PO Potatoes- The thoughts and musings of a crime fighting Potato

"A person who is not inwardly prepared for the use of violence against him is always weaker than the person committing the violence."  - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,  The Gulag Archipelago  chp 1, 'Arrest' If you've been paying attention to the news, the new buzz word around policing and the law enforcement profession is "police violence".  Even the United Nations is  getting in on the discussion  surrounding use of force in the US, with a heavy focus on the death of Keenan Anderson in Los Angeles, and murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. Notice the terms I used. Keenan Anderson was involved in a traffic crash, fled on foot, attempted to enter another vehicle, and was initially compliant with responding officers.  After a short while he suddenly gets up and runs off, and around this same time officers made the determination that he was at fault for the accident.  I watched the BWC footage and I could easily articulate the aspects of gross intoxication (body mov

When I was in the Chicago Police academy I had a chance to sit down with one of the training sergeants.  His imposing figure was impressive and he carried himself extremely well, not to mention the stories around him as a blue shirt just added to his aura.  I remember asking him what books he has read that has helped him as a cop, and he was so impressed by the question he told me to stop by after class and we would talk. That led to multiple meetings, book suggestions which I bought, and loaned me several of his own personal books to read. It was the conversations that really hit things home for me and brought me a lot of perspective.  While I was a product of Chicago public schools and City Colleges and had a diverse group of friends, I had never been a cop.  I had enough mentors in my life prior to police work that I knew the best way to learn about a field was to find the person that is intimidating and ask them how they think.  I knew if I could go into the field with the right me

  When my star was pinned on my chest during the ceremony at the academy I had a great sense of pride and relief.  Relief that the academy was over and I had made it, and pride because I had joined what I felt to be the greatest department this profession has to offer.  Every kid at some point wants to be a cop…along with a firefighter, astronaut, soldier, racecar driver, and so on.  I just wanted to be a cop more than most; my closest friend, also a cop, was the one who pinned my star on my chest and a huge reason I even joined the profession.  The idea to become a cop was solidified at the funeral for 1st Deputy John Thomas as then Superintendent Terry Hillard talked about his friend.  I could see the respect and admiration in how he spoke of his friend and colleague and I wanted to desperately be a part of that fraternal feeling. I knew the job would be hard, not just physically but mentally.  I filled my head with as much knowledge on the human reaction to stress, violence, opposit

Sun Tzu said it is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. Robert Peel, in his 7th of 9 Principles of Law Enforcement, wrote that "the police are the public and the public are the police".  Referring to that notion as having been a historic tradition of policing itself. The knights of England, and many other countries, were trained in war and worked in other pursuits during peace time. So what is, or what has become, modern day policing? Is it viral videos of entire departments dancing or doing the newest online trend?  Is it that sneaky video a citizen took as an officer does some sort of mundane task for another like tying a tie or helping change a tire?  Is it officers running their department's twitter or social media feeds to inform the citizenry of traffic incidents, crime, or other things?   Or is it more of what someone may deem as nefarious? Is it that officer not properly using the authority given to them by the peop