Community support is a two-way street

Imagine this: we go a day with no crime. Would there be a headline, “No crime today!”? Would the media sing the praises for the Department of Public Safety? No. Crime makes the news, but the lack of it is a non-event. Crime is sensational. Peace and quiet isn’t. Sensation sells. Thoughtful reflection doesn’t.

Which means that the DPS has to endure criticism, but never seems to get the praise it deserves.

Would you rather have the Los Angeles Police Department here? The LAPD, it has finally been revealed, has been planting evidence, falsifying information, and just plain murdering people who they don’t like. And the New York Police Department gunning down innocent civilians in the street has become the stuff of cliches.

Would you like to have LAPD’s star officer, Mark Furhman, here on patrol? Would you feel comfortable having him pull over your daughter at 11:00 p.m. in Marpi? Would you ever want him in your home for any reason at all?

I lived in LA, and one thing I’m grateful for in Saipan is our professional and largely honest police force here. The LAPD, by contrast, holds a full blown reign of terror.

Let’s keep our collective wits about us in the wake of the recent jail breaks. Cool heads are calling for an accounting for what happened in the recent break. Such an accounting will take time to produce, because it will entail an investigation. So, let’s let the DPS do an investigation and then we’ll move on from there.

Yesterday’s Saipan Tribune editorial put it better than I can. While pointing out the urgent need to improve our jail security, the editorial noted, “We don’t necessarily relish the idea of dishing critical assessment of a vital agency whose very presence in this community is so reassuring…” This is the level-headed approach that I would suggest the entire community takes.

And, face it, the DPS presence here is reassuring. Most police departments in the world aren’t that way. In most of the world, the police aren’t part of the community, they prey on the community. The CNMI is a happy exception to this unhappy rule, and we’d be wise to count our blessings on this note.

We expect our DPS officers to keep their cool no matter what, even in dangerous situations. The DPS, in turn, has a right to expect the community to keep its cool until the DPS can investigate the jail breaks and present us with the facts. A sober discussion of the issue is one thing; hysterical ranting is quite another.

A legitimate pang of hysteria probably hit people related to the legal proceedings that landed the escapees in the hoosgow in the first place. It would be a mighty horrible feeling to be a judge, juror, or witness, and knowing a murderer or other crook you helped send up the river has come back down again. I’m sure more than a few folks oiled up their .410 shotguns and cursed the fact they can’t legally keep a .45 pistol in the night stand, the better to give 230 grain lead suppository to violent intruders. And I’m sure these folks were justifiably outraged at the jail break.

I’m not going to do the research on this, but I would find it of interest if the DPS would present us with some facts and figures pertaining to how its budget compares, on a per-capita basis, with those of U.S. departments. We may have a glaring shortage of resources–read that money–that is at the root of our problems. If so, then we have tasked the men and women of the DPS with a job to do, without giving them the resources to do it. If a lack of resources is the problem, then it’s up to the community to get its priorities straight and come up with the necessary money.