inSCIghts

THE BEAT – Will Never Be The Same

September 13th, 2012 | Author: Dr. Ross Riggs

             

Wanis al-Sharef, eastern Libya’s deputy interior minister told reporters following the deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy there which coincided with a military style raid on a ‘safe house’ utilized by the American government that the militants used civilians protesting an anti-Islam film as cover for their action.[i] It is most likely that what agitation there may have been because of the flap over the movie and its depiction of Mohammad was much more orchestrated than it was an incendiary reaction. Quasi-professional rabble rousers aided the militarily trained rebels to score a hit against the U.S.

Locally, the hue and cry of protectionism and isolationism has been raised. Many are decrying why we should send aid of any kind to nations that openly attack our people and rebuke our way of life. The hypocrisy of despising capitalism and then taking the financial and other types of aid that capitalism has made possible is getting a bit too hard to swallow. There is much anger in the midst of both sides of the chasm that is widening between protestant, Catholic, and even non-religious folks and those of the Muslim faith.

What does this mean for the police officer on the beat? Not only are the neighborhoods and cities under their watch integrated with persons of all races, creeds, faiths and genealogies, the department within which the officers work are a microcosm of that same environment (or it should be). So in what way can these officers work together, even as they may have to enter a hostile neighborhood? It is especially difficult if that neighborhood is seething with the issue of distrust between two people, families or groups that mirror the make-up of the pair of officers standing in the middle.

The Iran hostage crisis 1981

A generation before mine said that when the English invaded, America lost its innocence and a downward spiral began that took with it America’s youth, spiritual foundations and our character. The reference was not to Concord and Lexington, nor was it along the shores of Lake Erie with Commodore Perry standing strong. It took place on a sound stage in front of a “live studio audience.” The ‘captain’ on deck was the one and only, Ed Sullivan and the British attack forces were made up of four young men named Paul, Ringo, John and George. Perhaps something was lost but it wasn’t innocence. The loss of innocence for my generation came in Southeast Asia and later in a Marine Barracks in Beirut and then for 444 days in the U.S. Embassy in Iran. A similar loss came for the next generation at the Pentagon, in a field in Pennsylvania and at the Twin Towers in NYC. Does every generation have to face their own crucible that rips innocence from them?

The society which then is left smoldering and with a distant kind of gurgling sound coming from its waning life, must find a way to keep going. Very often the people take their cue from the cop on the beat. They cannot receive that cue or trace their example from a political leader, though some have been great inspiration, such as the Gipper. But, politicians  are too far removed from the neighborhoods where society really exists. That sometimes grizzled old cop, who has seen more than he could ever recount, is teamed up with the often starry-eyed ‘do gooder’ fresh from the academy setting out to save the world. Together they hash out what will work to keep their neighborhood, their beat, from coming apart at the seams. By the time they get it re-stitched a bit, the starry-eyed rookie is a little less so and the old grizzly bear of a cop has a renewed sense of purpose, hope and even amazement at the way people really can get along if you keep it simple.

That dynamic duo will never fix the crises in the Middle East, though over coffee with other cops they’ll debate it until the Sinai Peninsula is ready to slide off into the ocean. They can’t reign in government or establish defense protocol… but their own little corner of the world will make it through another day.
It is true that once innocence is lost a beat can never be the same. Sometimes, just sometimes, it can be better.

Dr. Ross L. Riggs, Director Security Consulting Investigations, LLC

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[i] Consulate attack planned as 2-part militant assault, Libyan official says