1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:06,460 For over 39 years, I was a police officer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2 00:00:06,460 --> 00:00:10,600 For 15 of those years, I was the Sheriff of Milwaukee County. 3 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:16,000 I’ve done everything you can do as cop—from walking the beat, to investigating murder, 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:17,800 to running the agency. 5 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:22,080 I’ve met a lot of cops—of every race, ethnicity and background. 6 00:00:22,080 --> 00:00:23,640 Here’s what I can tell you: 7 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:25,120 Cops are not perfect. 8 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:31,200 That’s not a news flash. But this might be: They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be excellent. 9 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:37,560 And most officers reach excellence every single day, and often under very difficult circumstances 10 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:42,560 —circumstances you can’t imagine, and wouldn’t want to if you could. 11 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,680 Perfection is an unattainable goal. 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:47,800 Cops are ordinary human beings. 13 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:53,720 Like everyone else—lawyers, surgeons and baseball players—they make mistakes. 14 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:57,560 But no profession works harder to correct its mistakes. 15 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:04,000 You can mark social progress by the improvements made by police departments over the last 50 years. 16 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,360 Today, police are more professional, better educated, and better trained 17 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:11,520 than at any time in their history. 18 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,880 You wouldn’t know it, though, if you listened to self-serving, self-righteous politicians 19 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:17,400 and activists. 20 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:22,880 In their version of history, the police are the villains of the story, not its heroes. 21 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:27,800 Like everything else this crowd does, they’ve got it all backwards. 22 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:29,600 The police aren’t the problem. 23 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:32,160 The politicians and activists are. 24 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,120 The police didn’t create the failed urban policies that have locked people 25 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,390 into generational poverty. 26 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:44,240 The police aren’t responsible for fatherless homes, failing schools, and bad lifestyle choices. 27 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:49,200 And they sure as hell aren’t responsible for the lack of respect shown to police officers. 28 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:55,040 It is this lack of respect for authority, fostered over decades by the progressive left 29 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:59,320 and its fear-the-police narrative, that has led to the needless deaths 30 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:01,670 of so many young black men. 31 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,440 When Officer Darren Wilson told Michael Brown to get out of the middle of the street in 32 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:08,520 Ferguson, Missouri, did Brown comply? 33 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:09,520 No. 34 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:15,190 When officers in Baltimore told Freddie Gray to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? 35 00:02:15,190 --> 00:02:16,190 No. 36 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:22,080 When officers in New York City told Eric Garner to stop resisting arrest, did he comply? 37 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:23,480 No. 38 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,680 Here’s a useful tip—if you want avoid a bad outcome with a police officer, 39 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,800 follow this simple rule: 40 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:37,160 When a cop gives you a lawful command, obey it—even if you disagree. 41 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:42,240 Whatever problem you are experiencing is not going to be settled on the street. 42 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,760 People with complaints need to use the process established for that purpose. 43 00:02:46,769 --> 00:02:50,870 Though cops don’t have the final say, they do in that moment. 44 00:02:50,870 --> 00:02:54,900 How you react can be a matter of life or death. 45 00:02:54,900 --> 00:03:01,480 But the idea that a law-abiding citizen has to fear the police is a terrible and destructive lie. 46 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:03,680 Let’s get some perspective. 47 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:08,640 In 2014, 990 people were killed in police use-of-force incidents. 48 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:10,440 Does that sound like a lot? 49 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:15,800 Did you know that, according to a Johns Hopkins study, that same year, medical errors killed 50 00:03:15,810 --> 00:03:18,319 250,000 people? 51 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:24,400 Yet activists aren’t marching in the streets, demanding that the medical profession be reformed. 52 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:25,800 Why not? 53 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:30,109 Why is it that the people who protect you from the bad guys—and I’ve seen these 54 00:03:30,109 --> 00:03:34,200 bad guys close up—are the subject of distrust and anger? 55 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:39,950 Why is it that groups like Black Lives Matter—I call them Black Lies Matter because it’s 56 00:03:39,950 --> 00:03:44,419 based on the falsehood that police represent a danger to black people—are celebrated 57 00:03:44,419 --> 00:03:46,840 by the media and politicians? 58 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:52,800 All this is taking its toll on cops and, even more tragically, on the law-abiding citizens 59 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:57,320 in the neighborhoods that most need a strong police presence. 60 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:01,880 The murder rates in these neighborhoods are going up because lawful, aggressive policing 61 00:04:01,900 --> 00:04:03,560 is going down. 62 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,950 Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has explained why. 63 00:04:06,950 --> 00:04:09,669 She calls it “The Ferguson Effect.” 64 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:13,000 And it’s real. It’s also common sense. 65 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:19,299 Why, police officers reason, put your career at risk, if 30 seconds of smartphone video 66 00:04:19,299 --> 00:04:22,520 taken out of context can destroy it? 67 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,680 Here’s the truth: Police aren’t afraid of walking the streets 68 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:27,760 or being shot by random criminals. 69 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:34,120 They’re afraid of being involved in an incident that would label them forever as trigger-happy racists. 70 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:35,880 Are there bad cops? 71 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:39,560 I know first-hand that there are—I’ve had to fire them. 72 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,770 But the overwhelming majority are good, decent men and women, concerned about the law-abiding 73 00:04:44,770 --> 00:04:50,920 citizens in the communities they serve and are willing to put their lives on the line to protect them. 74 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:56,479 Those who try to convince you, either out of ignorance or out of some ideological agenda, 75 00:04:56,480 --> 00:05:00,760 that the police are the enemy—those are the people you should fear. 76 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:03,920 Run from them. Not the cops. 77 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,600 I’m Sheriff David Clarke for Prager University.