The most recent in a series of Greensboro Police Chiefs has been appointed. It is John Thompson– a white guy who is originally from California.
It is interesting that the city would choose someone who is not black, and is not female. But in order for our leaders to agree upon this appointment, Thompson had to check certain boxes. First of all, he is not a SOUTHERN white guy. Second, he has to say all the right things.
Greensboro is defined by its racial identity politics. White police chiefs tend to get sacked or worked out of the system. The city’s politically active black community hates the police, and jumps on any opportunity to undermine them.
One of our local progressive/socialist news publications has done a puff piece on our new California police chief. The article reveals why he was chosen. The crux of the matter is that he doesn’t intend to do traditional policing.
Using his experience from all three departments, Thompson said his focus will be on finding creative solutions to policing that don’t always involve punitive measures.
“I think I have an opportunity to be innovative and change some of the ways that we’ve done things in our police department,” Thompson said.
He mentioned his work creating the Homeless Assistance Resource Team a few years ago and talked about bolstering the co-response model as well. He even stated that he’d like to see non law enforcement responses to certain mental-health calls.
“We’re not trained mental-health professionals,” Thompson said. “But we were the only option.”
When it comes to the issue of homelessness, something that Thompson has worked on for years, he said he wants the department to move away from enforcement as much as possible. When asked about the new ordinances passed by city council this year, Thompson said that those kinds of decisions are out of his control.
“A lot of people blur the lines between police and legislative bodies,” he said. “Our job is enforcement, but what I want to make sure is when we do enforce, that we are not creating additional harm, but we’re providing help. Enforcement only if necessary; that’s been a shift in our organization.”
Thompson’s goal to move away from strictly enforcement to a more holistic approach to policing is in line with the ways that departments across the country are rethinking their roles in a post-George Floyd era. Thompson said he’s keenly aware of it, too…
Part of the solution lies in a $2 million grant that the department recently received that will go towards bolstering historically disenfranchised neighborhoods by pumping in resources like job training and education. Thompson also said that improving areas of the city where violent crime occurs can help deter it. That involves fixing streetlights and improving parks, but also taking into account tree canopies in certain neighborhoods.
“These are all factors that are not just police or enforcement driven,” Thompson said. “It’s about what resources can we provide?”
Thompson might say all the right things. But as soon as incidents occur that are characterized as racial, the usual forces will be out for his scalp. He cannot change the fact that he is white, after all.
First of all I wish Chief Thompson good luck in making Greensboro a safer city. He will need the support of the rank and file to succeed.
The debate over traditional policing and community based policing has been going on since the sixties. In the early 1990s New York City implemented the broken windows approach to law enforcement. Today that has been turned around by non-prosecution for certain crimes and it is not going so well. Starting next year Illinois will have a no cash bail policy. That is inviting disaster.
It is a given that crime thrives in communities where disorderly behavior is ignored. The primary police mission prescribed by the traditional policing is investigating and arresting criminals. Chief Thompson will have to respond to what is happening on the streets and if he doesn’t… well the result will be an unhappy and frustrated community as well as his demoralized officers.
I think he probably already has demoralized officers, Fred. I don’t think that the people who selected Thompson care even one iota about that. They have bigger fish to fry.
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Just couldn’t help but share this:
The troubling hyper-politicization of Washington, DC policing
By David J. Terestre January 01, 2023
” For 21 years of my life, I had the honor and distinction of working for the Washington, D.C. Police Department. I’m especially proud of the work and results the department achieved in the city’s Logan Circle area. That was my beat. I got to know the locals, fell in love with the neighborhood, and loathed the opportunistic criminal element that inhabited it. But I couldn’t help but notice over the years that there was an underlying current, one of expanding cultural change.
On any given day, it was a challenge to gain a pulse of the population of this place. Due to misleading media impact and heightened rhetorical language, it is a demanding task to identify any sincere public views or if they actually existed. The best example would be the police department’s involvement in maintaining order in our city. The police, who serve as the main arbiters of justice, seemed to have undergone a subtle transformation over time. The slow evolution of cultural indoctrination produced a vile political football that put police on the defensive for every action, with activists, academics, and of course, politicians spearheading the offensive push.
As a natural extension, council members hijacked the topic of police reform in order to energize their constituents and appeal to a specific voter demographic. For instance, many popular lawmakers believed that in order to address the root causes of crime , more funding for social services should be provided. These funds would be subtracted from police budget appropriations, mostly from hiring and training expenditures, which ironically improve service delivery and overall public safety. Then as today, the people in the district who wear blue uniforms have become detested as modern-day pariahs by many in the District. For front-line, emergency first responders to be marginalized and disrespected in this manner is, in no uncertain terms, unconscionable.
There have long been arguments and disagreements about how to handle problems facing DC Police while striking a balance between the needs of the public’s safety and the rights and concerns of communities. Up until quite recently, these were broadly compatible with conventional American traits. For a very long time, the public has been guided by the ideal of law and order, which controls individual behavior for the benefit of society as a whole. However, in today’s woke culture, there seems to be a total U-turn — the deregulation of individual behavior to the overall detriment of society.
Add the non-prosecution of many misdemeanor offenses and the dangerous practice of remanding homicide arrestees to “house arrest” while awaiting trial, and just about everything in between. We now have ratcheted up the ingredients needed for a recipe of inner-city lawlessness and chaos. This obsession with quick fixes, symbolic actions, and feel-good measures has little to no real influence on social order, with the possible exception of promoting it as an urban war zone.
Developing policing policy from an emotional rather than intellectual perspective is obviously problematic because top elected officials frequently place these factors above the real needs and interests of the communities they serve. Both politicians and law enforcement officers become less accountable as a result. Accountability, actually making people answerable for their actions, may be the operable word in this situation.
Career criminals frequently receive compassionate treatment because they are considered victims of social injustice, while the actual victims are depersonalized and reduced to mere cogs in the establishment machine. Instead of embracing identity politics and an ideology that endlessly criticizes every activity of local law enforcement, it is crucial that lawmakers start a constructive discourse and look to collaborate on cooperative solutions to the complicated problems associated with policing.
Considering the immense ocean of polarization that exists today, it will not be a simple endeavor for us to discover that initial speck of common ground to build on. However, this is the only way we can ensure that decisions are truly made in the public interest rather than being influenced by petty self-interests that ultimately benefit no one, except for those that invoke them. “
Great article, Fred. The author is precisely right. People would be justified to flee the cities where this toxic brew ferments most readily.