task0778
Diamond Member
The individual who wrote this is retiring from the MPD this month. It's a sad story about heroes being treated poorly.
Minneapolis police officers have gotten no support in the aftermath of the 2020 protests, and many are struggling with PTSD.
By Kim Voss FEBRUARY 4, 2021 — 5:37PM
... I was a lieutenant with the Minneapolis Police Department, assigned to the Third Precinct. I had been a police officer in Minnesota for 37 years. I use the words "was" and "had been" because effective this month, I am retired.
While our leadership held us back and we remained unsupported by our state, our city and our police administration, our neighborhoods burned. We felt helpless. And to add insult to injury, they gave up our home, and called it "just bricks and mortar."
It wasn't just bricks and mortar to us.
(The Minneapolis Police Third Precinct station was evacuated and destroyed May 28, 2020.)
If you want to totally break down the morale and mission of police officers, hold them back and leave them hanging without any support. What you are left with is a department that sees almost one-third of its sworn personnel leave due to PTSD both diagnosed and undiagnosed. I am one of those.
It's hard to get up every day and be happy to go to your job feeling like damaged goods. I received over 4,000 voicemails of vitriolic hate, and I didn't have a phone left or a desk to put a phone on. My office had been firebombed.
The people now being touted as "peaceful protesters" hacked the city's e-mail and subscribed me to more than 1,000 online sites. "I" have done everything from signing petitions to abolish the death penalty to subscribing to the Harvard Law Review and Change.org. And my personal favorite: I am Cowgirl911 on FarmersOnly.com. Although I should thank the trolls for saying that I am a 30-year-old Gemini.
I got a call in the middle of the night when I was out with officers in the riots from a "friend of the police" who told me to immediately shut down my credit cards, as all my information was out on the dark web.
I called my husband (a retired officer), who of course wasn't sleeping due to the threats on our home from these "peaceful protesters," and he immediately shut down our credit. I also forwarded the information to others in the Third Precinct to secure their credit.
When I reported to those above me what had happened, I got snickers and "I don't know why you would cancel your credit cards." I made several requests that the old city e-mail that was compromised be shut down and repeatedly was told that it could not be.
These are examples of how I was not supported, and I am only one person in a large department.
I was one of four lieutenants assigned to the Third Precinct. Outsiders probably thought that those above me would have reached out to see how I and my people were doing during all this. This never happened.
At one point during the initial riots, I had self-deployed to work with the overnight shift of young officers. A high-ranking administrator asked why I was out there since my regular shift was during the day. I explained that this was where I needed to be. They asked then if I could "break off" one or two officers to check the memorial.
I explained that due to officer safety issues, we were traveling three or four to a squad and responding to 911 calls in the Third Precinct.
That was the extent of hearing from anyone above me.
To this day, no one from the police administration has checked in with me, and I know that I'm not alone on that.
Here in Minneapolis, I would venture to guess that if someone, anyone, in leadership from the city or the Police Department had reached out to us and talked to us as if they really cared about us, you would not be seeing one-third of our department leaving. That is a lot of experience walking away.
www.startribune.com
I edited out some things to shorten the post, but you get the idea. Cops are people too, and their job ain't easy. They are heroes in my book, and should not be treated with the disrespect and hatred they have to face. Tell you what, Minneapolis is turning into a crime-infested shit-hole, and it's going to get a lot worse. Ditto Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, and a bunch of other democrat-run big cities that don't have the balls to fulfill their primary responsibility: public safety and security. Sure, go ahead and send out unarmed social workers; I don't think that's going to work out well for them or anyone else.
Minneapolis police officers have gotten no support in the aftermath of the 2020 protests, and many are struggling with PTSD.
By Kim Voss FEBRUARY 4, 2021 — 5:37PM
... I was a lieutenant with the Minneapolis Police Department, assigned to the Third Precinct. I had been a police officer in Minnesota for 37 years. I use the words "was" and "had been" because effective this month, I am retired.
While our leadership held us back and we remained unsupported by our state, our city and our police administration, our neighborhoods burned. We felt helpless. And to add insult to injury, they gave up our home, and called it "just bricks and mortar."
It wasn't just bricks and mortar to us.
(The Minneapolis Police Third Precinct station was evacuated and destroyed May 28, 2020.)
If you want to totally break down the morale and mission of police officers, hold them back and leave them hanging without any support. What you are left with is a department that sees almost one-third of its sworn personnel leave due to PTSD both diagnosed and undiagnosed. I am one of those.
It's hard to get up every day and be happy to go to your job feeling like damaged goods. I received over 4,000 voicemails of vitriolic hate, and I didn't have a phone left or a desk to put a phone on. My office had been firebombed.
The people now being touted as "peaceful protesters" hacked the city's e-mail and subscribed me to more than 1,000 online sites. "I" have done everything from signing petitions to abolish the death penalty to subscribing to the Harvard Law Review and Change.org. And my personal favorite: I am Cowgirl911 on FarmersOnly.com. Although I should thank the trolls for saying that I am a 30-year-old Gemini.
I got a call in the middle of the night when I was out with officers in the riots from a "friend of the police" who told me to immediately shut down my credit cards, as all my information was out on the dark web.
I called my husband (a retired officer), who of course wasn't sleeping due to the threats on our home from these "peaceful protesters," and he immediately shut down our credit. I also forwarded the information to others in the Third Precinct to secure their credit.
When I reported to those above me what had happened, I got snickers and "I don't know why you would cancel your credit cards." I made several requests that the old city e-mail that was compromised be shut down and repeatedly was told that it could not be.
These are examples of how I was not supported, and I am only one person in a large department.
I was one of four lieutenants assigned to the Third Precinct. Outsiders probably thought that those above me would have reached out to see how I and my people were doing during all this. This never happened.
At one point during the initial riots, I had self-deployed to work with the overnight shift of young officers. A high-ranking administrator asked why I was out there since my regular shift was during the day. I explained that this was where I needed to be. They asked then if I could "break off" one or two officers to check the memorial.
I explained that due to officer safety issues, we were traveling three or four to a squad and responding to 911 calls in the Third Precinct.
That was the extent of hearing from anyone above me.
To this day, no one from the police administration has checked in with me, and I know that I'm not alone on that.
Here in Minneapolis, I would venture to guess that if someone, anyone, in leadership from the city or the Police Department had reached out to us and talked to us as if they really cared about us, you would not be seeing one-third of our department leaving. That is a lot of experience walking away.
OPINION EXCHANGE | Why I am one of many former MPD officers
Minneapolis police officers have gotten no support in the aftermath of the 2020 protests, and many are struggling with PTSD.
www.startribune.com
I edited out some things to shorten the post, but you get the idea. Cops are people too, and their job ain't easy. They are heroes in my book, and should not be treated with the disrespect and hatred they have to face. Tell you what, Minneapolis is turning into a crime-infested shit-hole, and it's going to get a lot worse. Ditto Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, and a bunch of other democrat-run big cities that don't have the balls to fulfill their primary responsibility: public safety and security. Sure, go ahead and send out unarmed social workers; I don't think that's going to work out well for them or anyone else.
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