Courtesy of Inquisitr:
Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn made a national name for himself on Wednesday after an impassioned video went viral on YouTube.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel posted a three-minute clip of Flynn responding to police protesters, who turned out to a Fire and Police Commission meeting to slam the department over the shooting of a mentally ill man.
Dontre Hamilton suffered from schizophrenia but was non-violent, according to family members. When Officer Christopher Manney approached Hamilton, he reportedly violated protocols that escalated the confrontation, and he ended up shooting Hamilton 14 times, killing him.
Flynn responded by firing Manney, taking flak from the police union in the process. When police protesters showed up to verbally attack him and other members of the police at the meeting, Flynn was having none of it. He shouted back at many of them and took a phone call, much to the chagrin of the protesters.
This led the press to ask Edward Flynn about his actions following the meeting. His response is not only angry, thought-provoking, and impassioned, but it also symbolizes what many law enforcement personnel feel about doing their jobs in the 21st Century.
I think that sometimes people forget just how stressful of a job police officers have.
They deal with people at their very worst, and often they are confronted with numbing amounts of domestic abuse, death, and human despair.
This of course is no excuse for the cop who guns down an unarmed person, or uses excess force to make an arrest. But it does help us to understand just how frustrated police officers must get with constant attacks on their profession, and disrespect from their communities.
I thought Police Chief Edward Flynn's remarks were quite appropriate, and I think they help to remind us that these are just human beings trying to hang onto their humanity, in the face of incredibly heartrending experiences.
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