Helping Our Youth Understand Law Enforcement. An Argument For Community Policing.

By: Michael D. Boll

After retirement, I really had no interest in continuing a career in law enforcement.  For the first time in my life, I took some time off and began focusing the majority of my time on building up the New Jersey Veterans Network and its racing team, The Operation Rebound Racing Team.  Unfortunately, I needed to pay off bills and began to look for a new career.  I sent out my resume and started going on some really boring job interviews. At first, there really weren’t too many opportunities that I wanted to pursue as a second career.  Since I always wanted to work in a school and loved coaching sports, I decided to accept a job as a school resource officer at Mendham High School.

Almost immediately I was able to work with both the Mendham Borough Police Department and the school administration with implementing a school-based community policing program.  Our community policing programs, along with a series of town-wide events, immediately became successful because of the collaboration between the police department and the school administration.

Since starting this partnership, the NJVN has been able to work with administration, staff, and students in various classes and events.  We started by teaching classes on New Jersey Criminal Law, including the topics “How to act properly during a motor vehicle stop,” DWI/DUI, and “What it’s like to be a police officer/veteran.”  Things didn’t stop there.  We hosted a “Feed the Hero” veterans’ ceremony and dinner, participated in the Relay for Life, established a “Veterans’ Day of Beauty” for disabled female veterans, and recently hosted a “9-11 Ceremony and Ruck March.”  The ruck march was a huge success, involving over 500 student participants.  At this event, we honored and paid tribute to our fallen first responders and those civilians we lost on that tragic day.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 and all the recent social change protests have really made things difficult for our community policing programs, but we are determined to develop safe and appropriate programs despite the challenges put before us.  During the summer we met with stakeholders and began troubleshooting ideas.  Looking ahead, we decided to work alongside students to pool resources and gain better perspectives from all sides of these issues.

Even during these harsh and difficult times, it’s amazing seeing our youth come together and want to make real positive changes.  Mendham High School has always supported our efforts and has shown nothing but great respect for our first responders and military.  This year we are planning on having “real talk” discussions with speakers from all different walks of life. These speaking events are extremely important in helping to educate young people about issues of diversity and inclusion and crucial for building a strong bridge between law enforcement and the student body.

Even though the student body of Mendham High School is not very diverse, they make huge efforts to learn things from different cultures and religions.  Exposing students to different beliefs and the implementation of programs that reflect a diverse curriculum will have a huge impact on their future.  In today’s climate, these efforts are necessary for people to develop a greater sense of empathy and build a better understanding of one another.

I am fortunate to be able to play a role in the school’s community policing program and I am glad to see the positive results that have come from this partnership.  As a police officer, I see both the negative and positive changes that are upon us as a community and as a nation.  Some things we have no control over, but one thing that I do know is, helping our youth understand law enforcement in a positive light will certainly carry over and affect positive outcomes for their future.  Community policing is one of the most powerful tools for law enforcement, and using it to teach our youth will be extremely effective in building a bridge between law enforcement and our younger generation.

Help us save Vets!

Michael D. Boll
NJVN President

BLUE MAGAZINE NATIONAL PASTOR CHRIS AMOS SPEAKS OUT. WHEN RIGHT IS WRONG AND WRONG IS RIGHT.

By: Chris Amos

As we approach a national election and the end the most tumultuous year I have ever witnessed, I’d like to provide, as a retired police officer and current pastor/police chaplain, a perspective that you may not have heard before. I pray that having done so you might find a little encouragement and hope. But first I want to remind you that what you are doing each and every day matters more than you could possibly know. You are appreciated and supported by what I believe to be the vast majority of people. And most importantly, you are not alone in this fight, but I digress.

You are seeing a spiritual blindness and the chaotic, destructive, and absolutely idiotic fruit of that blindness on an epic level. I lack words to properly describe the organized opposition to and war against law enforcement, and by extension our civil society in general. This opposition has come not simply from the criminals on the street who have always opposed law and order, but now they are joined by our political and civic leaders and academia elites, among many others. Behaviors that were widely criticized and discouraged a year ago are now being encouraged by many of our “leaders.” In fact, funds are being raised to bond out those responsible for riots, looting, arson, vandalism and assaults against LEOs. Famous athletes, actors, politicians, professors and even pastors are championing the causes of not only peaceful protesters, but with equal zeal, the criminals of whom I spoke. While at the same time these people are attacking law enforcement officers on every front. The irony is these are the same people who are the loudest to decry the unfairness of lumping them together with the few “bad apples” in their respective professions. Yet they have no hesitation or regret while doing this very thing to law enforcement officers. Hypocrites on the grandest of scales! The Bible tells us in Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

King David faced opposition much of his life. As he looked back over the span of his life, he penned the words to the 37th Psalm. David wrote this as an old man, reflecting on what he had seen and experienced. Speaking of those who had unjustly attacked him, David wrote in verses 12-13, “The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth.” We’ve seen a lot of plotting and the gnashing of teeth lately against LEOs. Just think of those deputies ambushed in CA. and the idiots who stood outside the emergency room chanting for their deaths. But then David continues in verse 13, “The Lord LAUGHS at him, For He sees that his day is coming.”  Friends, let that sink in for a second, “The Lord LAUGHS at him, For He sees that his day is coming.”

It may seem that chaos rules the day. Police officers are being unjustly charged, criminals hailed as heroes, departments defunded, even in some cases eliminated (we’ll see how well that works for them), and on I can go. And yet as this happens “The LORD laughs.” Not at the innocent men and women, young and old being impacted by the chaos but at those perpetuating the chaos, those stoking the fires, those fanning the flames, those seeking to “blow up the whole system.” God laughs because He knows their days are numbered.

David continues in his Psalm in verses 14-15, “The wicked have drawn the sword, and have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart, And their bows shall be broken.” Their wicked words inevitably turned to wicked actions, you see that every day. And yet David tells us God turned the very weapons the wicked had used to attack David on themselves. David stood across a field of battle from the giant Goliath. David would in short order kill Goliath and cut off Goliath’s head WITH Goliath’s sword [1 Samuel 17:51]. Later, David was attacked by King Saul, David’s only crime was that of loyally supporting the King. King Saul’s life ended as he fell on HIS OWN sword in battle [1 Samuel 31:4]. Haman made a gallows on which he would kill his hated enemy, the Jew Mordecai. Haman ended up being killed on the gallows HE HAD BUILT [Esther 7:10]. Mordecai was promoted to Haman’s now-vacant position.

Friends, things are not well. In fact I suspect they will grow even worse. But we can rest assured God is still on the Throne, He is in control. And when the moment is right He will act. Those who stand against Him will face destruction and death on a scale unlike anything mankind has ever seen. Our challenge, our call, our duty today is to put our very lives and trust in His only begotten Son Jesus Christ and then carry out our lives in a way that is just, righteous, and noble. Difficult days lie ahead, but as one cancer survivor once said, “It’s just today, not forever.” Friends, in Jesus we can and will overcome the evil one of this world. Of this we can be sure. I’ve staked my very life on it, and Jesus as never failed me, nor will He you.  See you at the finish line!

Five Keys to Beating the Quarantine-15! Kick The Extra 15 Pounds Now.

By Sgt. Kal “The Fitness Coach” Chipepo

“Netflix and Chill!”

The popular solution was all too common in March as a means of dealing with the shutdown due to COVID-19.

Fast forward seven months later and we’re seeing the results of all that chilling out in the form of weight gain. The average person has managed to put on about 15lbs, which has led to the tagging of the term, “Quarantine-15.”

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life as we know it, the extra pounds do not have to be here to stay. Weight loss has always been an elusive goal. A goal some people are tired of attempting. Some don’t know what it entails; some have no motivation, while others have simply thrown in the towel. Below, I share a framework of five steps you must follow in order to realize success at beating the Quarantine-15! The pandemic is projected to be with us well into next year, so now is a great time to get started.

1)     Decide to Change – Stop Procrastinating. Making a decision to change is one of the hardest things you can do because it entails disrupting routines, and we all know how we hate for our comfort zones to be disturbed. But, at some point you have get so fed up with your current situation that it triggers the want into a need. Once this threshold is met you are primed and ready to act.

2)     Get Active – Lace up your sneakers and go for a 20-minute walk, a hike or a quick bike ride. The goal is to demolish the dreaded first day of exercise. A lot of fitness businesses and professionals have pivoted their business models to offer online training and classes in the wake of the pandemic. So do the same, rethink your living space into your workout area. Plan your week with calorie-burning activities that you actually like. If the Barre Fitness Workout doesn’t do it for you, then find something that does. Whether it’s hitting the gym, doing yard work, or cleaning the house, calories are being burned in the process so give yourself credit. Aim to do at least 40-60 minutes total of exercise daily. 

3)     Adjust Your Eating – You will never be able to win at losing weight without modifying the food you eat. In order to prevent feeling overwhelmed by trying to make too many changes, focus on changing one thing at a time. If it’s reducing fast food this week, then that’s good. If you want focus on eliminating sweets next week, then write it on the calendar. Small changes lead to lasting changes. One of the best ways to start is by preparing your meals in advance. This added structure to your routine will eliminate unintentional eating, and allow you to monitor how many calories you’re consuming on a daily basis.

4)     Invest in Support – You don’t have to go it alone – and you shouldn’t. Make an appointment to sit down with a nutritionist, hire a Certified Personal Trainer and/or join group fitness classes. Not to mention, how about that yearly physical, prostate check, and stress level? According to the CDC, a whopping 94% of people who died from COVID-19 had underlying conditions. So the more you can build out your “Wellness Team” the more the journey toward reaching your fitness goals will become more manageable. As first responders we have great benefits - put them to work!

5)     Be Patient – This cannot be stressed enough. In a world where everything seems to get faster, more powerful, and efficient, etc. Effective weight loss takes time. If it took you seven months to add the Quarantine-15, then give yourself seven months to work on removing it. When done correctly a person should see 1-2 lbs come off per week.

At the end of the day, it is a fight for territory and the extra pounds are not going to go willingly. Each week, ask yourself, “What small change am I willing to make?” With each positive choice there will be a positive outcome. 

It is within this framework that the Quarantine-15 demise will be realized. Scheduling time to break a sweat, setting time aside to prepare your meals, seeking guidance along the way, and patience all amounts to an effective strategy to be successful. Keep in mind that there are a lot of fad diets out there. Although some can get you great short-term results, long-term results involve healthy habits practiced on a daily basis.

If you should have any questions feel free to contact me at coachkal@motivate1fitness.com

By Sgt. Kal “The Fitness Coach” Chipepo, MBA, ACE-CPT, ACSM-CPT, CI-LFP
Montclair State University Police Department

Road Sign: Judgers Ahead: How to Stay A Step Ahead Mentally.

By Anthony Mikatarian

Mark Twain once said: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Lao Tzu once said: “He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”

These are some of the positive quotes that resonate the fact that who you surround yourself with will both influence who you are and will reflect to others who you are as an individual. It's a constant life struggle finding pure and beneficial relationships that will be your foundation for a fruitful life and a sound wellbeing.  Conversely, surrounding yourself consciously or subconsciously with people who are disruptive and harmful can and probably will destroy your mind, spirit and even your physical health. This may also create a negative ripple effect extending into other areas of your personal and professional lives. Navigating this interpersonal road both professionally and personally is not easy and you will at times get burned. However, as you mature and experience life, you get better at it.

With this said, I want to focus in on those relationships and environments you find yourself engaged in that make you feel constantly uneasy and chronically judged, which is either said to your face or the very common behind your back.

Generally, these feelings are connected to the unfortunate societal backdrop of being excessively exposed to deceitful and purposely harmful judgers, which will happen in our lives. A chronic exposure to these masters of facades, who will come to you both personally and professionally, can be quite detrimental to your mind, soul and physical health in the long run. Unfortunately, you will experience these unsavory judgers throughout your life. Their mission is to have you feeling unclear and unsure about yourself. They want your head spinning with doubt, fear of failure, insecurity, non-worthiness and other negative tones. They want to crack your proud foundation. They present themselves with a lot of gray in order to muddy your perception on how you can correctly act in order to feel admired, appreciated and accepted by them. This constant judging behavior I’ve found can be fueled by their own insecurities, hatred, jealousy, dirty tactics against peers, ignorance, narcissism, sick gratification and/or other misguided motivators.

These frauds set up illusions for you to believe that you are on the right path, while all along purposely sabotaging you along the way by feeding you lies about goals for yourself, which they know are really meant to be unachievable or when you are close to achieving that goal, they alter that goal for you to start all over again to keep you in perpetual limbo. They might even calculate sending you mixed signals to keep you frustrated and guessing. They also may perhaps utilize the beloved dangling carrot tactic of promised reward to string you along.

It is quite easy to first buy into these masters of selling unrealistic promises, goals and rewards, but it is important to recognize them, so you can defend against putting yourself in a vulnerable and exploited state.

There are many lurking judgers out there looking for the vulnerable targets to sell them the counterfeit promises of reward to harm them, control them and to use them for their solely selfish benefit. There are some narcissists and egomaniacs, who do this because they love the feeling of power and delusional self importance. Then there are those attention seekers who constantly judge the good and bad in you in a weird attempt to win over your attention. Don't forget about the insecure and threatened ones, who utilize this in order to break you down.

It is my belief that chronic judging behavior is generally motivated from extreme self-centeredness. Everyone is at some degree self-centered, which is natural. You as a reasonable person must conclusively gauge within your own consciousness the acceptable level of self-centeredness. This is a common sense approach based on our life experiences. When you decipher who the chronic unreasonable judger is, you don't ask "What am I doing wrong?" you really ask "What is wrong with the judger?" When that is answered, then gravitate toward those who share the same level of treatment and concern for others as you do. If you are forced to be around the judgers who negatively infringe on your wellbeing, develop a selective ear and limit your exposure to them as best you can. This can be tricky in a work environment filled with peers, subordinates, supervisors and administrative authorities, who can be notorious chronic judgers. You can't regulate all the judging noise, but you can control the amount of reasonable noise you let in that you feel will benefit your time, improve you and nurture your well being. Especially, in our profession practically all become judgers of each other. Just remember who it is coming from, why it's coming, what their true intentions are and if it has any valued substance to it.

Always stay a step ahead mentally.

Stay strong and God Bless...

Exclusive interview with America's Mayor: Rudy Giuliani - An uncensored and hard hitting commentary of the times

Regardless of your politics, you must admit Mayor Rudy Giuliani was accountable for his actions. He turned New York City into the safest large city in the world. His leadership in the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11 was unmatched because he understood the leadership rule of accountability.

Meanwhile, in our current American cities, crime is skyrocketing, including New York City, where De Blasio's leadership has been a cataclysmic failure to the point Manhattan is becoming unrecognizable. Mayor Giuliani restored safety and security to New York City, Mayor Bloomberg continued it, and Mayor De Blasio destroyed it. But New York City is not an anomaly.

De Blasio and other failed leaders like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, to name a few, are seemingly not accountable for anything and are quick to place blame on others. These failed so-called leaders turn a blind eye on all the violence, including the increased assaults on cops, while claiming to act in pursuit of justice. Imagine if these leaders were like Mayor Giuliani and were accountable for their successes and failures under their watch.

Accountability will save America.

The Blue Magazine: So let's talk a little bit about our current climate for law enforcement. Police stations are being overrun by violent criminals with the police actually retreating. In many cities, we see a lot of de-policing because the politicians don't have the police officers’ backs and they know that they're one second away from being fired or even thrown in jail. So, in the long view, what does this sort of tolerance of crime mean for law enforcement's ability to police in the future for our communities?

Giuliani: What’s going on now is disastrous for law enforcement. It’s the worst I've ever seen. Nothing compares to what's happening right now and I don't think that many of the people who either aren’t upset about it or support it realize the damage they're doing — not just to police and law enforcement but also to society. This is sending a message of lawlessness. And since we are now in the internet, television internet age, I’ll give you an example, when the little boy who is the mayor of Minneapolis, I forget his name, he looks like he's about 12 years old and acts like he's about six, and when he let the rioters take over the precinct and ordered the police officers to run out, I think that blew the whole thing. I think the people that are inclined to take a protest and turn it into a riot (and are professionals at it trained to do that by Marxists), when they saw that they said, OK, this is the opportunity we've been waiting for, we've been training for this for three or four years, we tried to turn a couple of these others into massive riots, if every other police organization acts like Minneapolis, then we can just run right over them, boom.

Within days, they were in every city, within days they were doing coordinated riots… They came right up Madison Avenue, ripped out maybe, one or two stores a block and then a little further downtown, they took as much as two million dollars in Rolexes. So, this is not your rioter of the ‘60s, the ‘70s. The basic rioter now is a middle-class, upper middle-class, black or white. In some cases, more whites than blacks. In New York, everyone that I've seen firsthand were either equal white and black or if anything, more white than black. These are people that are making a political point. They hate America. They want to destroy America. They want to replace it with a socialist oligarchy dictatorship.

Black Lives Matter is not some kind of civil rights group and it's being treated that way. They are, to the American big businessman, they look like a civil rights group and the typical Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton shakedown operation, give me two million and you'll be safe. Look at all the money they got from all the big companies. Look at the commissioner of football bending his knee. The only thing I could say to my good friends in the law enforcement who I love… always follow who… they're not just after you, they're after us. They're after us, meaning they’re after our families. They don't want us to have nuclear families. They think it's much better if the wife is out working and the kid is in home care. What right is it theirs to decide that? That’s what socialist government does. They believe they have to get reparations. Every black is going to get money for the rest of his life, for no reason, other than being black, doesn't even have to have a slave background just gets money, and everybody that's not black has to pay, even though you had nothing to do with slavery. So, they’re going to get supported for the rest of their lives. Nobody else is. Now you've already kind of bastardized socialism into what always happens. Some people are more socialist than others, meaning socialism raises more rich people than capitalism except they never quite raise middle class people because they suck the blood out of the poor. Then, they want to do away with our private schools. No more Catholic schools. No more Jewish schools. No more… no more private schools for the poor or the rich. They want to have government ownership of property so they can pass it around to whoever they want to have it. They want to do away with police, so everybody thinks they just heard disbanding the police. It was new, spontaneous. They’ve been writing about this for five years, how they're going to disband the police. They even have alternatives. They’re going to appoint their own people, like the kinds who run around the autonomous zone with AK-47s and appoint goons. It’ll be like the mafia, control some place, and that’s just a little bit of it. We’re in for a big fight.

So, what do you do if you’re mayor now with these unruly mobs and all this violence? de Blasio's not doing anything.

I feel bad that I wasn’t mayor because I thought if in New York and I didn't give up the precinct and I drove them back decisively, it might have given courage to other mayors, not the worst Democrats but a lot of other mayors and police commissioners would have realized, hey, if we’re supported in New York, you know, we could always be supported elsewhere, and we'd be giving the president some backing and somebody he can point to say, hey you know, a mayor can do it.

I reduced crime in New York between 60 and 65 percent and homicides 60% and I did it when nobody thought I could. I took New York City from the most dangerous large city in America to the safest large city in four years, and we got results right away, even though we didn’t get crime down right away. We got results to build morale and I think we sparked other cities doing it. We challenged them to do it and we got a nice period of time of less crime.

Seems to me that these Democrats and Socialists because they want some votes so badly, I mean they want to sell us out, any number of crimes is OK, and then they don't care. Black Lives Matter is the phoniest organization. You can imagine right, right in its title. Look at all these black children that have been killed this weekend, a three-year-old, a nine-year-old, they don’t say anything about it. They don't care about about Brandon Hendricks life. Brandon Hendricks was a star basketball player. He got killed in the Bronx in crossfire. He was going on to St. John’s to play basketball.

Black Lives Matter doesn't give a damn about him. They don't care because… there are seven, eight thousand deaths like that every year of black people killing other black people and they won’t do a darn thing about it. They have 7,500 shootings of blacks by other blacks that lead to death and all they concentrate on are the police officers. Suppose you solve that problem, but you don’t solve the other one.

I think the easiest way to describe Black Lives Matter and I say this to all my friends anywhere, don’t get fooled. This is an organization that uses violence, that doesn't mind killing, that doesn't care about black people, just the black people they can exploit otherwise, they would do something about blacks being shot by other blacks, and that is not racist. I feel very bad about that. Beyond these feelings of feeling bad about it, when I was mayor, I did something about it and I saved more black lives than any mayor in history. So, I have a right to say that.

What do you think about the progress that Black Lives Matter has made because of the chaos? For them it’s a big accomplishment.

It’s exactly the same way Communists made progress in Russia, the chaos in Russia right at the turn of the century. Exactly the way the Nazis made progress, they bankrupted the economy, ruined the economy, tore down statues, by the way. One of the leaders of Black Lives Matter is a woman named Patrice Cullors. Patrice Cullors is quoted as, don't know if she wants this out now but about five years ago, very proudly saying that she is a very, very well trained, that she’s been taught Marxist tactics, Marxist philosophy, and they’re going to follow it. They’re following it. The theory of Marxism in taking over a society and destroying it by developing hatred for that country and getting the people of the country to hate the country.

How effective do you think this strategy of lawlessness, violence, and uproar, will be in terms of the president winning or losing the election?

Well, I think, people say, what can we do about it. Got a mayor like de Blasio, he’s in office, virtually, he invites crime. Look, he creates crime. I‘ve never heard of a mayor creating crime, he does it. He let 8,000 people out of jail. Drug dealers are violent criminals. They carry guns and they shoot. That’s part of the business. He released rapists. He released a guy and four days later, another rape. So, he has created some of the crime, plus the bail laws create crime. Then, he did away with our best undercover unit. That was the single, biggest contributor to reducing gun violence. Since the day they've left, gun violence has gone up 38 percent. We've had two days since they left and we had a shooting every 24 hours and each weekend we get closer to Chicago. It's like he wants to overtake Chicago in shootings. This weekend, we had 68, they had 80. We used to have like eight on a weekend. Broke 68 shootings on a weekend. And Chicago has come down from 100 to 80. I expect in the next two weeks, we’re going to match Chicago and de Blasio will probably have a party. It almost seems like he's doing it deliberately.

Why do you think people don't see what you see?

Because they are brainwashed by the left-wing media. The New York Times began a curriculum two years ago, rewriting our history. It’s written all from the point of view of how bad we are because we were slaveholders… I mean Columbus, just look. You want to get a key into that, look at the statues they took down and the symbolism of them, not just the vandalism; the symbolism is worse. They took down the discoverer of this country, at least the acknowledged discoverer of this country, Columbus, bad man, very bad man. They took down the man who won the war for independence, of our first president and had to self-sacrifice not to take a third term to become a dictator or a king. ..., but he was a bad guy… bad guy, ripped down the statue. Jefferson is the author of our freedom. He wrote the most brilliant document on human rights ever written that has probably helped to free people all over the world, bad man, tear his statue down. Now Jackson, tear his statue down. Jefferson got us Louisiana. Jackson won a war. And of all things, Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator and the guy who fought and died for preserving our union. They’re basically saying, you don't have any heroes, America…You were founded by an evil man. You had a first president who was an evil man. The guy who wrote your founding document was an evil man. Even the man who emancipated us, we don’t owe him anything. He was an evil man. And, then they go on to criticize everything in our society. They say our president is a Nazi, a racist, a, I don’t what else he is, he’s an evil man. And all of us are… we’re evil white people; they even refer to us as evil white people. So, this is a movement that’s based on hatred. It's not just emotional hatred, it’s hatred in the United States so that our young people will get separated from the idea of the United States and then they’d be willing to accept a much better alternative, socialism. So, you degrade our flag, you degrade our national anthem. I mean, these are the things that hold the country together. It's all bull, this whole thing. You’re a great land.

Does this help or hurt Biden?

It helps him with the left-wing people. It helps him with the real weak ones who are willing to bend their knee and they all know I'm right, but they pretend because they're afraid. But I think it hurts him in that big vast majority of people that don't talk. There are many Americans in their home right now saying what the hell is going on, what, they’re taking over police precincts, they’re spitting at police, they’re looting stores and the cops are told to stand down, they’re going to do away with the police department and replace them with health care workers. They want to come and take my money and give it to a black person for slavery and the black person has no history of slavery, he came from Jamaica, and my family came from Slovenia 30 years ago, but I had nothing to do with slavery. What am I paying for? A lot of bad things happened to me too, nobody's paying me. I think that's what the average, intelligent common-sense view of this is. Our media is so bad. It's so left. It's almost like Pravda was to the Soviet Union. They print whatever the left-wing says and then they come up with justifications for it.

Have you ever seen politics this evil? They weaponize everything, including the seriousness of sex assault allegations against adversaries.

What I’ve seen in the last two years is pure evil, from the day I started representing President Trump as his lawyer to this day, it’s almost a revelation today, something I couldn't believe has happened. I couldn't believe it would happen in America. And I never believed I’d see a day in America in which a major city would disband the police department. I just didn’t think our people would be crazy enough or insane enough or like the whole city was on drugs. I've never seen it this evil.

I've never seen politicians like these Democrats want to accomplish something so bad. They want to accomplish two things and the second even more than the first. They want power. Trump stands in the way of power. Also, Trump is the first Republican to stand up to this big, phony, like the speech he gave at Mount Rushmore. I thought that was a beautiful defense of America, beautiful defense of let us preserve the American way of life. Every single thing he said is true about the violent tendencies of BLM, Antifa, about the aims they have. The New York Times knows that. They can read what I read, and then they say it was the worst speech he ever gave. It was racist. Now, a lot of people don't read the speech. They read the Times and they'll say, oh, Trump's a racist. People we get are the people that go beyond the Times. If we can get you beyond the Times, we’re probably going to get you to vote for Trump because almost every story in the Times now is tinged with this terrible bias condition, so desperate, they print things that are actually untrue now. They used to be more careful. So, I think it's gonna be a difficult campaign. I think the only chance we have is to elect Trump ‘cause he'll do what he says as he did the first time and he really does need a Republican House and Senate to straighten all this out. Even more important, the Democrats need a defeat. The Democrats need to be shown that there are all these American people that we think and believe are sitting in their homes, and find the killing of police officers despicable, that find taking over a police station awful.

What do you say to people today who feel our president is responsible for this because he is the man in charge? Does he have to take any accountability on his watch?
You mean all the riots that are going on?

It’s under his watch.
The riots have nothing to do with the president. The riots have to do with 20 years of this created anger in which they make police brutality the only problem they have and then utilize it. They did it three times under Obama. Nobody thought it was Obama's fault. The difference with Trump is everything is attributed to his fault. I think the only man whose act consistently was the same way under common sense is President Trump, ‘cause no one has the guts enough to actually say what he said at Mount Rushmore. Look at Biden, Biden hasn’t said anything.

The problems are all happening in Democrat-controlled cities. They're not happening in Republican places where he has great influence. You got a couple of cities where the Democratic… 100 years, 70 years, in Baltimore 50 years and in New York City you know how many times we had an increase in crime and rioting is when we had our last Democrat mayor. I mean it’s as if this guy’s out of office for 20 years, we go down to the safest, large city in America, no riots, we get a Democrat and we got two, three riots. This is a function of Democrat left-wing policies that have oppressed black people and have not allowed black people to grow the way they should be allowed to grow, by inflicting on them dependency, inflicting on them all these programs that deteriorate the work ethic. I turned New York around and I just didn’t turn it around through the point of view of crime, I removed 600,000 people from the welfare rolls and put them to work and most of them were minorities. And the reason we kept crime so low is not just policing, it was we had a much better situation like Trump did. Our unemployment went down from 10.5 ... whites benefit from that tremendously, blacks even more. Crime went down, murder went down 65%, 75% of the murderers were black, 75% of the victims were black so figure out who benefited from that, and the black people were made up mostly of good people who were victimized by these thugs and con men.

There are people who believe that President Trump shut the economy down for too long which created a lot of financial ruin in our country. We live in New Jersey. It's a major problem. Do you think he shut it down too long? Do you think he shut it down just enough or should he have never shut it down? And do you think that he's going to shut it down again?

There’s a lot of possibilities. First of all, I think he will never shut it down again because everyone now understands the disease well enough, so it's not necessary to shut down. But, I have to contrast that it is all politics and choices in elections. It's the art of the realistic. If it weren’t for the president, it’d still be shut down because every Democrat wants to keep it going.

The governor of New York, the governor of New Jersey, the governor of California… The governor of Michigan is way out of her mind. She’s got it shut down until September. And every time you listen to Fauci, we’re shut down even longer. First, he embraces baseball, and then we can’t play baseball. Then, he says, first you shouldn't wear masks, now we have to wear masks. Then he tells us two years ago that Hydroxychloroquine is a great, safe drug, been used for 60 years, no problems and all its problems they can control and then when it's recommended as a way to cut off coronavirus, he comes out against it, and now he's in favor of a drug that just, oh by coincidence cost $3,000 more, not that had anything to do with Dr. Fauci’s decision, even though I think he's very embarrassed now that there are now a dozen tests in a row that show that hydroxychloroquine is the most effective treatment for coronavirus if you take it in the first five days. In fact, there are now shortages of supplies because many doctors have bought it up so they can give it to their patients because they were afraid that in some states, they would cut it down. And the only reason they came out against hydroxychloroquine is because the president recommended it. The president recommended it just to say, take a look at it, and the fact is it's the number one treatment ... It’s the number one treatment in France. It’s the number one treatment in China, even. And here in America, in many places, the Democratic governors, in New York for example, Governor Cuomo said you can only get it at a hospital, and actually, that’s the worst place to get it. You’re supposed to take so you don't go to the hospital. So, the way they've politicked with it is terrible. When the president made the decision to shut down, I believe it was the right decision given the facts that we had, and at that time they were predicting a much bigger than terrible, right? They were talking in America even in the millions, what America is going to be 150, 200 thousand, terrible, terrible numbers, but not two million.

The fatality rate now is approaching a tough, but normal disease, down around 1%, and the thing that makes it unnecessary to have to close the economy again is you don't have to close it for young people. Young people are virtually unaffected by it, so if you had left open the schools and just put in careful practices about the young people communicating with their grandparents — not even their parents — their grandparents for some period of time. The fact that you put some emphasis on their grandparents, which they didn't do, your numbers would have been far less. I mean, look at New York, whether it was on purpose or by mistake, they wiped out the old people. It’s like the disease only affects old people, that's true. It only affects old people if they have another disease. So now you have a fairly narrow group of people that need all the resources. Now, you take all the resources and you spread out over everybody that means they are giving less attention to the people who need it and I think that's one of the terrible mistakes we’ve made, but I don't fault anybody for that because I don't think we understood it. I do fault the people who took old people and put them back in nursing homes, and it was like putting a time bomb in the middle of the nursing home.

But they're going to say that at that time, that’s the information they had.

They had the information. We had the information coming out of China that the only people died of this were old people. If they were the ones ... they changed the ages a bit, over 60, over 70, over 75. The truth is anybody over 60 is at risk, but there is a big difference between 60 and 80. So those are the people where all the concentration should be given, and the other people should be allowed to conduct our normal economy  and be careful about contact, and we immediately go to a good medicine right away, if in fact, they have the disease. Even with that, 99% of the people survive, including the old people.

General Flynn is now vindicated and many layers of corruption were uncovered at the FBI, how damaging is this to the FBI, and if the president asked you to lead the FBI, would you do it?

Well I don’t know if I would. I’d have to have the discussion with him. I believe we have to separate the damage to the FBI. The field agents I have not seen anyone of them do anything wrong. They do their job and they do it wonderfully. The way they’ve always done it; very professional and very well. But this is the Washington Field Office and a lot of those guys turned into politicians instead of law enforcement officers and not just politicians, but politicians who got carried away with themselves. When you listen to Peter Struck, who is an FBI agent, on the phone how he and his mistress hate Trump, you say to yourself this guy is no longer an FBI agent, he’s a political nut. I’d remove people like him from investigating cases. We take him off the case because first of all it’s not right and second you know it’s going to lead to corruption because he has so much hatred … Comey knew that and he wanted a guy like that investigating Trump and he wanted a guy like that investigating Hillary.

The Democratic Party has become very corrupt. There is only one answer for it; they have to be voted out of office. If they get voted out of office badly, they become practical, they reform themselves, and then people come in and say hey we have to save this place, we have to get rid of these people and we have to act differently.

Are you considering any future runs for political office?

I am not considering running for office again because I have so many good people that I support. I see these great opportunities for them. My sole focus right now is to get Donald Trump re-elected… He’s done a great job in a very short time.

Were you called a racist when you were mayor?

Yes, enough times but not nearly as often as nowadays. I was called a racist when I required people on welfare to work. I decided I had 1.1 million people on welfare and I had to work on that for their good. What’s the use of having kids grow up in families where they have three generations who don’t work? Where do they get their work ethic? Where did you get it? Where did I get it? You get it from growing up in families and neighborhoods, that’s why we are programmed to get up in the morning and go to work and if we don’t have work, we go out and find it. Now suppose you never saw anybody work. Suppose you saw everyone around you getting paid by the government and sometimes double and triple billing them. So I said to myself I have to save the next generation and build a work ethic into the welfare recipients … New York Times went crazy, said I was running a plantation. I went out into the neighborhoods and I told them I love you more and I love you the way I love my son. I wouldn’t just give my son money for the rest of his life and not to work. I moved 500,000 people off welfare to work.

Are you racist?

I wouldn’t even answer that. Actually, I will. I am the opposite of racist. The Black Lives Matter people are racists because they analyze everything through race. Joe Biden saying I am inclined to pick a woman of color is racist, as opposed to saying I am going to pick the best candidate. If you define racism by the way Martin Luther King did, they’re racists…

Every time we mention you as great mayor, some officers from 20 years ago say—

How come I gave them no increases in three years?

Yes they hold that against you.

Oh man they hold that against me… triple zeroes for heroes.

Now is the perfect time to put this to bed. Let’s all close this one. Was it triple zeroes?

Yeah. Three years of nothing but then two years of big raises that made up for it. I had to borrow money from the people who were working for me — they weren’t the only ones. It was the whole city, the whole city except where I was contractually obligated to give a raise. We also laid off 20,000 people and I didn’t lay off any cops. They can’t appreciate the fact that although I love them and they weren’t the number one department with the fire department in my view, that I didn’t have the money. They’re a big part of the budget and if I cut everything else and not them, I wouldn’t have achieved being able to correct the city's imbalance and we all gambled on each other, and I asked the unions to take a chance on me. I said in essence, I’m asking you to loan me the raise you would have gotten for the last three years. I'm gonna turn this city around. By the time I give you that raise, I think they got like 11% in the last two years together, like five and six or something like that and some bonuses. I'm gonna try to turn the city around. I'm gonna have a surplus. If you want to gamble on me, give me the three zeroes, and we'll try, if you make me pay it to you, ‘cause there are some rules I would probably have had to give them some raise like one or two percent. The most the board is going to require me to do is one or two percent. It doesn’t mean very much, but it is gonna mean I’m going to have to pay up, get you one or two every year, I’m not gonna to be able to give you the rest of it. Give me a chance to turn this city around. Give me a chance to bring business in, give me a chance to get the tax to go up and I'll give you a much bigger raise. And you gotta trust me. If you squeeze me just to get 1% and then I’m gonna have to lay off. I’m gonna have to lay off cops, which I don’t want to do. I got tremendous amount of crime. On the other hand, I'm not going to let the state take over the city because we’re bankrupt. So, we had long negotiations and then we agreed. And, when the cops got real angry and the union leadership was in trouble, they want to put the blame all on me because you know; they’re getting elected and reelected. It’s all me. It was my idea. It was an agreed deal.

Do you want to tell them anything now? They still hold it against you.

I can't help it, I mean, but they have to see it that I was fair and impartial mayor. I didn't treat anybody extra special when I had to save the city. I love cops. I think they’re the most important people in our city. I went to every funeral. You know, I didn’t just go to every funeral; I also went every time they were in the hospital. I went to the hospitals because I knew if the mayor went to the hospital you got the better doctor not the worst doctor. I also brought the police surgeon with me to tell me that I got the best doctor not the worst doctor. I tried to do everything else for them, and as soon as we had a surplus, we gave them a big raise.

We know your strength is leadership, but what’s your weakness?

Impatience. I do things too fast sometimes. Sometimes, if I’ve made mistakes, I usually can attribute it to I like to get things over with, I do them too fast, and so I try to have advisors and people around me to slow me down.

Blue suicide is a major issue affecting law enforcement. Could you give a direct message to an officer today who may be suicidal?

Sure. I would say to any officer that’s even contemplating it, just step back and take a little time … You probably have people who love you, people who care about you, also think about how much you harm them and if you have children, the burden for them if you take your life, and that’s going to hurt them for the rest of their lives. The best thing to do is to step back... The fact is you're just gonna make it all that much more worse for your family, for your colleagues, for the other police officers if you take away what God gave you. And believe me, I can tell you that without even knowing you, it is not as bad as you think. It really isn’t. If you just hold up and you wait, you’re gonna get up the next morning and say to yourself, gee, I had that too exaggerated. Just go talk to the person that loves you the most. Get their perspective on it, and I bet you, you've made it worse than it is. But, for the good of other people, just don't do this.

Thank you for that message.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do it.

When leadership really counted

It was election night, November 1993.

New York City was a cesspool of filth and violent crime and had become the murder capital of the United States. Rudy Giuliani had just been elected mayor and I was clearing the stage as he was about to make his entrance onto the stage at the New York Hilton for his victory speech.

I had known him for close to two years at that point and was confident that he would be good for New York City, but I had no idea how good. In fact, I could not have predicted what the next eight years would look like, but knew in my heart that things were about to change.

From the second he took his oath of office; he was focused on one primary thing and that was crime. He knew that no one wanted to live in the city, or come to visit, or work, and come to go to school if they didn’t feel safe, and with 2,200 murders, young mothers were putting their babies to bed in bathtubs, afraid of random gunfire.

Giuliani appointed Bill Bratton out of Boston as his first police commissioner with a mandate: Reduce violent crime and murder and do so from the top down – meaning violent crime, and from the bottom up – begin enforcing quality of life crimes that had not been enforced in years.

He put more cops on the streets, more money into the courts and correction department, and told the police department to do the job it was supposed to do.

Over the next eight years during Rudy Giuliani’s term in office, violent crime dropped close to 65% and murder dropped by 70%. In the most violent communities which were predominantly black, the murder rate dropped by close to 80%.

For every percentage point we achieved reductions in violent crime, there were increases in economic development, real estate values and tourism, and New York City had gone from the “Rotten Apple,” to the “Capital of the World,” in an historic renaissance never achieved before in any city in America.

Then came 9/11 – we were under attack.

From the moment the mayor met me at the base of Tower II of the World Trade Center just minutes after the second plane slammed through the north side of the south tower, he took control and command of what was a war zone.

Standing at Ground Zero, at what would come to be known as the first real battle ground in our 20-year global war on terror, Rudy Giuliani was a pillar of strength for the nation, a battlefield commander, and a compassionate leader who brought the city and country together in a way that I have yet to see in any other man-made or natural crisis in our country.

As I watch from the cheap seats today of our country in chaos, with mayors and governors who have allowed their cities and states to be overrun by Marxist anarchists, who have injured more than 1,000 police officers, killed dozens of innocent people and engaged in violent crime, arson and looting that has resulted hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and devastation, I have yet to see one of those governors or mayors with the leadership skills and courage as I have the honor to witness in Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani stands as a one-of-a-kind leader, who was fair but firm, who led by example, and who achieved historic results when others said it couldn’t be done. Hopefully, there are other mayors and governors out there in the shadows who will step up to the plate, but until then, cities like New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, Minneapolis and so many others will continue to decline.

Only time will tell. Strength and Honor, Bernard B. Kerik

As New York City’s 40th Police Commissioner, Bernard Kerik was in command of the NYPD on September 11, 2001, and responsible for the city’s response, rescue, recovery, and the investigative efforts of the most substantial terror attack in world history. His 35-year career has been recognized in more than 100 awards for meritorious and heroic service, including a presidential commendation for heroism by President Ronald Reagan, two Distinguished Service Awards from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and an appointment as Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Effective leadership is not for the faint of heart

Everything rises or falls on leadership. To be clear there are only two types of leadership; effective and ineffective. In our current political state all across America we have an abundance of ineffective leadership whereas unfortunately effective leadership is lacking.

Let’s look at some examples with how cities and states are dealing with the riots and violent disturbances that engulf a growing number of major cities.

In Seattle a group of insurrectionists carved out and took over a section of the city, walling it off as a no go zone to the Seattle Police Department. This included a police precinct that was abandoned and turned over to the rioters. The clueless mayor empowered these domestic terrorists and called it the summer of love oblivious to the rage exhibited by these marauders.

In Portland Oregon, the city as of this writing was experiencing 60 straight days of violent disturbances. The mayor there again has no sense of urgency in getting things under control while being in complete denial about the violence.

In other cities like New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta and Milwaukee you have mayors and a local political class that has crawled into bed with the devil, the cop-haters, while turning their backs on their law-abiding citizens and the men and women in law enforcement who are doing what they can to maintain law and order. This is not just shameful— it’s disgusting. The escalating anti-cop rhetoric is causing death and injury to police officers and citizens and resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in property damaged, which is taking a huge toll on communities all across America.

Police commanders are another example of ineffective leadership as they cede business areas over to looters and arsonists by giving their officers stand-down orders. Chiefs and other commanders are kneeling and marching with the cop-haters of Black Lives Matter. It is a disgrace. Frontline officers are being pelted with rocks bottles and other projectiles. Officers being injured and killed has become a daily occurrence as if it is a part of the job description. They are under immense stress, under-resourced and have no political backing. Even minor uses of reasonable force are being looked at for possible criminal prosecution by overzealous politically-active prosecutors as Chiefs stand cowardly remain silent with their tails between their legs.

Calls for police reform are nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to what can be best described as an anomaly that occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It serves as an excuse to ignore the real problem in all these urban cities and that problem is the street violence that occurs on a daily basis. Focusing on a“one-off” police officer’s action in Minneapolis allows spineless politicians to whistle past the graveyard of shootings and murders that are more prevalent than police use of force.

Let me add some perspective here. If you want to know what effective leadership looks like just go back to how Mayor Rudy Giuliani with ball-busting Commissioners William Bratton and Bernard Kerik made New York City livable again. Under there’re leadership they added more officers and resources. They enacted a crime reduction plan that led New York to being named the safest big city in America saving countless lives. They didn’t work with race hustlers like Al Sharpton. They shouted him down. They defended cops who acted appropriately. That doesn’t exist in these large cities today.

The elephant in the room is not policing, it the cultural rot and dysfunction that occurs in the urban ghettos across America. It’s things like ineffective parenting and in some cases, no parenting at all. It’s things like absent fathers, women having multiple children from different men leading to child abuse and neglect. It’s things like school failure and questionable lifestyle choices like joining gangs along with criminal behavior and drug use. But that’s the hard stuff for politicians. Leadership can start by holding up a mirror to the black underclass and demand that they adopt better lifestyle choices. Then we won’t need so much policing. Easier to go after the cops. After all they are the low hanging fruit.

Effective leadership would be starting a national discussion in America about the ugly reality of why so many black males choose criminality instead of leading a more mainstream lifestyle. Politicians need to ask why 53% of all known homicide suspects are black males and why 60% of all known robbery suspects are black males when blacks make up only 13% of the population. Yes, let’s have THAT conversation.

Policing doesn’t need to be reformed. The ghetto needs to be reformed. Changes in behavior and lifestyle of the underclass are what need to be reformed. But that is the hard stuff for politicians whose failed policies cause most of the conditions that require more policing. Policies like releasing career violent criminals from jails and prisons… another STUPID policy. All of this is then thrown into the lap of a police officer and you expect miracles and when things go awry through no fault of the police, the cop-haters demand change. The biggest threat to law-abiding people is not a police officer, it’s a stray bullet from a criminal indiscriminately shooting up the neighborhood.

Why won’t more politicians and police commanders state the obvious about ineffective leadership? Effective leadership is not for the faint of heart. It’s hard stuff. That is why it is in such short supply.

Sheriff David Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of AmericasSheriff LLC, Board of Directors for the Crime Prevention Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com

The 'movement' to end policing? A nation without police is one that nobody wants to live in

Nothing in this country has been the same since that insidious day in May when America witnessed the nearly nine-minute recording of a Minneapolis police officer’s maneuver of pinning his knee to the side of the neck of a man named George Floyd, effectively perceived as contributing to an end of his life over a $20 counterfeit bill he had used at a neighborhood corner market.

That’s the day part of the souls of law enforcement officers, the “blue community,” and law-abiding Americans died alongside George Floyd. None of us has been able to breathe since that day in May, either.

It’s also the day America’s war with its own citizens began; a “movement” of radical groups of people we’ve come to know as Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Both have made their presence well-known in previous uprisings in individual communities during protests over killings of black men by white police officers, a national narrative ignited not by statistics, but by both the media and leaders across America who participated in heightening that perception.

While the statistics do not support their claims, their “force” has grown in greater numbers, including people across all racial lines and socioeconomic classes. Politicians pandering to these groups demonstrated their willingness to go the distance with them. Mayors walked the streets with protesters, while police officers and chiefs of police in some cities thought that taking a knee with those revolting against their existence might show an expression of solidarity. Meanwhile, the media’s degree of sensationalism only served to fan the flames and ignite an even larger false narrative about the American police officer.

The fact of the matter remains that we didn’t accept Colin Kaepernick’s stand against police on September 1, 2016 when he kneeled during the national anthem. Never mind the blue socks with pigs on them. Did our police buy into his narrative then?

Americans have been subjected to the continuous, malicious mistruths about “peaceful protests” all over the country; stories of fiction. The chaos and destruction of our country unfolded right before our eyes. And yet, those of us who represent the majority sat quietly watching communities and businesses burn to the ground as rioters also burned and stomped on our American flag. Innocent people have lost their lives. Police officers have been wounded and killed. Our city and state leaders no longer control our streets.

Police officers across this nation have been ordered by their city leaders to use de-escalation methods while being stripped of their use of tear gas and, in some cities, even their pepper spray. What line of defense have the police been given? With calls to defund police departments around our nation, where are the leaders of this country? New York City has reduced the budget for its police force by a billion dollars, in spite of a significant spike in crime.

Are we heading toward an America without police?

A recent “deadly force” study by Washington State University researcher Lois James found that police officers were less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white or Hispanic ones in simulated threat scenarios. Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer analyzed more than 1,000 officer-involved shootings across the country. He concluded that there is zero evidence of racial bias in police shootings. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, black citizens were about 12 percent of the population in the United States. In the 75 largest U.S. counties, members of the black community were charged with 62 percent of all robberies, 61 percent of weapons offenses and 57 percent of murders. This disproportionate disparity is also reflected in the racial makeup of those victimized by this pattern of activity. It has been reported in New York City that black citizen’s account for just over 24 percent of the city’s population, yet the DOJ has reported 57 percent of all murder victims and 58 percent of those arrested for murder are black. These disparities in New York are repeated in virtually every racially diverse city in America. The real problem facing black communities today is not the police but criminals. The BLM and Antifa narratives are a lie folks. Black-on-black crime, however, is unfortunately true.

There is no government agency more dedicated to the proposition that “Black Lives Matter” than the police. The proactive policing revolution that began long ago has dramatically brought down the inner-city murder rate and likely has saved thousands of black lives. Unfortunately, that crime decline is now in jeopardy. This is tragic because when the police refrain from proactive policing, black lives are lost because of a myth. Sadly, police officers are historically 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.

Stay safe… ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ too.

Lori Cooper is the daughter of a late police officer shot in the line of duty whose perpetrator eluded authorities for 44 years until her own search resulted in his apprehension. Her story has been featured by hundreds of news organizations. She now writes for law enforcement media groups and is a police advocate and guest on national radio and television. She is writing a book about her story, tentatively titled "The Sound of Silence". She can be reached at www.WriterLoriCooper.com

Seeking Support during COVID-19: Help Yourself So You Can Help Others

While many people tout our healthcare workers as the heroes of the pandemic — and rightfully so — law enforcement also plays a critical role in our nation’s safety during the crisis. COVID-19 is pulling our officers in several different directions, taking an invisible toll on their mental state — one that they often may not register until they wrap up yet another grueling shift.

Even for officers who “have seen it all,” the traumatic loss of life on such a major scale is undoubtedly having an impact. Dealing with the virus and its associated challenges can cause heightened anxiety, depression, substance abuse and grief, especially in areas that have been hardest hit by the pandemic like New Jersey and New York. Our officers are dealing with conflicting information surrounding use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and prior to that they were faced with shortages. Social distancing guidelines and regulations brought on by COVID-19 have also complicated procedures for responding to crises in the community at every turn. Even as things seem to be slowing down, there is speculation around a “second wave” and officers continue to worry about contracting the virus themselves and bringing it home to their families.

It’s not always easy to reach out for help, especially when you have been trained to prioritize helping others. But mental health symptoms that go unchecked can lead to chronic challenges including PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and suicidal ideation. I’ve personally trained enough officers (over 500 in northern New Jersey) to know firsthand how hard it can be to seek help. But asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

In 2018, the Fraternal Order of Police and NBC New York anonymously surveyed nearly 8,000 active and retired police officers across the U.S., and 90% of respondents said there is stigma in law enforcement around seeking help for behavioral health concerns. I know there are many officers who may think they need some support but are hesitant to reach out for help because they would rather handle it on their own or are worried others might see them as weak. But that is simply not the case — in fact, it is quite the opposite.

In New Jersey, the tragic loss of life in our state has well eclipsed that of Sept. 11. While collectively our state is feeling the emotional impacts due to the unfathomably high death toll associated with the virus, officers dealing with it firsthand day in and day out are disproportionately impacted. Officers on the front lines of the virus are dealing with unprecedented concerns and high-stress situations, making it more important than ever to make sure they are taking care of themselves. You can only help others if you take the time to help yourself first.

My organization CarePlusNJ recognized an enormous need to support our local officers during these uncertain times. As a leading provider of integrated behavioral health services in the community, we established The HERO Warmline (1-551-800-HERO), a free, confidential mental health warmline for Bergen County, New Jersey’s law enforcement officers and first responders. The specialized service was implemented to help local officers’ process emotions, cope with trauma and connect them to rapid access support and services so they can prioritize their own health and wellness and continue to help others in the community.

When our local officers call the line, a clinician, with specialized trauma and first responder training, picks up the call. We know privacy is paramount, which is why our licensed professionals are ethically and legally bound to keep all conversations confidential. First responders, law enforcement and healthcare professionals in Bergen County, New Jersey are encouraged to contact The HERO Warmline at 1-551-800-HERO (4376) Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. for free, confidential support and services. This is an invaluable resource that we hope our local officers continue to take advantage of if they need support during this crisis.

Many communities have similar resources in place to help support law enforcement as they navigate COVID-19 and all the obstacles that accompany it. I encourage any officer who may even be considering talking to someone for support to research the community resources available near them.The only way to come out of the pandemic stronger is to make sure we take care of ourselves and those we care about as much as possible.

Amie Del Sordo is Senior Vice President of Hospital and Community Services at CarePlus NJ, a leading provider of integrated behavioral health care in Paramus, New Jersey. Amie spearheads the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program in Bergen County, a police-based training on safely, compassionately de-escalating and assisting a person in a mental health crisis. She has trained more than 500 local officers.

Taking Responsibility: BLM and their counterparts ANTIFA are Anti-American garbage

Recently I watched a PSA shot in black and white (for a more dramatic effect, I suppose) a smarmy attempt at genuine concern by addressing a serious problem in our country. The PSA was a montage of Hollywood types, actors I'm assuming (although I only recognized one from a few movies) taking tums, some misty-eyed for the lens and arms crossed over their hearts. "I take responsibility," they each took a turn. I thought to myself, "responsibility for what?" 

So, I watched on, and eventually the mystery topic was revealed, "It's time to step out and end police brutality," one said. Another said, "Black people are being slaughtered in the street," and "I stand against hate," and "Shopping in a store should not be a death sentence," and then the punch line, "Killer cops must be stopped, they are murderers and must be prosecuted!"

That did it for me! I have news for you folks who think because you have portrayed a character in a film you have the right to start even more bullshit when our bullshit tank is filled to capacity. Even if one of the characters you have portrayed in a movie was a police officer, you are not a police officer!

You want to side with the Marxist terrorist groups BLM and ANTIFA and chime in on how the police are randomly targeting people of color and murdering them? Your judgment lacking as much foundation as are your skills as actors.

And don't you dare invoke the name of the criminal who started this traveling shit-show in Ferguson, the catalyst for the "Hands up, don't shoot!" false narrative fueled by then sitting President Obama and Attorney General Holder. That entire storm helped morph the Black Panthers into the New Black Panthers, who had a baby and named it "Black Lives Matter" and that cute little bastard grew into the hellish, criminal, communist monster it is today. They married their first cousin. "ANTIFA" and God only knows what the offspring of that coupling will be named. 

Keep it under your hats, but the police aren't the ones shooting folk off their porches for shits and giggles to show off their prowess with firearms. Many cities, thanks to you and folks like you that perpetuate the hate against the police, are seeing increases of over 100% in the past month in shootings and homicides and again, it's not the cops. You have enabled these folks and now it's "Anarchy rules." 

For those of you who want to defund the police, the politicians like Mayor DeBlasio (who spent quality time playing with the Sandinista Liberation Front in Nicaragua before returning to the U.S. and changing his name) who learned how to apply his Marxist Leninist tactics on the citizens of New York, I say this and I'll say it to your face, when I get the chance. Go fuck yourself You have the blood of police officers on your hands, and you might as well have tossed every bottle, brick and Molotov cocktail, personally. Painting "Black Lives Matter" on 5th Avenue with Al Sharpton the race-baiting FBI informant is a kick in the nuts to every member of the NYPD. You're a fucking hack and you should just go away.

I agree 100% that Mr. Floyd should not have died for his arrestable offense, but he did play a very small role in his own death by committing a felony. Had he not done that, he might still be alive.

Mike Brown chose the wrong path and it cost him his life. That's fact. It was proven that the entire case was built on a lie and a false narrative and it didn't spawn "civil unrest" (that's a soft, bullshit term). It spawned anarchy, looting, burning and rioting, and it got folks hurt. It elevated the shit show to new heights and the cops not only got free tickets: they got front row seats. Cops took bullets and continued to do so. Cops suffered traumatic brain injuries from getting hit with bricks and frozen water bottles. We are dying every day, because of you bastards! We are being murdered "Anybody in Hollywood hear that? I saw your responsibility video. Step right up!"

There's a lot to take responsibility for. You can go into any inner city and protest the hundreds of aborted fetuses ripped from their mother's wombs and dismembered while still alive.

You say black people are being slaughtered in the street? That is fact! But, the cops aren't the butchers. The data is available from numerous sources, news, crime stats and universities. Just search and you'll find the numbers, but chances are you won't be happy. "Is there a problem? Yes! Are the police the problem? Absolutely not!"

Kirk Lawless is a 28 year, decorated, veteran police officer from the St Louis area. He's a former SWAT operator, narcotics agent, homicide investigator, detective and Medal of Valor recipient. Off the job due to an up-close and personal gunfight, he now concentrates on writing. He's a patriotic warrior, artist, poet, actor, musician, and man of peace.

Exclusive interview with Five Finger Death Punch's Drummer Jeremy Spencer - Alcohol abuse, Rock an Roll and unwavering support for law enforcement

Five Finger Death Punch founding drummer Jeremy Spencer talks to Blue about the perils of being a rock ‘n’ roll star with an addiction to drugs and alcohol

There are many things law enforcement officers are good at: solving crimes, responding to domestic violence calls, driving like a stunt man. But one of my favorites we’re good at is partying. Although closing bars are a thing of the past for me (thank you wife and children), I manage to get my fun time in with a few cold beers on my regular days off.

But there’s a limit. How much is too much? At what point does it go from casual and social drinking to problematic and disturbing?  Anyone who wears a badge knows what goes on in the world. From dealing with the decay of society to working odd hours, there are more than enough reasons to grab a beer after a tour of duty. Sometimes that does go too far. If the only way you cope with a stressful day is to drink alcohol and if it’s affecting the people you love most, you may need help.

I boasted to a couple of officers in our department about how I landed an interview with a rock star, founding drummer of Five Finger Death Punch Jeremy Spencer. I told them that the focus of the interview was his rehab stints due to his drug and alcohol addiction. They each responded with, “Oh yeah, I went to rehab, too.” It was a sobering moment and a stark reminder of the seriousness of this issue.

JEremy Spencer From FIve finger death punch

Jeremy Spencer chronicled his life in a book entitled Death Punch’ D. He talks about having his first drink at the tender age of 6, his daily blackout drinking, smoking and snorting anything worthwhile and his two near-death experiences. It’s a classic tale of struggle, success, fame, struggle, and rehab … twice. Now he’s clean and sober and took the time to tell Blue Magazine about his journey.

The Blue Magazine: Officers experience a lot of stress from the job, which is often mitigated by alcohol abuse -- some go to rehab because of it. What is your advice to get through rehab and more importantly stay clean afterward?

Jeremy Spencer:  Personally, I wanted to go to rehab and get better.  That’s kind of what it boils down to. Do you want to get better or not?  It’s all a choice.  Humans are resilient, it’s just a matter of sticking it out and opening yourself up to be helped and staying with it no matter how hard it gets. 

Who, if anyone, do you blame for your drug and alcohol abuse? Family? Friends? Touring?

I’ve been addicted to everything my whole life. I blame no one. It’s easy to look for an excuse to blame our using on, but I take full responsibility. Those people are a blessing because they helped mirror what I needed to fix about myself, and without those situations I wouldn’t have grown and learned.

Many addicts have childhood trauma connected to their adult behavior. In your book, you seem to have a healthy home environment growing up.  What happened? 

I think I’m just one of those people who can’t have chemicals in their body.  It doesn’t mix with my brain chemistry for whatever reason. I also had some self-esteem issues, not unlike most people.  I didn’t consciously use to feel better about my low self-esteem, I just used because I thought I liked to party and have “fun.”

What were some of the warning signs of drug/ alcohol abuse that you recognized but chose to ignore?  What’s the most important warning sign you want to tell law enforcement officers to look out for? 

Every time I drank or used, I wanted to keep going and have more. I never wanted to be done.  I loved drinking. I would drink until I couldn’t anymore. During the day I couldn’t wait to be able to drink at night when I was done with my responsibilities. Some might say that’s a functioning alcoholic, but I was still abusing myself.

We all know someone with an addictive personality. They tend to replace one addiction with another, good or bad. Since you gave up drugs and alcohol, has anything taken its place?

I was addicted to chaos for a while, pretty much any way I could get the juice.  Be it through relationships or anger or whatever.  I finally have a handle on that and am living the most peaceful life I’ve ever lived.

How important is family during the rehabilitation process? 

It’s very helpful. You need as much support as you can get.  It’s a fragile time when you’re trying to get sober and the more support you can get, the better.

Since you've been given a second chance at life, do you give back at all?

I talk to people when they seek me out.  It usually just happens. A lot of people have said my book Death Punch’ D helped them with their situation.

Was there ever a time you wished you had a regular life -- a simple job, happily married, an addiction-free personality, etc. Would you go back and trade everything for that?

I’ve experienced what many consider a normal life.  I wasn’t born into playing sold-out arenas. I worked day jobs I didn’t like, I was married, I felt trapped with no hope of having my dreams realized, etc. I wouldn’t trade any of it. I’m where I’m at because of it and I’m happy with that person.

A lot of people dream of fame, fortune and a wild rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. Is it overrated? 

It’s an amazing life. It’s everything I hoped it would be and nothing like I thought it would be. There’s so many perks and so many pitfalls.  But it basically enhances what your problems are, so if you’re a troubled person, it’s magnified tenfold. Life is in a fish bowl, so if you’re messed up, the world gets to watch and that’s not easy.

Several of your music videos feature scenes showing support of first responders and the military. Where did this support come from? 

We were always supporters of the military and first responders. Some of us came from families of service men and women. It was always a cause we wanted to support because we know how important you men and women are.

Have you had any interactions with law enforcement as a result of your behavior?

I was a young, dumb kid who got drunk and tried to steal stuff from a convenience store when I was around 15 years old and got arrested.  It was humbling and embarrassing.  I just remember my mom crying when she came to pick me up from the police station. That affected me the most. I got sober a few months later when I checked myself into rehab.

You understand the addictive behavior. What do you want to tell any officers who fit this profile?

You’re not alone. There’s always help available. You have to want it and accept it. I know it’s a tough life and addiction is a tough period, but it’s something that can be worked through. It’s all a choice, no matter how difficult it seems.

Suicide is also a growing concern within the law enforcement community. Your book hints at it a bit. What do you want to tell someone who’s thinking about taking his or her own life?

Things may seem so bad that there’s no way out except to take your life and that’s so not true.  There’s help available at every turn. The people that kill themselves permanently solve a problem that could have been so temporary and everyone else in their circle who was close to them still living has to deal with the suicide the rest of their lives. It’s an awful situation, but talk to someone, it all starts there. Help is available and no matter how it seems today, it can all change tomorrow. Suicide doesn’t have to be the answer.

Is there anything else you want the law enforcement community to know?

Thank you for everything you sacrifice and do for the world. It’s people like you that make the world a better place and a lot of people don’t even know how much you do so they can live their daily lives. I truly thank you for your service.

Jeremy’s incredible life was brilliantly captured in his book Death Punch’ D. It’s a perfect blend of what it’s like to be a rock star coupled with a serious drug and alcohol addiction - all leading up to a happy ending. Jeremy has since retired from drumming due to medical reasons. He took up singing and started a new band called Psychosexual. It’s that same great hard rock sound complemented with music videos …with a bit of naughtiness. Subscribe to his YouTube page Psychosexual and follow him on Instagram @officialjeremyspencer

Eddie covers everything law enforcement. He recently partnered with a law enforcement podcast- End of Watch with Bootsy and Sal. The podcast has already interviewed several high- profile law enforcement figures. Check out and subscribe to their YouTube channel by searching End of Watch with Bootsy and Sal or by scanning the QR code with your phone.

President Trump and Police Reform: Trump has our backs

“There is no more noble and important profession than law enforcement. A free and safe society requires a trusted and capable police force to safeguard our rights to life and liberty… Together, we will examine, discuss, and debate how justice is administered in the United States and uncover opportunities for progress, improvement, and innovation.” – William P. Barr, Attorney General of the United States of America

On Jan. 22, 2020, the attorney general announced the establishment of the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. President Trump had previously signed Executive Order No. 13896, authorizing and designating the attorney general to create the Commission that would explore modern issues affecting law enforcement that most impact the ability of American policing to reduce crime.

This timely Commission and its mandated resulting recommendations will require a team effort. In forming the Commission, the Department of Justice has brought together the expertise and experiences of all sectors of the law enforcement community—urban police departments, county sheriffs, state attorneys general and prosecutors, elected officials, United States attorneys and federal law enforcement agencies.  Additionally, while this Commission is for law enforcement and for the purpose of bettering the profession, it is acknowledged that it is important to hear from voices and consult perspectives outside law enforcement.  Civil rights organizations, civic leaders, defense bar associations, victims’ rights organizations government social service partners, and community organizations will be given opportunities to provide advice, counsel and input to the Commission in its study of the relevant issues and solutions. 

The Executive Order instructs the Commission to conduct its study by focusing on the law enforcement officers who are tasked with reducing crime on a daily basis. It also directs the Commission to research “important current issues facing law enforcement and the criminal justice system,” and recommends a variety of subjects for study such as(but not limited to:

• The challenges to law enforcement associated with mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse and other social factors that influence crime and strain criminal justice resources

• The recruitment, hiring, training and retention of law enforcement officers, including in rural and tribal communities

• Refusals by state and local prosecutors to enforce laws or prosecute categories of crimes

• The need to promote public confidence and respect for the law and law enforcement officers

• The effects of technological innovations on law enforcement and the criminal justice system, including the challenges and opportunities presented by such innovations

Now more than ever, this commission must more clearly define the role of law enforcement in our society. Law enforcement can no longer be all things to all people. Societal ills that we cannot arrest our way out of such as mental illness, homelessness and substance abuse, for example, can no longer be subjects that government and its people look to law enforcement to solve. Other professionals in appropriately trained disciplines must now become engaged in seeking solutions to the problems we face. It is not about “defunding” but rather about allocating resources in the most effective manner and allowing law enforcement to further remove ourselves from a societal expectation that we should be largely untrained social workers rather than professional law enforcers. Isn’t that what we’ve been saying in law enforcement all along?

Recognizing this, President Trump has in the interim signed an Executive Order which will immediately focus on policy and funding for independent credentialing for use-of-force training, improving officer retention and recruitment practices and will prioritize “co-respondent services” intended to more deeply involve social workers in responding to certain nonviolent calls — such as those involving mental health, drug addiction and homelessness issues — rather than cops alone..

The level of understanding from those implementing reforms MUST go even further. It is essential that we be able to protect ourselves and others when faced with physical attacks. We must move away from the Police Executive Research Forum recommendation of such things as encouraging departments to“adopt policies that hold themselves to a higher standard than the legal requirements of Graham v. Connor.” Without the Graham v. Connor Supreme Court ruling, which established a clear objective reasonableness standard for when an officer can legally use force on a suspect and speaks to what level of force can be used, where does it leave the officers on the front lines of enforcement and our society as a whole?

Reasonable expectations and guidance that are rooted in our Constitution, court precedent and common sense with officer and community safety in the forefront must now be given and appropriate actions must follow.

Joel E. Gordon is a former Field Training Officer with the Baltimore City Police Department and is a past Chief of Police for the city of Kingwood, West Virginia. He has also served as vice-chair of a multi-jurisdictional regional narcotics task force. An award winning journalist, he is author of the book Still Seeking Justice: One Officer's Story and founded the Facebook group Police Authors Seeking Justice. Look him up at stillseekingjustice.com

Police Reform: Training is What Reform Should Be if Society Wants Better

Aaron Howard goes through rigorous BUD/S training, the beginning of a long military training culture.

Police reform. It's coming and there's nothing that is going to stop it. With all the government leaders cowering to unrealistic public opinion and letting mainstream media control their actions, we must all begin to prepare for police policy reform.

But how it will things change? 

There's plenty of talk that change is needed but very little talk of how things will and should change aside from defunding police (which by the way is irresponsible). 

Below are some ideas of what training should be incorporated to a police officer’s routine to better equip them with the changes of today's troubling times. Mind you, however, these are not groundbreaking ideas and some departments already incorporate these concepts into their training. But these training suggestions should be included into regularly scheduled training sessions, not just the academy or the bi-annual training periods.

In the military, a recruit goes to basic training, graduates and reports to their unit where they continue training. In law enforcement, recruits go to the academy, graduate and go live. They’ll go back to the range next year, and if they’re lucky, a day or two of classroom instruction -- that’s it!

“It’s not like riding a bike. Police need repetition. There’s no excuse for police officers to not have training available to them year-round.” Navy Seal Team 6 Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Howard tells Blue Magazine. “Police are the ones risking their lives day in and day out so we can be safe.”

If police departments need reform, it should come in the form of additional and constant training in these following areas:

• Leadership for everyone in management. From sergeants to the chief, every supervisor should get continuous and thorough training in leadership. Effective leaders know how to communicate and connect with people. When you can connect with people, everything you do and say will resonate far better with your audience. Subordinates challenge and resist ineffective leaders’ directives, which is not conducive to policy change.

• The psychology of mob mentality. What is it about the mob mentality that turns a normally law-abiding citizen into a raging lunatic? This type of person loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of a group. This subject gets much deeper from a social psychology perspective. Training on this subject would give the law enforcement officer, both seasoned veterans and recruits, a better understanding of how mob mentality can shape the landscape of a developing incident. It could also prove useful in determining appropriate social and tactical decisions to prevent a growing peaceful crowd from becoming destructive rioters.

• Maintaining personal control over civilians antagonizing police. Countless videos are emerging showing civilians taunting police, yelling profanities and invading personal space in an effort to antagonize police. Police officers are expected to remain calm and be professional at all times despite that. That’s easier said than done. It is normal human behavior to challenge anyone who’s in your face. Although police academies teach professionalism and poise, regular training on how to use effective techniques on controlling your emotions is a great start.

• Understanding how social media affects civilian decision-making. Everyone wants to post the next viral video. The first action most people take when something is about to go down is to pull out the phone and record what’s happening. This new-age reality should be incorporated into training scenarios as part of the decision-making process when responding to incidents.

• Effective communication techniques. Words are a small part of the communication process. In fact, body language tells the whole story far better than the words people use. This communication also works both ways; the person in distress and the officer who is trying to control the situation. What the officer says and the body language they display is a significant factor in how someone in distress responds.

• Understanding criminal mentality. Most criminals are irrational, impulsive and will act aggressively when they believe they’ve been ‘wronged’ in some way. The most common mistake I see in new recruits is they assume criminals act and think rationally and logically. Recruits make this assumption because they’ve been around rational people their entire lives. Having a better understanding of the common criminal mindset would help an officer better understand and predict a situation as it’s developing.

• Understanding mental health issues. Many people with mental health issues don’t have intent to break the law, they just have a skewed sense of right and wrong. Having a better understanding of how mental health problems manifest themselves in everyday public interaction would better equip officers with communication response techniques.

• Use of force de-escalation. One of the most difficult elements of law enforcement is to de-escalate a situation when you are directly involved. When an officer is struggling with a dangerous person, adrenaline pumps through veins as a survival technique. To just simply come down from that and de-escalate is not simple or even realistic. Responding officers need to understand this dynamic to help the officer de-escalate.

These areas should be the focal point of training scenarios because the police academy is just not enough training. Coupling that with spineless politicians who want to sacrifice a well-intended officer to appease extremist groups and to stay in office is not the solution.

This country was founded on law and order and remains stable because of it. If the public wants police reform, it needs to come in the form of continuous training. That’s the key to better police and policing

Eddie Molina was deployed to Iraq as a Platoon Leader- one of the most challenging roles in modern warfare. His experience and education made him a leadership professional and he blogs about it on his website. In his spare time, he submits articles for the law enforcement, first responder and military community to keep them informed on important issues facing America today. His book, A Beginner's Guide to Leadership, is expected to be published in September 2020. For more information, go to his website at www.eddiemolina.com

The Real Bruce Lee: Tribute to fallen officer Bruce Lee, gone but not forgotten

Bruce kevin lee (photo credit: Bonnie Fortney- Wichita)

May 13, 2003 was a regular work day for me. I woke up early, went into the kitchen to make tea and have a bowl of cereal before I left for work.

I turned on the television to listen to what passes for news in Los Angeles. The news readers were doing the usual, talking about events that had occurred in southern California in the last few hours. I was sort of listening to the news reader when I heard, "Deputy killed in Indio." It had been 22 years since I had worked in Indio. I didn't think there was much of a chance that I would know the officer the news reader was talking about. I sat in my chair and waited for the commercial to end. The news came back on and I looked at a picture of a deputy who I had trained when he was a rookie and I was a field training officer.

Bruce Lee was a good trainee and had visited me in Los Angeles in 1981, after I had screwed up by leaving the sheriff's office. I had introduced him to my new captain, who thought that I was kidding when I said, "Skipper, I want you to meet a friend of mine, Bruce Lee." The captain thought that he was going along with the joke. He replied, "Bruce Lee, I've heard of you before."

The news reader went on to say that Bruce had answered a disturbing the peace call in La Quinta, near Indio. A suspect named Kevin Diablo (real name) confronted Bruce at the scene and took Bruce's baton away from him, inflicting several blows to Bruce's head and neck, causing the severe trauma that killed him. The 23-year-old suspect was known to have mental problems, but the news did not say if anyone told the sheriff's dispatcher that fact when they called the station. A back-up deputy arrived to find Bruce's motionless body on the ground and was confronted by Mr. Diablo, who was wielding Bruce's baton. The deputy fired his service weapon and killed the deranged man.

It was a sad day for me as I drove to work, listening to the radio. Trying to find any information about Bruce Lee's murder I would later find out that Lee had recently transferred back to Indio to work in patrol after spending time as a traffic accident investigator in a contract city not far from Indio.

Sadly, I was unable to attend Bruce's funeral. He was buried on his 46th birthday.

Leroy B. Vaughn is a former U.S. Marine Corps Military Policeman, Security Agent, State Police Officer, Deputy Sheriff and served as a military contractor in the Middle East.

Jim Weston's Honorable Law Enforcement Career

Blue Magazine is honored to place a spotlight on Jim Weston and his honorable law enforcement career.

After graduating high school in 1983, Weston entered the United States Coast Guard and found himself stationed at Fort Pierce in Florida. After serving in the Coast Guard, Jim was hired by the Passaic County New Jersey Prosecutors Office where he was an investigator assigned to the Narcotics Division and worked in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force - Newark Field Office.

Jim was then hired by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) where he was assigned to the Uniform Patrol Division, Manhattan South Precinct.  However, Jim once again found himself working in New Jersey; this time in the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) in 2001. During his tenure in the PCSD, Jim served in a uniform capacity within the Courts Security and Patrol Divisions. He was then promoted to the rank of detective and was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division where he served for several years until being elected PBA Union President Local 286, having served for several terms on two separate occasions until his retirement in 2020.

In addition to these assignments, Jim was a member of the Passaic County SWAT Team, a Certified Firearms Range Instructor for the PCSD and Passaic County Police Academy and remains an active member of the New Jersey Policeman’s Benevolent Association, Passaic County Emerald Society and New Jersey Honor Legion.

Blue Magazine salutes Jim Weston and wishes him much success in retirement. We remain most appreciative of your service.

Gotham has Fallen to the Joker: AKA deBozo the destroyer of New York City

Have you ever seen the Oscar-winning performance of Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight?” Brilliant performance. But did you ever think that you’d witness such anarchy in New York City, aka Gotham, as depicted in the movie? Today, criminals and anarchists terrorize America’s greatest city with tacit approval of the feckless Democrats who are charged with protecting us all. If politicians are going to pick a side, shouldn’t they be picking the side of law and order? The Black Lives Matter organization, Antifa (anti-fascists who are actually fascists) and even some leftovers from the Occupy Wall Street crowd appear to have joined forces while capitalizing on a single event that polarized the country. Add to this Trump Derangement Syndrome and a complicit media, and you have a powder-keg explosion that has little to do anymore with the ex-con George Floyd’s death and much to do with President Trump’s re-election and Marxist ideals.

Over the years, politicians and the media have essentially stood up for law and order. Even Joe Biden was for law and order years ago when he supported the crime bill. However over time things have changed drastically. Why? We can trace it back to the anti-government hippies of the ‘60s and ‘70s as they became many of our college professors. These were the college campus protesters who openly burned their draft cards during their anti-government protests in the era of Woodstock. Some fled to Canada to avoid the draft but were later pardoned by Jimmy Carter. The proletariat class returning from Vietnam became, for the most part, our silent majority that broke their ass, paid their taxes, and sent their kids off to school. Little did they realize the danger as universities were slowly eroding our First Amendment. Group-think took hold as conservative speakers were increasingly banned. Over the decades our children were taught our founders, country, military, and capitalism are evil destructive forces in the world — that America in 2020 is the same racist nation it was in 1968.

Unfortunately, young people today aren’t old enough to compare the last 50 years and think it through. The unprecedented success of countless black millionaires, attorneys, judges, doctors, actors, and politicians today, including a black president who was elected twice by a white majority demonstrates this absurdity. They simply disregard the progress that we’ve made through affirmative action, pouring millions into black communities, and other programs in the last 50 years. President Trump has done more for the black community than any president since Republican Abraham Lincoln.

But facts be damned in our “sound bite” society. Hell, do you realize that the “racist” NYPD is comprised of 60% minorities? How many black higher echelons do we see in news reports every day, from every big city in America? So many of our youth over the years have been indoctrinated with socialism, Marxism, principles of communism, and blatant lies in an effort to divide our nation. Many progressive universities pushed the teachings of authors like Saul Alinsky and Margaret Sanger, a known racist who was admired by Hillary Clinton. As a result, some of these brainwashed students became our Democrat-socialist politicians. Every Democratic-controlled city in our nation, has been run into the ground for decades.

And this brings me to Warren Wilhelm Jr. aka Bill de Blasio. Many see him as a closet communist/Marxist as he backed the Sandinista government in his younger years, and even joined the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. He traveled to Nicaragua to undermine President Reagan and has aligned himself with George Soros for years. You can bet that he’d be taking part in the lawless demonstrations like his daughter did, if it weren’t for him being the mayor. Today, de Blasio characterizes himself as a democratic socialist, but he’s actually much more extreme than that. He also allegedly lied about taking his Honeymoon in Canada when actually he went to Cuba. Bernie Sanders went to Moscow for his Honeymoon, but at least he owned it.

So why is de Blasio, with the tacit approval of other NY politicians, so hell-bent on destroying America’s once-great city? NYC had become known as the biggest safe city in America before deBlasio’s corrosive reign began on Jan. 1, 2014. Recall he immediately attacked the NYPD as he weakened the force, showed them contempt, destroyed morale and more recently eliminated the 600-officer street crime unit. This unit of the most pro-active, fearless officers were mostly responsible for getting illegal guns off the street. In June of 2019 there were 89 shootings. Juxtapose that with June 2020’s 205 shootings, and you can easily see how detrimental to the community disbanding that unit was. And that’s stats for only one month! If Black Lives really do Matter, why would you take action that results in more black deaths?

How can de Blasio, with all of his machinations, get away with such virulent destruction? To an untrained observer, you may believe de Blasio is terribly incompetent, or perhaps just a buffoon. But let’s be real here; most leaders learn by trial and error, constantly learning from their mistakes. I personally don’t see just a few mistakes, but a pattern. And trust me, I don’t take what I’m saying lightly. What de Blasio is doing is absolutely abhorrent. You would think by now that New York’s billionaires would’ve convinced Gov. Cuomo to straighten this guy out already. So, is Cuomo actually complicit? After all, he did sign the Bail Reform Bill that is catastrophic and contributes to more crime.

De Blasio is killing tourism with everything he does, or neglects to do, as visitors need to feel safe. What tourist today would want to visit NYC? There is more graffiti now than during the Dinkin days. Allowing graffiti is in stark contrast to the “broken windows theory” that was embraced by many areas across the country with great success. NYC is now giving San Francisco a run for its money with the homeless defecating in the street. The quality of life phone number is worthless under de Blasio as he’s now set the tone for gang bangers to rule the streets. Need an example? A woman recently asked a group of youths not to blow off fireworks, so they shot her multiple times, leaving her dead in the street. Their arrogance is off the chart as “Nero Fiddles.” NYPD reported that there have been 503 shooting incidents this year with 605 victims as of July 18. It’s hard to understand how the hospitals keep up, especially with COVID. Because decent inner-city blacks are terrorized by gang bangers and other thugs with their “nosnitchin” policy, many of these shootings will go unsolved. How can de Blasio sleep at night knowing that his feckless policies, and anti-police rhetoric, are getting children killed in drive-bys almost every day? Brooklyn community advocate Tony Herbert recently said what so many cops have been saying for years. “Give them 10 years for illegal possession of a firearm; no conversation, no plea bargain, you go straight to jail.” I agree.

All crime, from jumping turnstiles — to armed robbery — to homicide in NYC, have increased exponentially under de Blasio’s watch. He’s done everything in his power, even before the rioting and looting to weaken the NYPD. BLM protests seem “made to order” to turn a thriving economy into a distressed, third-world city. Additionally, COVID-19 unfortunately devastated the city and put thousands of mom and pop stores out of business throughout the five boroughs. But to release thousands of prisoners back into the streets because, ironically, you couldn’t quarantine them on Rikers Island was inexcusable. How is putting them back in housing projects safer, especially for the residents there? They are now showing off their ankle bracelets like a fashion statement. Could you imagine their poor victim’s faces when they suddenly appeared back on the streets! How is it that progressives show so much empathy for predators, but none for their prey? Do they not understand the plight, or fear of these poor victims, usually black, in New York’s communities? What if that was your mom who was robbed, or your sister who was raped?

De Blasio also thinks it’s a good idea to defund the police by almost one billion dollars. Maybe he can explain it to the victims of the crime surge that he now owns. He also recently canceled the next class of police recruits of 1,163 with no regard for impending retirements.

Police officers are all these victims have against these “domestic terrorists.” Good, hard-working blacks in the inner city disdain the criminal element surrounding them, but don’t have the resources to get out. Black folks don’t fear being shot by the police; they know who the real predators are.

Pat Ciser is a retired lieu- tenant from the Clifton Po- lice Department, and a 7th Degree Black Belt. He was a member of 5 U.S. Karate Teams, winning gold medals in South America and Europe. He is the Author of BUDO and the BADGE; Ex- ploits of a Jersey Cop (BN.com/Amazon), and is a guest writer for Official Karate Magazine.

One Nation Under Anarcho-Tyranny

The America you grew up in is not the America we live in now.

          One nation under God? Ha.

          Land of the free? Ha.

          Domestic tranquility? Ha.

          Equal protection under the law? Ha.

          The right to bear arms? Ha.

          Freedom of speech? Association? Peaceable assembly? Ha. Ha. Ha.

It's not "socialism" or "communism" under which we suffer. Our dangerously chaotic, selectively oppressive predicament is more accurately described as "anarcho-tyranny." The late conservative columnist Sam Francis first coined the term in 1992 to diagnose a condition of "both anarchy (the failure of the state to enforce the laws) and, at the same time, tyranny — the enforcement of laws by the state for oppressive purposes."

The "criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent," Francis expounded, is achieved in such a state through: "exorbitant taxation, bureaucratic regulation; the invasion of privacy, and the engineering of social institutions, such as the family and local schools; the imposition of thought control through 'sensitivity training' and multiculturalist curricula; 'hate crime' laws; gun-control laws that punish or disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens but have no impact on violent criminals who get guns illegally; and a vast labyrinth of other measures."

The toxic combination of "pandemic panic" and "George Floyd derangement syndrome" has thoroughly destroyed the home of the brave. It is a paradise for the depraved and dictatorial.

Anarcho-tyranny is how hoodlums can toss statues into rivers with impunity, while citizens disgusted by Black Lives Matter street graffiti are charged with "hate crimes" — as David Nelson and Nicole Anderson in Martinez, California, were by a George Soros-funded district attorney two weeks ago.

Anarcho-tyranny is how rioters can shut down highways and byways on a whim without fear of arrest, while commuters trying to escape the window-smashing barbarians obstructing traffic are charged with "assault" — as poor Jennifer Watson of Denver, Colorado, was this week.

Anarcho-tyranny is how hordes of gay pride activists marching shoulder to shoulder can defy social distancing guidelines with gushing approbation from radical left-wing medical "experts," while anti-lockdown and anti-mask mandate protesters are deemed public health menaces who now face snitch hotlines, fines, house arrest or jail time.

Anarcho-tyranny is how 1,000 black militia members can take over the streets in Georgia and point their guns at motorists as they demand reparations, while white citizen militia members in Idaho, Utah and New Mexico have been smeared publicly as racists and face injunctions for peacefully defending their neighborhoods.

Where do the police stand in this regime? It pains me to say it, but those of us who have backed the blue so loyally and vocally can no longer do so under the assumption that the blue will back us.

It's rank-and-file cops who are issuing citations to citizens who want to breathe freely.

It's rank-and-file cops who are standing by while our monuments and courthouses and landmarks are burned and obliterated.

It was rank-and-file cops in Denver who watched as my patriotic friends and I tried to hold a Law Enforcement Appreciation Day and were besieged by Black Lives Matter and antifa thugs who had declared that their sole intent in invading our permitted celebration was to "shut us down." I live-streamed the chaos as pro-police attendees were beaten, including the organizer Ron MacLachlan, who was bloodied in the face and head just a few feet from me by black-masked animals. One antifa actor wielded her collapsible baton just inches from me.

The cop-haters had obstructed traffic on their five-minute march from their unpermitted event at the Colorado State Capitol to our permitted space.

No cops intervened.

Unprovoked, the cop-haters blared airhorns, sprayed our faces (mine included), burned an American flag, punched, shoved and menaced and took over our stage.

No cops intervened.

The Denver police chief, Black Lives Matter champion Paul Pazen, has repeatedly and publicly blamed us — the law-abiding — for not having enough private security in place, even as he admitted that 76 officers have been injured by the "peaceful" agitators who have turned our capitol into a heathen hellhole (and perpetrated more than $1 million in property damage so far).

If we had brandished or used our weapons in self-defense, we'd be facing felony assault charges — as armed citizen Steven Baca is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the hands of another Soros-subsidized district attorney.

If any of our men had tried to peel the female antifa thugs off of MAGA ladies who were assaulted, they'd be charged with battery, too — just like Baca.

On Tuesday morning, a Denver police union official called me to apologize for the department's failure to protect those of us who tried to speak on their behalf. The "backlash" for defending our constitutional rights was too high a price to pay, he told me. Sorry.

So the message is loud and clear. When push comes to bloody shove in end-stage America, under the rule of the anarcho-tyrants, we, the law-abiding, are the enemy. Those in uniform sworn to protect and serve will turn their backs on us because their bosses don't answer to the public. They protect and serve the mob.

Michelle Malkin is an American conservative blog- ger, political commentator, author, and business- woman. Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites. She was a Fox News contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs. Malkin has written several books. She founded the conservative websites Twitchy and Hot Air. E-mail: Michelle MalkinInvestigates@protonmail.com

Ego Kills Careers: A New Leadership Philosophy and Path For Organizational Success

At one point in my policing career, my ego was out of control. I openly cringe thinking back to those days as a young lieutenant and captain, where my ego overrode good sense when it came to dealing with personnel issues. If an officer under my command disobeyed an order or violated policy, I took it personally; how dare they defy me! Ego was also a roadblock for me developing and growing needed relationships with many law enforcement partners in my county. I did not just burn bridges; I destroyed them, never to be rebuilt.

My ego was not only a problem at work, but it also caused problems at home. During marriage counseling, the counselor tapped into some dormant, malignant memories of my youth. I was as insecure as a 42-year-old captain as I was when I started my career at 25, and I didn’t know any better. The counseling sessions were painful but incredibly cathartic. I began to see where ego was a significant problem in my professional and personal life. The long and constant war with my ego began. Since 2013, I have been fighting those daily battles. I win about 80% of the time, but I learn something new every time I lose one of those battles. Those valuables lessons, along with additional research, led me to develop a philosophy called Ego Kills Careers.

The philosophy uses a multipronged approach: Identification of ego-related problems, training and education and visual reminders to tackle this critical issue. When supervisors are conducting informal or formal counseling sessions, they are instructed to “deep dive” into any problems they encounter. They are to establish if a negative ego is an underlying factor that is hampering an officer’s performance or adherence to the rules. At times, I sent officers, of all ranks, to the department’s psychologist because they needed professional help to overcome their issues with ego. Because of my transparent nature, I freely speak of my positive journey with counseling; I found little to no resistance from those who went to see the psychologist. Better yet, when the officers and supervisors who attended counseling changed their negative behaviors, the rest of the agency took notice. The tangible results of counseling further removed any barriers the officers had to accepting this method of assistance with controlling their egos.

Supervisors are encouraged to ask for feedback from their officers on how they performed during the year. In the beginning, getting evaluated by their troops was a foreign and uncomfortable concept for the supervisors. Now, most are secure that this valuable information, if used, will make them better supervisors. As the chief, I am not above getting evaluated. In 2019, I conducted an employee survey to identify my strengths and weaknesses. While the study was mainly positive, my staff and I worked hard on addressing the weak points in my “modus operandi.” I encourage all my fellow chiefs to conduct an anonymous survey in their departments, as this will test a leader’s commitment to working on their ego.

To formalize the philosophy, I teamed up with a local, licensed professional counselor who helped me develop an 8-hour course entitled Ego Kills Careers. This very interactive course shows students the problems associated with a negative ego, illustrates the gift of humility and demonstrates how the use of introspection and emotional intelligence builds a positive ego. The backbone of the class comes from the works of authors Ryan Holiday, Jocko Willink, Robin Dreeke and several other contemporary leaders on the subjects of trust, humility, leadership, and ego.

I am a great believer in visual aids. Hanging on the walls of my department are historical photos, plaques of past achievements and motivational quotes (The Man in The Arena by Teddy Roosevelt). Above the back door, where all the officers, detectives, staff and administration enter the building, hangs a large sign that reads Ego Kills Careers. The sign is a constant but subtle reminder of the department’s philosophy, one that I reinforce every day.

Data, analytics and technology are currently the buzzwords in policing. I am on a mission to get ego added to that list. What is more important than our people? Nothing! There is a unique and encouraging feeling one gets when they are freed from the confines of ego. Slights no longer sting, patience grows exponentially, anger becomes a forgotten emotion and life, in general, is sweeter. The results I gained battling ego changed the way I interact with people. I hope that by sharing my story, along with the research conducted on the subject, I can enrich the work and personal lives of all officers and supervisors and save some careers in the process.

Chief Ron Camacho is an accomplished law enforcement executive who spent time as an advisor in Afghanistan and Mexico. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, has a master’s in criminal justice from Liberty University, and is the chief of the Chambersburg Pennsylvania Police Department. He is the owner of Camacho Consulting LLC, a leadership and management training company.

Never Give Up: Elected officials can be replaced. The majority of Americans support cops

There’s never been a more perilous time to be a law enforcement officer, and yet across our great nation, the men and women of law enforcement continue to show up, answer calls for assistance and do the right thing. Doing the right thing seems to be, to some extent, a bygone theme for most of society but not for law enforcement. It can’t be! Often called the thin blue line, the men and women of law enforcement are the protectors of those simply attempting to live out their lives in peace. Too many people these days seem to take a poll or check the direction of the wind before making a decision that involves right and wrong, and so many decisions are based on politics, trial by media, mob rule and a quick rush to judgment. How I miss the days when people just did what was right without first pondering what it would cost them.

Isn’t law and order nothing more than doing the right thing, and requiring bad actors to do the right thing, or suffer the consequences for their unruly actions? As we see some cities making political decisions as to how to deploy law enforcement assets rather than just maintaining law and order, I feel for law enforcement officers but I’m grateful that we live in a country where politicians can be replaced. We know this political grandstanding is taking a toll on the psyche of rank and file law enforcement officers, but what do you do if you are instructed to do something that you know isn’t lawful? You do the right thing knowing that you stand for something bigger than self… bigger than one single situation! You stand by the principles you have decided are worth more than yourself.

I truly believe one thing that sets law enforcement officers aside from the rest of society is their decision that some things cannot be negotiable, and the safety of others is worth putting their life on the line. Officers make this decision every time they put on their ballistic vest, strap on their Sam Brown belt and go to work. It may seem silly, but I believe the majority of today’s society decides what they believe in based on their own individual needs without giving thought to society as a whole. We must each decide ahead of time what our principles are, or someone else will decide for us. When it is time to act, you don’t have time to ponder what’s right and what’s wrong. You fall back on your training, not just as an officer but all the way back to who you are as a person of integrity and what made you want to be an officer.

The rules that govern our society are, at their core, nothing more than doing the right thing, and at times you have to place your trust in the fact that sticking to your principles is worth whatever it costs you. I know a little about this because in 2011 I was carrying a federal badge and working in a high-profile position, but my principles would cost me my career, professional reputation, financial well-being, and make me what I am today, a national security threat whistleblower. I never wanted to be a whistleblower. I just wanted to do the right thing. I wanted to protect my country. I wanted my children to be proud of me, and I wanted to provide for my family. Making the decision that made me a whistleblower was easy and almost instantaneous because I had decided ahead of time what my principles were, but the ramifications were swift and harsh. Had I given up and buckled to the immense pressure, I would have compromised my integrity, and that is the only thing in this life that no one can take from you. You must lay it down, stand on your principles and take the heat and NEVER GIVE UP. I had faith that the laws that our society is based upon would back me up, and they did. Justice is not always swift, but it is sure. If you never give up and stick to your principles, I am a believer that you can’t lose. I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you it won’t be painful and there won’t be bad days, but good does win!

So, in this day and age, where doing the right thing doesn’t seem to come naturally for many, be that light on the hill. Be that example that our society desperately needs right now. Do the right thing and know that the laws supported by our society are there to back you up for being that thin blue line. And always remember these things: Elected officials can be replaced, and the loudest voices are not the majority. They are just the loudest! You are supported even when you don’t feel it. Just stay true to who you are and stand strong in your faith and convictions. You are appreciated more than you know! Hold that thin blue line! Our country needs you more now than ever!

Blake Percival worked as a police officer in Alabama and West Virginia before becoming Director of US Investigations Services. Blake became a whistleblower in July 2011 when he exposed that USIS was billing the U.S. Government for roughly around 665,000 background investigations that allegedly had not been properly reviewed. Among those clearances were NSA leaker Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis, who shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. He has written a book, “Holding on to Integrity and Paying the Price – A Whistleblower’s Story” and is considered a leading authority on the vetting process and investigations.

Every Storm Runs Out Of Rain: The silent majority must stand up

Here we go again, folks. Another wave and another storm of anti-police hate speech, attacks on police and attacks on the beliefs that make this nation so great. If some of you are like me, you probably wake up every day and ask yourself, "What world am I living in?" These storms come and go and those that are doing the right thing do their best to weather them, hunker down and hold fast. They will pass, but at what cost? While some mainstream media outlets and the pandering spineless radical liberal politicians will have you believe that criminals are the victims, cops are the criminals, and anyone who speaks against the progressive agenda is the enemy: others, the silent majority, still stand with the side of law and order.

Recent terrible and tragic injustices which could have led to an important channel of open dialog between civic leaders, law enforcement, and society instead became a hijacked vessel of hate with a new mission. A mission set on destruction. A man dying in police custody should be followed by the gathering of facts surrounding the incident, holding those responsible accountable, and a period of reflection to determine what went wrong and how it can be prevented in the future. None of that happened. Instead, a runaway train filled with anti-government motives, law-breaking behaviors and intolerance toward those who stand between them, headed hell-bent and full-throttle toward the American way of life with the main goal of destroying it.

Police now more than ever need to remain vigilant. We as police are stuck between doing the job that we chose and watching out for our necks as violence toward police has hit the roof. Police are there to help, that's how simple and basic it is. Some would argue that BLUE is the color of the uniform they wear and that if they don't like how they are treated they can take it off anytime. But what happens when no one is left wearing the uniform? What happens when the gutless politicians rewrite the books, doing away with those in BLUE? I can tell you this what we've seen on the news recently about increasing violence and crime in American cities is a sliver of what's to come. American cities and impoverished communities will feel the full brunt of a lawless society

Defunding or abolishing police, whatever you want to call it, is all the same to me. Who in their right mind would want to limit reduce, or restrain the very group responsible for handling society's problems? Sure, if you're a lawless criminal this sounds great, with more potential victims and less police around. It sounds like open season on the vulnerable to me. That's what defund/abolish police means it means, "I don't care about the vulnerable. Any politician who gets behind this message needs to take a long look in the mirror, ask themselves if what they're doing is what they believe is right? Does it do the most good for the most people? Or are they just pandering to save their own skin come election time?

Fortunately, America still currently operates where citizens can be heard in the voting booths. There is a lot of noise that the attention is focused on right now. Rest assured that productive members of society and the like have had to remain silent for some time. They remained silent out of fear that they would be vehemently labeled something that they are not but actions speak louder than words, and action in the voting booth is more important than words on the streets. When this storm of hate and intolerance passes. I hope all you good people out there pick your heads up, carry on and let your voices be heard.

Chris Scilingo is a police officer in NJ since 2011. He's a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He holds a bachelor's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University and is currently pursuing a master's degree. Chris aspires to teach higher education after transitioning from law enforcement.