It’s a Heavy Badge

Visit any jail or prison and you will find the worst of society housed there to protect the rest of society from harm. The list of crimes is long and at times horrifying. Their crimes can range from assault and battery to drug use, drug sales, robbery, burglary, car theft, and a host of murder and attempted murders, or worse. These aren’t choirboys and girls. They are for the most part asocial and amoral criminals.

All right, now that you have that picture in your mind, imagine what it must be like to deal with the likes of these people every day. Sure, the guards are systematically disrespected and abused, but what about the police who have to be able to tell the good guys from the bad in the general public. Imagine having to take verbal abuse and threats from total strangers. Imagine responding to a traffic accident call only to see an entire family smashed and shredded to an unrecognizable piece of blood and gore.

But these are trained police officers. They are conditioned to accept these things and respond like programmed unemotional automatons. Their training allows them to turn all emotion off.

Wrong! Our men and women in blue are as human as you and me. Sure, they learn to handle these things without emotion, but even the best of them can reach a breaking point. When that happens, often the unpolished human emotions take over.

Contrary to the claims of some people with their own agenda, we are not living in a police state, and police are not an organized group of oppressors of the poor or the Black communities. As a rule, if you haven’t committed a crime and are cooperating with the police you have nothing to fear.

On the other hand, if you have committed a crime, the police are there to arrest you. If you resist, they will take whatever action is necessary to affect that arrest. Then too, if you haven’t committed a crime but give the police a hard time and verbally or physically abuse them, well… ‘you in a heap o’ trouble.’ The degree of trouble you bring on yourself usually depends on how abusive you are.

If it is merely verbal abuse, most police will do the right thing and just walk away leaving the abuser to look like a total fool. Physical abuse – the worst of which is trying to take an officer’s weapon – will illicit a response, and very likely you will be arrested for assault on a police officer. If you try resisting arrest… well you know the drill.

Are there exceptions to this well-defined action-reaction scenario? Sure. Cops are human. Whether they show it or not, their emotions are like any other person’s. If an officer’s day has been an emotional rollercoaster ride, a simple confrontation may be just one too many and he overreacts.

Put yourself in an officer’s shoes and imagine what you might have done in the same situation. Okay, imagine having started your day responding to not one but two serious traffic accidents, three domestic disturbances – one where the wife was beaten to a pulp – then progressing to a walk through a neighborhood with people calling you names and taunting you, breaking up a drunken bar fight and finally being called to a disturbance at a drug buy. You have to chase the suspect for three blocks before taking him down to put the cuffs on. Now you realize you have a drug-crazed individual – maybe even larger than you – who wants to wrestle your weapon from you, and he is feeling no pain.

Life seldom resembles a TV show. If that person gets your weapon, he is not going to stop and admire how well you have maintained it. He is also not going to take the gun and run. Now you are the one in trouble and you should rightly fear for your life.

Ah, but somewhere during this event, your emotions may have hit overload, and just maybe you will take out your stick and wail on the perpetrator a bit… maybe more than a bit. He is high on drugs and can’t feel it, so he doesn’t stop struggling. You wail some more. Finally backup arrives and they get him subdued and in the patrol car.

The perpetrator lives, but sues the department. Your career is officially over. You won’t even find employment as an unarmed mall cop.

The perpetrator? Well, he’s a little sore, but he now has millions of taxpayer dollars to buy more drugs… and he still hates you.

Why bother? You show up for work at the PD every day because you know the animals behind bars would be roaming the streets accosting and terrorizing your community if you didn’t. If you are lucky, you will come home after your shift in one piece and live to protect and serve tomorrow. If not, your picture will hang in the station, and everyone will get to go around with a black band over his or her badge.

A Not So Happy Meal

How much are you willing to pay for a McDonalds Happy Meal? Today it costs about two-and-a-half bucks to fill your kids’ mouths with junk food just to get a toy. I don’t know how much the actual food costs but I’m willing to bet it is less than the packaging. It is also a safe bet that the employee costs are considerably more than either the meal or packaging.

The City of Los Angeles recently raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Although that figure won’t be reached for five years, it will mean at least a 66% increase in the cost of anything requiring human intervention. That would make that $2.50 Happy Meal you buy today cost over $4 by 2020.

President JFK would often say, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” So, does that mean everyone in Los Angeles can look forward to a 66% increase in pay by 2020? Dream on!

Even if everyone’s pay did increase correspondingly, as water seeks its own level so do prices – net gain: zero. But everyone’s income (notice I didn’t say pay) doesn’t necessarily increase with the minimum wage.

Employers now paying workers $15 or more per hour have little incentive to raise those wages – certainly not by 66%. Those on fixed incomes who are unable to supplement it may see a slight cost-of-living increase as inflation due to the minimum wage increase drives it up. It would be delusional to think it would even come close to 66% increase, though.

Will welfare payments increase too? That just means we all are going to pay more taxes.

Far be it from me to deny anyone a living wage. But why would anyone even want to make a career out of flipping burgers? Jobs like these should be for those entering the job market – kids in high-school or part-timers – not people planning to raise a family and retire on that job.

I am no economist, but it shouldn’t take one to see that boosting the minimum wage beyond all reason will only add to the suffering of the poor and drive those barely making ends meet now on fixed incomes into the ranks of the poor.

Fast-food workers and convenience store clerks may be elated at the new size of their paycheck. The giddiness will soon pass when they find they still can’t make ends meet by the next pay period because everything now costs more.

So, what is triggering this drive to increase the minimum wage? There may be some compassionate lawmakers that actually believe they are doing the poor and middle class a favor. If so, they need to rethink the plan and take a long hard look at the broader consequences of raising the minimum wage.

On the other hand, my analytical – and perhaps cynical – mind sees that with every raise in wages there is a subsequent rise in the taxes paid on that income. There is little more precious to politicians than taxes.

To those young minimum wage workers, I would give a bit of advice. If you haven’t planned for a career beyond what you are now doing, the boosted minimum wage is still not going to be able to support in anything but the minimum lifestyle. If you want more, prepare yourself for more. Get an education for a better paying career. Make yourself valuable, and an employer will pay you for that value.

With a 66% price increase, that Happy Meal won’t seem so happy anymore, and the check for a steak at a nice restaurant won’t leave much for a tip.