officers - The Black Vault

Gates has iong been a special pinup of
the kind of conservatives who cotton to
' primitivism, as in his thought that .. ~asual
drug users should be shot. But lie is a
special problem for thoughtful coli.~ervatives
who are having a hard enough time
;Persuading Congress to expand som~rpolice
.. powers. ·
· Every officer at the scene of that police
crime should, at a minimum, be• fired.
Some, probably inost, perhaps all, .$hould
go to jail. And what of Gates, whoris paid
($168,793, by the way) to produce ~,police
force better than his J;..os Angeles departmentis?
,.:.
Police work is frequently dangerous and
• even more often unpleasant. It cim be
·. desensitizing. and demoralizing-literally
de-moralizing. It requires special str.ength
of character to do this indispensable work
right, day by day and night after,,night,
without succumbing to callousness, 'C!jsgust
and rage.
Most police officers lead lives ot,heroic
resistance to these weaknesses. Minimizing
those weaknesses is a test of police leadership.
Gates has failed that test too •often.
His department is Illustrating, redundantly,
an iron law operating throughout
American government and business: :When
there is no ,penalty for failure, f'}ilures
. proliferate. ,.
George F. Will is a syndicated col-/imnist
in Washington. · · · ·