Peacemaker: Who is honorable and who is not?

They are human, like anyone else, and want to go home at the end of their shifts alive. They make mistakes due to their human nature. The only difference between them and us is the quick decisions they make regarding losing their lives and those under their protection.

Today, they also face the threat of being assassinated during the performance of their duties. That is tremendous additional stress, causing the potential for mistakes, not of the heart but of the mind.

In addition, they realize today that they may not only be in the gun sight of a murderer but under a microscope of pandering and unfit prosecutors or cowardly police chiefs with no loyalties to their officers. Many police chiefs are appointed with no qualifications to satisfy political correctness and ethnic diversity.

Are our police officers entitled to be the “Honorable?” Yes!

There was a time that the prosecutor’s office and the police were a team, but no more. Then, complete investigations of their actions were considered, including if mistakes were intentional or accidental due to job stresses, before any publicity was provided. Today, police officers are immediately guilty, kicked under the bus, and publicly proclaimed before any “real” investigation is completed.

While police officers are making life and death decisions, without the necessary time to think, these radical, “woke” prosecutors must only decide what cocktail to order at the golf course or country clubhouse. They indeed share no concerns or responsibility regarding their communities’ safety from the criminals they readily release.

My question is this. Who is really honorable, and who is not?

Indeed not many prosecutors today. While police officers arrest violent criminals, many far-left “woke” radical prosecutors fail to prosecute them, letting them back out on the streets, thus causing our communities to be violently unsafe.

Are these prosecutors entitled to be called the “Honorable” while they fail the protection and safety of their communities? The answer is no!

Many prosecutors are disgracing their offices and are publicly denounced, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, to name a few. One such example is in Manhattan, New York.

One of the most unfit and notorious is woke Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He disgraces the criminal justice system as he serves and protects criminals before law-abiding citizens and victims. Sixty-five assistant district attorneys, or approximately 12 percent of his staff, have resigned thus far this year. In 2021, ninety-seven assistant district attorneys left. A former top prosecutor called this woke criminal justice reform insanity.

The exoduses of assistant district attorneys from Bragg’s office started two weeks into his tenure. First, he issued a “Day One” memorandum instructing his assistants to downgrade certain felonies to misdemeanors and to decline to seek prison sentences for many criminals. That same day, nine assistant district attorneys resigned and headed to the door.

Reforms adopted by the state in 2019 mandate that district attorneys hand over to the defense “realms of material” under strict time constraints. A former Manhattan assistant district attorney and trial division chief said: “You become a file clerk rather than a trial lawyer.”

Another example of the evidentiary burden involving a crime at a protest, prosecutors can be forced to produce the bodycam footage of every police officer at the protest. One former assistant district attorney said: “It’s insanity.” “Most of it is completely irrelevant and not germane in any way to the issues of the case. And if you take too long to produce it, you might see your entire case tossed from the system. There are tons of cases getting dismissed.” The lawyer stated.

Who is suffering the most? The law-abiding citizens and victims of crimes.

Who is honorable and who is not?

Columnist and longtime law officer Keith Throckmorton, Fairfax County Police (Ret.), may be reached at kandpthrock@gmail.com