Relations between citizens and the police sworn to protect them are becoming "more dangerous," making violent confrontations more likely in the future, says lawyer and former Atlanta police officer Marc Harrold.
In a panel discussion led by Newsmax "Hard Line" host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV on Monday, Harrold said an
FBI study showing an increase in the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2014 is disturbing.
"It is getting more dangerous, and we're going to see more confrontations, more violent confrontations between citizens and police," Harrold said. "There's a lot more acrimony, there's a lot more hostility, and we will see more of these types of incidents."
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Panelist John Cardillo, a former New York City Police Department officer, said the glee of a Subway
restaurant employee over the slaying of two Hattiesburg, Mississippi, police officers is a particularly disturbing example of frayed relations.
Cardillo noted that he led the effort to have the Subway worker fired.
"So, Subway as a company stepped up, but I don't know at this point in time what departments are going to do to encourage recruitment," he said.
"The pay isn't very good, and this anti-police sentiment has been the direct result of four dead young police officers in the last week," along with the officers in Mississippi and elsewhere, including
NYPD officer Brian Moore.
"It's very dangerous, and this stamp-out-the-police sentiment, this national, permissive attitude toward the criminality, has everything to do with what we're seeing here," Cardillo said, adding that police who act improperly are investigated and prosecuted, and the "negative occurrences" are statistically "way, way, way south of 1 percent."
Most police feel that President Barack Obama's "permissive attitude toward criminality and his vilification of police officers is lending to" the hostilities between the citizenry and law enforcement, Cardillo said.
"A return to respect for law enforcement, which includes prosecuting bad cops — but teaching the public that it's a dangerous job and to show respect to the badge, to the uniform, and cooperate and comply when the police are acting professionally — will go a long way to restoring the enthusiasm that people have in joining the ranks of law enforcement," he said.
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