Which actually brings us to an occasion of the Hero Award. To get a Hero Award, you don't have to be an all-around great person. You just have to at some point, on some matter big or small, do the right thing. Here's a good example.In this case, the Hero Award goes to Ron Smith, the president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, the local police union. In 2011, the DOJ found that Seattle police department had “engaged in a pattern of excessive force that violates the constitution and federal law” and which also “raised serious concerns” that the force had been engaged in “discriminatory policing.”
The city agreed to remedial actions but nonetheless, in the time since Smith has has been critical of those efforts and defended some Seattle cops accused of unnecessary force and abuse of authority.
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| Ron Smith |
You have to treat people all the same. ... They hired you because they thought you were going to be able to work in a diverse community. And if you can't, well then, I guess there are still places across the country that aren't diverse, so go work there. But those won't last forever.In other words, get with the program, cut the crap, be prepared to work in a diverse community and treat everyone equally, or get out of the Seattle PD.
It would have been even better if he had said that if you can't work without bias in a diverse community you can't be a cop, but this is a good start. And for that good start, Ron Smith is a hero.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/02/18/21739167/seattle-police-union-president-to-cops-get-with-the-times-or-get-out-of-this-city
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