensus on.  The way that adult sexual assault statutes are written, particularly in Kentucky and especially the  "1st degree" offenses that have force or the threat of force as an element that the jury must agree occurred in order to convict, means that there's either no lesser offense to be had (which means the defendant will be acquitted) or the jury may only consider misdemeanor offenses such as Physical Harassment that are so far removed from the seriousness of the charged offense as to count as losses even if the jury agrees to convict for them. 

Adult sexual assault cases, because of the "all or nothing" nature of the statutes governing them, are then one of the biggest gambles for a prosecutor to take to a jury trial in the absence of an air- tight case.  Prosecutors, quite simply, hate to lose.  The suspect also has no incentive to plead guilty to them because the prosecution doesn't have anything to offer him.  It's not like a rape case involving a child victim where the facts of the case might warrant 20 to life on a 1st degree conviction, but everyone (including the victim) will accept a plea to a 2nd or even 3rd degree charge that carries 10- 20 or even just 1- 5 years.

"Bad" adult sexual assault cases go away, whether it's because there's a lack of physical evidence or lack of credibility on the part of the victim or for any other semi- plausible reason to keep the prosecution from having to face the possibility of a hit to their win percentage.  Bad adult sexual assault cases don't get indicted.

This case did.

2. Sgt. Morrow deserves and will get the same due process as all citizens do under our system of justice.  Reading through the comment sections of various local media sources, there are plenty of idiotic people out there willing to spout off that he somehow deserves more punishment or less due process because of the nature of his employment.  That's simply stupid.  He's an American citizen.  He gets due process.  Oh, and good luck finding anybody with a brain in their head who would be willing to be a cop if somehow cops' due process rights were curtailed.

There are also numerous complaints that he remained suspended with pay while the investigation was ongoing.  Now that he has been charged criminally, his status has been changed to suspended without pay.  The idea is that he should have been suspended without pay while under investigation and any number of hobgoblins are invoked by the jealous and ignorant to bitch about this, the two most prominent being the "Blue Wall" and public employee unions.

The portion of KRS governing the discipline of police officers, commonly called the Peace Officers Bill of Rights or KRS 15.520, actually allows for police officers to be suspended without pay during investigations.  Specifically, it states that employers can suspend the officer without pay, but that if the officer is cleared, then he or she is entitled to all of their back pay that accumulated while they were suspended.  The collective bargaining agreement that covers Lexington police officers and sergeants does not supersede state law on this point.  It can't.

That said, it has been the past pattern and practice for the Lexington police department when investigating an officer accused of misconduct so serious that it requires suspension from normal duty to leave the officer on paid status unless or until he or she is criminally charged.  The ugly reality is that complaints against police officers are simply part of the job.

Fortunately most complaints are unfounded.  Because of that, a blanket policy that suspended officers without pay for any investigation would cause undue hardship on the officer and his or her family.  Far better to have a line of demarcation between a complaint that ends up being unfounded or only a violation of internal policy versus a complaint that turns out to have a criminal component.

This brings us to my third and final comment on this situation:

3. Anyone who thinks that Sgt. Morrow is going to get protection from the alleged "Blue Wall" has never met Sgt. Morrow.  To say that as a supervisor, his relationships with his coworkers are strained is an understatement on par with saying that there were occasional pockets of violence and unrest around the world in between 1938 and 1945. The man is simply not well- liked by his co- workers and very few, if any, of his Lexington PD co- workers are going to give him the benefit of the doubt.  In fact, having the case investigated by KSP is just about the biggest favor anyone could have done him because he was investigated by people who didn't know him instead of people who have had the misfortune of knowing him all too well.  

Misplaced mercy on the football field Alabama Vs. Vanderbilt

Yesterday afternoon the Alabama Crimson Tide went to Nashville and destroyed the Vanderbilt Commodores 59- 0.  It should have been 66- 0, but Coach Nick Saban directed his team on the final drive to show the hapless Commodores mercy by having his backup quarterback, Toa Tagovailoa (Gonna have to get used to spelling that!), take a knee three times after the Tide made it down to the three yard- line with just over three minutes left to play.

Now, I get sportsmanship.  Really, I do.  And there's not much to be gained in the court of public opinion by scoring another easy TD against a team that sucked as hard as Vanderbilt did yesterday. They were already humiliated, especially after a few of their players had made the mistake of trash talking Alabama the week before after Vandy upset Kansas.

But in the long run which is more humiliating to an opponent: showing "mercy" by taking a knee three times until time expires or continuing to take it to him and giving him the opportunity to maybe, just maybe, accomplish something dignified at the end of the game? A recovered fumble? A ninety plus yard kickoff return after Alabama scores so that Vandy at least gets on the board?  A Hail Mary as time expires that gets them some points at home? I mean, it's football.  Stuff like that can happen.

The thing is, Alabama had already been showing Vandy mercy.  The second and third string played the entire second half after Alabama's opening drive.  After their last score, they were only calling running plays and running clock, again trying to give Vandy a break. 

And then the Tide broke through and ended up on the Vandy three yard line with over three minutes to go. In all seriousness, what the Hell was Saban supposed to do to give Vandy a chance at this point?  Big Al, the Alabama mascot, was wearing a jersey? Should Saban have put him in at quarterback, overstuffed cartoon head and all?  Maybe replaced the offensive lineman with cheerleaders?

In my opinion, Saban should have let his players play.  They could have kept tinning the clock, but they should have run it straight up the middle at Vandy each time instead of taking a knee and given the Commodores a chance to make a goal line stand against the number 1 team in the country.  If they could have held back the Tide from scoring over 60 points on them on their home field, then at least they would have earned it.  And if the Tide had scored (which, to be honest, they probably would have) then Vandy would have gotten the ball back with at least some time on the clock to try to make one of the aforementioned "miracle" plays to get on the scoreboard.

I get the other side of the argument.  I just think we as a society lose a little something every time people are held back from doing their best. That includes striving to the best of your ability in the face of certain defeat.  Bama taking a knee three times robbed the Commodores of that. 

So what's it all about anyway and who the Hell are you?

After hitting "publish" on that first entry, I decided that I need to flesh out a little more about this place and about myself.  We'll start with me, since that's a subject I know pretty well.

So who the Hell are you?

I'm a twenty+ year veteran of an urban police department, of which there are very few in Kentucky.  I've spent the last 13 years of my career as a detective, so I have some intimate knowledge of the inner workings of a case investigation and the overall court process.  I have a lot of opinions on those subjects that I'll be sharing as we go along. 

I'm very active in my local FOP, so I've got an insiders perspective when it comes to union issues and collective bargaining.  That's something else that I'll have some opinions on as we go along.

What else? Family man, Christian, son of a preacher man.  I like cars a lot, as well as guns and video gaming.  I'm an Alabama football fan. I know enough about jazz music to be dangerous.  Specifically, I know that there are multiple genres of jazz, which means I know more about jazz music than 95% of the population.  Don't worry, this isn't going to be a jazz blog.  I figure there's not much point in talking about something that just sounds like a cat walking on a piano to most people.

I've done some writing and been published on some other sites under my real name.  Frankly, I don't expect this alias thing to last very long.  Ultimately, I would like for the second act of my adult life to be professional writing.  Finally starting this blog is a step towards realizing that dream.

So what do you want this blog to be? 

That's a good question.  I would like for it to eventually be the Central KY version of secondcitycop. I also admire and hope to emulate the work that "Jack Dunphy" has been doing for years, first at National Review and now at PJ Media.  Ultimately the crime and policing part of this blog will hopefully show the influence of those two examples.

As for the rest, as I have said earlier, I want to explore other topics as well and opine on a great variety of things.  As hinted earlier, it's going to take awhile to get there, but I thought I'd start with my next post which will be about the University of Alabama football program.

Welcome.

Good afternoon and thanks for stopping by.  My nom de cyber for this blog until I'm either outed or retire will be Detective Darkness.  I admit that it is a tad melodramatic and stupid, but it's what I came up with after staring at the Blogger login page for 15 minutes. 

I'm going with an alias (for now) in an admittedly half- assed attempt to keep my identity private for a little while.  My professional obligations (i.e., my department's General Orders) make it so that if I want to be candid about some subjects, I need a little bit of plausible deniability if (when) Internal Affairs comes looking.

I'm not especially worried about it.  It's not my intention to use this blog as a forum to spout crazy racist things or wild conspiracy theories that I wouldn't say in public.  For one thing, I don't believe any crazy racist things or hold to any wild conspiracy theories.  I'm not going to be using it to publish pornography or other lewd material.  I'm not going to divulge facts about open cases or publish crime scene photos or anything like that.  There shouldn't be any "real" reason for anyone at my department to come after me.

Except...

Except that what I will be doing is giving my unvarnished opinion about things involving the criminal justice system, the internal workings of police departments, the internal workings of the court system.  Such opinions may not be appreciated by the powers that be in my agency.  Hence the need to remain anonymous, at least for as long as I can. 

At the end of the day, I'm not going to sweat it too much.  I have enough time in that I can retire from my department tomorrow if I needed to.  I don't want to do that, mind you.  I still have a few years left in me and would like to pad my pension out a bit more.  But at the end of the day, the worst thing that can happen to me as far as my agency is concerned is that I would retire and the pension system would pay me just under $40K a year for the rest of my life.  Every 90 days that number gets a little bit bigger, which means that the salary I would want from a second career in order to maintain my current lifestyle gets a little bit smaller.  I no longer have any incentive to keep my mouth shut just to protect my livelihood. 

I don't intend to only talk about crime and policing.  I have other interests as well.  I see this as a possible place to self- publish some of my writings, be they fictional or opinion pieces.  I may do some reviews, particularly of things automotive.  We'll see where it takes us. 

I don't have any real posting schedule planned or anything like that.  I figure that if this blog turns into anything, it's going to be a slow process.  This post and the next couple I do have planned for today might be the only things on it for awhile.  Hopefully you'll eventually  find something on here to keep bringing you back. For now, thanks again for stopping by.