South Bend Cops Warn of 'Mass Exodus' as Morale Plummets Over Buttigieg's Mishandling of ShootingHow is he supposed to be able to run a country if he can't manage a small city?
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has been embroiled in controversy for several weeks after a white policeman shot a black man to death. The officer, Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, shot and killed Eric Logan after he responded to a call of someone breaking into cars. O'Neill claims that Logan, armed with a knife, advanced on him after repeated orders to stop and was fatally shot.
But O'Neill did not turn on his body cam, so, of course, the officer's account of what happened became not only immediately suspect, but O'Neill was tried, convicted, and hung by the South Bend media and black activists.
So how did our new liberal hero -- the man who would be president -- handle this crisis?
He all but called the police department racists.
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The cops didn't appreciate hizzoner's vacillating comments -- not when they expected their mayor to voice his support in the face of wildly unfair and untrue criticism of the police.
“Morale around here has been terrible. We do nothing,†one police officer, a 20-year veteran of the force, told Fox News. “We call ourselves firemen, we sit around in parking lots until we’re called and then we go to the call, because if you say or do something wrong, then you get hung.â€
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Officers requested not to be identified for this story in fear of retaliation by the mayor's administration. But they told Fox News that they know of multiple officers who are considering handing in their badges or taking retirement if eligible, in response to the mayor’s handling of the shooting.
“That's the big discussion ... is who's staying and who's going. I think you’re going to see a mass exodus, our administration is a joke,†one officer said.
The Ferguson Effect lives. Michael Brown got himself killed 5 years ago by twice trying to kill the officer who finally shot Brown. The MSM and activists - with local officials' inadequate resonse making them complicit - destroyed the officer's life for daring to do his job. In Baltimore, the State's Prosecutor maliciously prosecuted 6 officers who did their job, for political gain. Such attacks on police officers for doing there jobs are not an end to themselves, as the St. Louis area and Baltimore learned to the tune of millions of $$ and hundreds of lives. Police officers, when forced to, will respond defensively - leaving affected police forces, not applying for positions at affected forces, and policing responsively rather than preventatively.
This defensive policing has been going on for years, but pols like Mayor Buttigieg are too owned by activists and victim groups to back their PDs when they are in the right.
