I’m confused.
We live in a country where cops can decide which laws they will enforce and which laws they won’t?
That’s still rule of law, that’s still a republic where the people are sovereign?
Because, when I took the social studies Regents, it wasn’t. On paper, that’s not the way America is supposed to work.
And the paper in question is the Constitution of the United States.
I’m talking about the blanket statement by Monroe County law-enforcement agencies that they will not enforce the recently passed county law against harassing first responders. There was the sheriff and the guy from Rochester and the guy from Gates and the guy from Ogden and they all were waving it off.
So sorry, no can do.
Which is not the way it works.
The issue isn’t whether the law is a good idea or a bad idea, the issue is it’s the law. And laws, in a free country, are written by the people’s elected legislative representatives. They are then enforced by agents of the executive branch of government – specifically, the cops.
The cops aren’t the bosses, they are the servants.
I don’t care how many stars they have on their collars.
That’s not the rule in Monroe County, that’s the rule in America. That’s the pledge of everyone who’s ever sworn to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution.
And we need to get back on track with that.
It is not within the principled prerogative of a police officer, police executive or police agency to simply refuse, in a blanket sense, the lawful act of a legislative body. That’s not called using your better judgment, that’s called becoming a law unto yourself. And though we love the cops, we didn’t put them in charge of our government or law.
So those cops were wrong. There are no two ways about it. And it is not acceptable for the community or the press to sit still and take it, to let it pass unchallenged. In the words of a wise mayor, people should stay in their lane.
Or else I’m not going to listen to anymore sheriffs tell me they have to enforce the Safe Act now that Monroe County cops have discovered this new police power of legislative nullification.
So what do we do? How should Monroe County deal with a law that no one wants and which seems to have been pulled foolishly from someone’s backside in an act of political desperation?
That’s not hard: You walk back out the door you walked in.
The Monroe County Legislature made this mess, and it can clean it up.
And it should. As soon as possible.
No human undertaking is error free. The Republicans in the legislature, starting the new year with a razor-thin and potentially uncertain majority, have stepped in the poo a little bit lately. First it was trying to strip the incoming county executive of much of his authority, now it is throwing a hand grenade into the powder keg of “police-community relations.”
But that will happen. Goof ups are part of life.
What do you do when they occur?
You back out of them.
Just as the Republicans in the legislature quickly hot stepped it out of the county executive mess, they can likewise do an about face on first responder harassment. What passes, can be unpassed. And a new law can be repealed as easily as it can be enacted.
And the clear choice for the legislature should be to, in a bipartisan and unanimous fashion, repeal this law. No need for recriminations or rock throwing, no good guys or bad guys, just a realization that the county and the constituents don’t want or support this. Support the cops and firefighters and ambulance crews, but not this way.
Make a motion, second it, call the vote, go get a beer. Put this mess behind us.
And in so doing, allow integrity to return to important functions of Monroe County government.
By repealing the law, local police agencies are relieved of the inappropriate temptation to place their judgment above that of those whose power it is to write law. And by repealing the law, the legislature allows itself to move out from under the cloud of impotence created when its legislative will is publicly and glibly ignored.
There is also the piece about satisfying the public will. From the cop haters waving their signs, to the grandstanding Democrats and the stumbling Republicans, from the squad cars to the union offices, from Union Street to Joseph Avenue, nobody wants this.
It didn’t work.
Make it go away.
Don’t let this year end with this sore left to fester.