Trooper Recognized
Editor:
(The following letter was sent to the Maryland State Police Berlin barrack with a copy forwarded to this publication.)
On Saturday afternoon, June 19, I was leaving the outlets at West Ocean City and returning to my condo in mid-town Ocean City.
While sitting at the traffic light near Marshalls and the go-cart track, I observed a mother duck and her duckling walking along the far side of eastbound Route 50. She then crossed safely amongst the stilled traffic. When the trooper monitoring the light saw her stepping upon the median strip, he ran into the westbound lanes and stopped traffic to allow her a safe crossing. Mid-way Mom changed her mind and began to reroute herself and the babies toward the eastbound lanes. The trooper proceeded to shoo her back around and got her and the babies across the westbound lanes.
In this time of turmoil, when our protectors are sometimes perceived as enemies, this action was very affirmative and uplifting.
I have shared this story several times since returning to St. Michaels and feel this trooper deserves an extra clap or “quack.”
If you know which trooper was monitoring that light, please tell him that his efforts were appreciated.
Susan Brady
St. Michaels
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Better De-Escalation Needed
Editor:
I am appalled by the recent report in The Washington Post. The police carry equipment that is suitable for war, not the Ocean City Boardwalk.
Flack jackets and AR15’s with their fingers on the triggers — totally inappropriate and unnecessary. They act like the Gestapo, not keepers of the peace. It appears they are anxious to try out their “toys” with the least provocation. If they don’t know how to de-escalate a situation they should be removed from the force.
Having been here since 1970, I have seen at least one such incident. The citizens and visitors of Ocean City deserve better.
Gael Carlson
Ocean City
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Police Reform Beneficial
Editor:
Recently, in Ocean City, video recordings of encounters between the Ocean City Police Department and members of the public once again brought the important issue of criminal justice and police reform into the spotlight.
Unfortunately, every time one of these events occurs, the calls for police reform are met with the false narrative that reform is anti-police or an attack on our brave first responders. This faulty thinking could not be more detrimental to the safety of our community and our public servants.
The truth is that police reform is beneficial for both the community and our law enforcement officers. However, our current policing structure is not working and in major need of reform. To combat crime, we need a complete toolbox, and that is what reform can give. Law enforcement is necessary to protect society, but they are tasked with too broad an undertaking with the tools provided.
The actions of a few representatives have resulted in brutality or tragic loss of life. These events have caused the fear and distrust of police in many communities and have made the job of our law enforcement officers much more difficult.
Police reform is good for the communities because it will help prevent these types of encounters from happening in the future, keep unprofessional officers from being hired again, continue the cycle, and rebuild trust in the community. The objective of police reform is that no matter what we look like or where we come from, we all want to know we can make it home to our families at the end of the day.
In the current debate over this issue, it is often overlooked or not discussed how police reform is also good for the police officers for several reasons.
There can be no doubt that the actions of a few bad actors have harmed the community’s perception of the whole profession. These feelings of fear towards police and overall distrust make it, so our communities are less likely to cooperate with police and create an unsustainable tension between the community and our police departments. These effects make the already difficult job of our law enforcement even more complex and contribute to many of the issues we see in policing today.
Establishing accountability and providing access to new training and techniques to improve how we police our community. The majority of police officers are decent people who provide a valuable service. They risk their lives every day to serve our communities and keep us safe. These officers agree that those who don’t follow protocols or abuse the community are bad for the profession and need to be held accountable. Police reform would create the necessary mechanism to hold bad actors accountable and ensure that when they get in trouble for not upholding the standard of law enforcement, they cannot just move elsewhere and continue their mistreatment of the community.
Police reform would also provide additional education in de-escalation and implicit bias. The greater the variety of tools we provide for law enforcement, the more likely it becomes possible to create positive outcomes for situations like these.
Police reform would also help police officers by reducing the overwhelming burden we put on them. In our society today, we ask our police to investigate crime, address poverty, do traffic stops, solve mental health issues, work in schools, and pretty much every societal failure we face. We need a more holistic approach to our society, one in which we don’t task just one group with implementing.
We must also give police the tools to prove they followed the correct protocols and procedures. Introducing body cameras for on-duty officers is one such policy initially perceived as an attack on law enforcement. In actuality, it gave our officers the ability to defend themselves when they were accused of wrongdoing but had followed the proper protocols and procedures. In theory and practice, police reform isn’t “anti-police”; it is a tool to provide accountability, transparency, and allow police officers to show how they serve the community in a positive light.
In politics today, many of our elected leaders and special interests are resorting to catchy slogans and inflammatory rhetoric to mislead the public and create fear about police reform. Instead of implementing policies that address the issues raised by their constituents, they are focused on scoring political points with their base while dividing our community and blocking meaningful reform in the process. The problem with this approach is that slogans and inaction won’t address the issues nor help our police. At the end of the day, until we have serious conversations about police brutality and the need for reform, we will continue to exist in an endless cycle that is getting worse by the day. Both the community and our police can’t afford to stay in this cycle because our elected leaders refuse to put in the hard work required to create legislation, educate the community about the legislation, and then turn it into law. We need local leaders who are willing to address these issues and not “virtue signal” in an effort to be popular or pander. It’s time to expect more, to expect our elected officials to put in the hard work.
I am running for State Senate here in District 38 to overcome the hyper-partisan divides and address issues just like this. My plan includes diversifying our resources that will improve community interactions, ending “broken window” and for-profit policing, and creating community oversight. We can better support the police when we don’t ask them to shoulder society’s failures. We can do better for all of us.
Michele Gregory
Salisbury
(The writer is Salisbury City Councilmember and Candidate for State Senate District 38
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Policing Change A Must
Editor:
Black children have the same right to hang out with their friends and have fun during times like Senior Week in Ocean City without the fear of being harmed or killed by police.
Once again, another viral video has shown the world how police harm Black people on a daily basis. On a Saturday in June, Ocean City police officers tased, hogtied, and hurt a young Black teenager over a trivial allegation of vaping on the Boardwalk. In a separate incident, an officer kneed a Black teenager while another officer held him down in a prone position – over the same trivial allegation. In the first incident, the Black child had his hands up until police directed him to unhook a backpack strap – police then tased him despite his compliance, causing the teen to lose consciousness and fall to the concrete. Ocean City police officers showed a complete lack of humanity towards these Black children. The police officers showed no regard for their young age or for the pain, trauma, and danger police actions caused them. These incidents are a manifestation of the white supremacy endemic to U.S. policing and add to the disgustingly persistent pattern of police mistreating Black, Latinx, Indigenous and other People of Color nationwide.
Disturbingly, Ocean City police didn’t even try to de-escalate, especially over something as minor as vaping, which is not a criminal issue. The amount of force used here was inappropriate. Police officers need to be trained on Maryland’s new Use of Force standard, which will take effect on June 1, 2022. This new Use of Force standard will work to prevent similar incidents of unnecessary brutality and hold officers accountable for failure to properly exercise force.
Maryland’s policing system is working exactly as intended and that is unacceptable. This disturbing incident shows that recent use of force legislation is just the beginning of reform and that more work needs to be done to reimagine policing so that the lives of Black and Brown people are protected. Officers must be held accountable for excessive and unnecessary use of force even when they are not captured on video. Change is not optional.
ACLU of Maryland