The image of cops as racist or reckless that has taken hold in the media this year must be challenged by people inside and outside of law enforcement before the hostile perceptions harden and make tensions over policing even worse, a legal advocate for police officers told
Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
"What we've seen for months now has been a failure of communication, and poor communication — whether by design or inadvertently — and it has created this narrative that the country is hearing now," Ron Hosko, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.
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"We heard it for four months, and the complete sentence was, 'White cop shoots unarmed black teen,' '' said Hosko, a former FBI assistant director of criminal investigations, referring to the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August, in a confrontation with then-Officer Darren Wilson.
"The story in Ferguson was much more detailed, and it was finally told," said Hosko, adding that "there's more detail to what's going on in New York [in the Eric Garner case] and you're not hearing it from our leaders."
But getting the story out, or waiting for it to unfold, is only part of the challenge that police and community leaders — including elected officials — face in dealing with the public at a time of mass protests over the deaths of Brown and Garner, according to Hosko.
"We had a situation in Ferguson where the masses were ready to deny Darren Wilson and any sort of due process or presumption of innocence," he said. "They wanted a tree and a rope. They wanted a conviction the next day.
"And then, when the facts become known, because of the false narrative that we heard over four months and positions are hardened, then we have to somehow find a way to walk back from that and re-educate people who don't want to listen," he said. "It became very difficult over the last four months, but we need to take some steps forward together with the right voices."
"Law enforcement is far from perfect," said Hosko. "There are going to be personnel who are going to be acting criminally, who are acting negligently, stupidly, foolishly. However, the tone has been set in the last few months … has been the suggestion that all of law enforcement is corrupt, all of law enforcement is biased, stupid, poorly trained. Nothing could be further from the truth."
"I hope and pray that most of the public sees law enforcement for what they are," said Hosko. "That is, they're protectors, those who are working day and night to keep [people] safe or running into burning buildings, running into active shooter scenarios, engaging in acts of heroism every day and doing a very difficult job.
"However, we do need smarter police officers, we need more training, we need more engagement with our community at all levels and … individual officers getting out of their cars and walking on the street and knowing who they're policing," he said, "and trying to get the community back together on the side of law enforcement."
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