LBPOA Nike Boycott

Judging from how the profit share of Nike jumped in the aftermath of the Kaepernick commercials, it appears that solid support exists in the general population for his stance. It’ll be interesting to see how the Long Beach POA leadership and their membership will react when the Long Beach communities who support the movement rejects the next pay raise for the police department due to this despicable action. But then again, isn’t this how police unions behave?

So we are seeing yet another situation in which we are pushing ourselves further away from each other, this time by two different police officers associations. And it comes down to: “Are you in favor of the police?” Or “Are you in favor of liberty and the victims of some incidents involving the police?” I hope I speak for the vast majority of people in our country when I say I am in favor of both.

Dame Crawford

Wow what a surprise! But then again after seeing the photo I understand now why in 1994 the LBPOA president asked me why there was a need for a black police employee organization, and the LBPOA president in 2014 told me the POA could do more for black officers and he was very apologetic and ashamed for not being more receptive and active regarding their complaints and concerns. This article and stance clarifies their position and why African American officers have higher discipline rates then non-African American officers as well as equal representation in those I.A cases.

Mark McGuire

Of course we need an educated, trained, competent and brave police force to protect and serve us. These officers can quickly face an unknown and potentially dangerous situation in which either they or we can be severely injured or even killed. And in that regard we also must understand that sometimes even serious mistakes will be made. But we also must understand that if the police have a badge and a gun, and that we as members of the community are held to obey their orders, they simply must be well trained and must keep our laws and our best interests strongly in mind.

In other words, all of us have a right to believe that all police officers will always try to do the right thing for the right reason – every time. And they should/must be held accountable on those (few) occasions in which they lose control and fall below that standard of care.

So let’s please try to stop so much of this “me the good guy vs. you the bad guy” stuff. We should all be on the same side of both of these issues. So I chastise both associations for not saying so. And, while we’re at it, maybe a manufacturer that intentionally creates more dissension in our communities for the purpose of selling more product should also be chastised for the same reason.

Judge James P. Gray (Ret.)