MAKING IT PERSONAL
Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff was concerned and brought an NYPD tactical report to the Chief’s attention at a recent Police Commission meeting. If anything can be said about Commissioner Soboroff and his eight years on the Police Commission, it is that he
has always exhibited a concern for the welfare of LAPD officers.
The report mentioned numerous incidents of attacks on LAPD officers as well as an assessment of tactics used by antigovernmental extremists across the nation against law enforcement officers. The tactical report noted that there were “similar tactics across multiple jurisdictions, reflecting a degree of influence and cross-pollination—communications on mobile messaging platforms—despite the opportunistic nature of the violence.”
Some of these tactics are utilized during demonstrations, such as Molotov cocktails, green laser beams shined in officers’ eyes, an umbrella use to hide actions and setting fires. Fireworks are used and, as discovered in Atlanta, shrapnel such as nails have been embedded in the mortar shells.
There are also illustrations on the internet on how to liberate an arrestee, such as when an officer in a North Carolina protest attempted to arrest a rioter and a coordinated effort from members of the crowd surrounded the officer, pulled the suspect down to the ground and dragged him away as others in the crowd held the officer’s shoulder and leg.
But from an individual officer’s point of view, this is not the most insidious activities that are discussed in the tactical report. Officers expect confrontation when on duty, but when it is off duty, it is personal. Making it personal is not an accident, it is an antigovernmental extremist tactic. It is described in Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals. (See the August 2019 Thin Blue Line “Warning Bells” article
for a fuller discussion.)
Rule 13 says, “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Alinsky points out that attacking an organization doesn’t work. It is too abstract. You must personalize the target. It is accomplished by personal attacks on individual officers and leaders. And it is being done, and it is both organized and random.
Across the nation there are reports of officers being photographed and tailed when they leave their stations and head for home. There are reports that police vehicles parked at officers’ residences have had their windows broken and have been burglarized for weapons. An officer in Memphis had bullets fired into his house, personal vehicle and department vehicle while parked outside his residence.
Keep this in mind if you have a home garaging permit. Park in the garage. NYPD reported 25 incidents of vandalism on their officers’ personal vehicles. In Orange County, department vehicles had tires slashed, wheel lug nuts loosened and brake lines cut. Similarly, six detective cars in Phoenix had their wheel lug nuts loosened.
In Los Angeles, an officer, who flew a Thin Blue Line flag at his house, had his residence shot at. Another officer who had a pro-police bumper sticker had his vehicle fired upon. A Michigan state police officer found screws put into three of his tires on his personal vehicle. It’s not only officers who are in danger. In Mesa, Ariz., a police civilian employee had the lug nuts in her vehicle loosened or removed from her vehicle when it was parked in her driveway. An FBI employee with a Thin Blue Line sticker in her windshield was the victim of a brandishing, and a family member of a Michigan officer with a Fraternal Order of Police sticker on her bumper was tailed, cut off and flipped off by another motorist.
A Middletown, N.Y., officer had a vehicle drive by his residence as a person shouted anti-police comments. A few hours later, his wife left his residence and saw the same car. When she returned, she saw that a screen had been removed from their window and lights had been turned on inside the residence.
An officer in Arizona who had been involved in a publicized use of force and who was home on administrative leave found BLM chalked on the sidewalk outside his home and, a few days later, a window in his house broken.
The Chief routinely releases the names of LAPD officers involved in a categorical use of force. Increase your vigilance if you are named.
An Allegheny County officer had letters burned into his front lawn with a chemical. A Stafford County, Va., officer had his house egged. Another officer in that area found a waxy substance in the deadlock of his front door. Someone was trying to make an impression to make a duplicate key.
An officer in Los Angeles County found a razor blade in his food that he had ordered on duty. In Parkridge, N.J., officers arrested an employee caught spitting in their coffee.
Officers in Buffalo were doxed, which means that personal information such as their home addresses, emails, phone numbers, family member addresses and other information are posted online. This resulted in threatening letters, glitter bombs and protests outside their residences. Kentucky officers suffered the same fate, with the addition that their account sign-in information was posted.
In Las Vegas, officers’ spouses were harassed online in their social media accounts. The report felt that spouses were less focused on security and their family photos often had people wearing uniforms in them. Thirty-eight officers in Portland were all doxed.
The point of all of this is that there is a need for safety awareness to a greater extent than ever in our history. It’s getting personal. Situational awareness off duty is now as important as it is on duty.
The internet has brought new dangers. Finding out where officers, their families and their relatives live is readily available. Some things you might do is use a VPN when online, change your password frequently and use two-factor authentications.
And check your six.
Be legally careful out there.
