Ideology Above All Else!

MattFebruary 27, 2017No Comments

The political left does many things that completely baffle me. The seem to focus solely on ideology, and completely disregard everything else, including basic common sense. Today at work, our facilities person emailed us and needed to know how many single occupancy restrooms we had at the facility because apparently we have to change out the signage, and in the next 2 days.

California democrats, the people running this swirling vortex of total fiscal mismanagement, completely disregarding the massive financial problems plaguing this state, voted to pass Assembly Bill 1732 into law, and it was later signed into law by our senile, former hippy idiot governor, the same man who is begging the federal government for money while he dumps billions into a project no one wants, not even other liberals. This new law mandates that all single occupancy bathrooms in any public facility, including all private businesses, including all government facilities, even those not open to the public, be specifically marked “All Genders.”

Well, here are the signs currently on our bathrooms, which is a secure facility, behind an access controlled gate, that is not open to the public.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I happen to see ALL of the scientifically identified genders already included on our signs. But apparently I’m a moron or something, because according to this new law, our current signs are not clear enough, at least not according the democrat lawmakers in this state.

You see, according to the democrat lawmakers (see the list of yes votes for this bill), these current signs, posted on single occupancy restrooms (as in only one person can use the restroom at a time) across the state are just too damn confusing for the .00000001% (number pulled out of thin air by me) of the population that identifies as something other than male or female, and the horrific confusion suffered by almost no one was so severe, so traumatic, so societally important that it required them, the benevolent lawmakers who are just looking out for us stupid people, to pass a law mandating that those horribly confusing signs have the actual verbiage “All Gender” included on them.

These are the new signs that they ordered to replace all the old ones. Whew, so glad they cleared that up!

So, in a time in which the state cannot pay retired employees because CalPers is broke, in a state where the budget is billions in the red, in a state that vows to fight the president’s enforcement of federal law, a state that is paying an attorney $25k a month to fight that fight, a state that is simultaneously begging that same president for money, the people running that state passed a law that is requiring that very same broke state to spend money, and waste untold man hours changing out bathroom signs on every single government facility across the state.

This is quite literally as useful as taking a large pile of cash and burning it. In fact, it is less useful than burning cash, because at least you could huddle around the cash fire and stay warm.

Folks, these idiots at the state capital are just buying your votes, by wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax money on complete and utter bullshit like this!

By the way, I’ve said this before, for a political party that constantly calls me a “science denier” for not buying their half baked scheme on global warming, it is they are are truly denying a settled science. There are only two genders, whether you look at it biologically or genetically.
-Matt

Recanting My Gripe with PoliceOne, Mostly

MattFebruary 26, 2017February 26, 2017No Comments

Let me start by saying three things, and those who know me personally can attest to all of them. First, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and say what I really am thinking, right when I am thinking it. I lack that filter that most folks have, you know, the little voice in the back of their head that tells them things like “maybe I wouldn’t say that if I were you.” Second, in certain aspects of my life, I tend to take things a bit too seriously, giving them more gravity than they deserve. Anyone who has heard me talk about job related politics can vouch for this. Along that line, just like Steve Martin’s character in “Father Of The Bride,” I tend to be a bit of an over-reactor, just a bit…

While in many cases, like in evaluating new patrol cars, patrol car equipment, computerized dispatch systems, police radio gear (all things my department has seen fit to include me in) or in evaluating firearms and firearms accessories (what I do as a hobby), my brutally honest initial reaction can be appreciated by most. However, sometimes, as in the case of my previous PoliceOne blog post, when combined with my tendency to over-react, sometimes I tend to stuff my size 13 shoe deep into my mouth.

Which brings us to the third truth about Matt: when I screw up, over-react and say something, that at the minimum could have been worded much better, after I come to the realization that I screwed up, I admit it. Anyone who has followed my Facebook page long enough has seen me do that there before. And that is exactly what I did with PoliceOne, which is why I am writing this.

Yes, in the past, PoliceOne has run news stories that were either inaccurate or had a negative tone towards law enforcement in them, but as I previously stated, that is because by contract, PoliceOne is not allowed to change the content of the story, even if it is to correct something that is factually incorrect. And yes, I still feel that the article that prompted my previous blog post was ridiculously out of place and has no business being run there. That said, it would be stupid of me to disregard the many valuable training articles that they still run, the training videos that they still put together, the many good original content articles that they run, just because I got angry about a couple of articles they ran. I’m sure we are all familiar with the old adage, cutting off one’s nose to spite the face. Yep, that is exactly what I was doing.

Come to find out, not in the least bit surprisingly, but running a large website like PoliceOne is a bit more involved that running this little blog and related FB page. Let me explain, or actually, let me let Doug Wyllie explain. The following is from an email conversation I had with Doug, and I have his permission to share it here. It has been edited slightly, both for length and to remove some personal remarks unrelated to the topic at hand.

The way I explain the way in which content is added to the site is to imagine a large airport with two pair of parallel runways intersecting at right angles. Each runway has its own air traffic controller. The landing airplanes are content we receive from various sources, each type of content (airplane) assigned to a specific runway. As the Editor at Large, my runway is the content for highest-level training stuff as well as commentary and news analysis — this is among the most important, but also the least frequently landing stuff.

There are two editors in charge of news. It is these two editors who copy/paste stuff from our AP and McClatchy news subscriptions (as you’d correctly pointed out, we can only modify the headline, not the text of those pieces). They also do what we call re-writes. When something is out there that is not in our feed, we take some of the information from an outside source, cite that we’re getting it from them, and do a very short version of it under the byline PoliceOne Staff.

That’s what happened in the case of the article about those 200 chiefs who issued some manner of statement in opposition to the President’s initiatives.

BTW, to round out my analogy, the final runway is for the Editor in Chief — my former job before I got assigned to my new role of Editor at Large about six months ago. That’s the content produced by our own contributing writers.

There are a lot of moving parts on our editorial team, and while we do coordinate with each other, we don’t all know what everyone else is doing at every moment of every day.

Some of that I knew, some I figured, and some was news to me. Also, it seems like a logical approach to describing a complex environment.

Am I still bothered by the fact that on occasion, PoliceOne runs a news story with an anti-cop bias or a factually incorrect news story? Yes, absolutely. I personally think it is of the utmost importance that a website which represents a law enforcement point of view should be publishing factually accurate news stories, from a law enforcement perspective, not from the perspective of an AP author who thinks cops are the bad guys. I won’t pretend to know the complexities of establishing and maintaining a contract with a large news source such as the Associate Press, but my suggestion would be to include, at the top of those AP news stories, some sort of disclaimer to let the reader know that the article that follows does not necessarily reflect the views of PoliceOne and that they (PoliceOne) are prohibited by contract from correcting any factual errors contained within. That is my suggestion. Is that possible? Only the people who negotiate those contracts would know.

Another issue that needs attention from PoliceOne, at least in my opinion, is that they need someone to monitor the comments on their Facebook page. The comment section following the sharing of an article can often times become a troll fest filled with sovereign citizen types and cop blockers, and it makes attempting to have a legitimate conversation about the article nearly impossible.

That said, as I previously stated, it would be stupid of me to completely disregard them, like I said I was going to in my original blog post. I have a new plan, one that was suggested to me, and one that makes sense. I am going to mostly ignore the news stories, and instead will pay more attention to the training articles and PoliceOne original content.

Finally, I’d like to personally thank Doug for going out of his way to clear this up. He owed me absolutely nothing, and based on the tone of my original blog post, I did not remotely deserve a polite response or an explanation, yet that is exactly what he gave me, and an in-depth one at that. Thank you.
-Matt

Some Straight Talk About Milo (pun intended)

MattFebruary 22, 2017February 22, 2017No Comments

Even if you had never heard of Milo Yiannopoulos before last week, you have likely heard his name in recent days. In fact, today at work I asked my partner, a man who has zero social media exposure (not a single account) and whose cell phone is still of the flip variety, if he knew who Milo was and his response was “yeah, he is that flamboyant gay guy who said something about pedophilia.” Funny how quickly things spread when the mainstream media sharks smell blood.

Now, before I get into this too far, before I get accused of excusing or normalizing pedophilia, I want to clarify something. I HATE pedophiles, as in hate with a passion, as in hate is not nearly a strong enough word kind of hate. I am very close with person who was a victim of a pedophile. I know what that experience did to them. For the first eight years of my patrol career, my goal was to be a child abuse detective. I took every single related class I could get, and as a result, I was certified as a child forensic interviewer. I took every child molest report that came out. I did follow up on most of my cases with the detectives in the bureau, sometimes even on my own time.

In fact I have written here on this very blog about my disgust with pedophiles, and specifically about the left’s penchant for normalizing such abhorrent behavior. Child molesters (pedophiles) are monsters! They prey on the most innocent, most vulnerable group of victims that exists. Child molestation should be a capital crime, but only if we were allowed to torture the suspect to death like a group of max security prison general population inmates would if no guards were around. So please, believe me when I say I have absolutely zero tolerance for pedophiles.

Now that you hopefully understand my deep disdain for pedophiles, let me say that in my opinion, anyone who says that Milo was “excusing pedophilia” or “normalizing” it, or anything similar to that, is buying exactly what the liberals who dug up that video want you to buy.

First, if you have not watched the unedited clip of the video, or read the transcript, please do so. It can be found here in an article written by Ben Shapiro. In fact, you should keep that link open as I am going to refer to a couple of the quotations that have been highlighted by Ben as his points of interest, or points of contention.

So, the sexual encounter that Milo seems to have primarily been discussing was one in which he was 13 years old and he was molested (even though he did not consider it to have been) by an adult male, who in Milo’s own words he found attractive, who also apparently was a priest (whole different subject). Ignoring the fact that it was a homosexual relationship, can any guy out there honestly tell me that as a 13 year old, there was not some adult woman (or man if that is your thing) that you did not find very attractive and that you had some sort of sexual attraction toward? Seriously, think back. Try and remember the things that you thought about as a high school freshman. Who was that teacher, or actress that all the guys talked about when you were shooting the crap at lunch? I can vividly recall the hot, brunette, mid 20’s, unmarried English teacher. I still remember her name, but I won’t say it here. I won’t even mention the thoughts I had about Farah Fawcett when I was a pre-teen.

Don’t pretend that you don’t know what I am talking about. Hell, Van Halen had a song I’m sure we have all heard a time or two; Hot For Teacher. You see, sexual attraction for a teenage boy is a natural, hormonal, biological thing, and if any of us somehow managed to live out those desires we felt, I seriously doubt any of us would feel like a victim (even though we technically would be). And that right there is where Milo was coming from when he was discussing his encounter.

Another one of the comments Milo made that is freaking people is out is when he thanked his molester for teaching him how to perform oral sex well. Since I’ve already discussed why Milo did not really consider his molester a molester (reread my previous two paragraphs if you are still unclear on that), him thanking one of the people who was his first, and importantly in this context, willing sexual encounter for teaching him how to do something is not exactly that earth shattering. Once again, let us all stop for a minute and think back to our first sexual encounter, especially if it was with a more experienced partner. Did they teach you anything that you could be grateful for? Were you a minor at the time? Were you a willing participant in the endeavor? If you were to make some sort of off-color remark during the midst of a light hearted conversation about learning something from that encounter, how would it be different from what Milo said?

I can hear you now, “but Milo said he thinks certain people are capable of giving consent at a younger age!”

Yes, he did say that, right AFTER he said that he thinks the legal age for giving consent is “probably about right.” He was not making an argument for lowering the age of consent, he was merely pointing out that some people are more mature than others are younger ages. I think we would all agree that that statement is true, right? Are not some 11 year olds not mature enough to defend themselves and their home with a gun? Every time something like that happens, we pro-gun conservatives are quick be supportive of the excellent, mature actions of the youngster, but that also does not mean that we want to run around and stick a loaded gun in the hands of every 11 year old. It simply means that we are acknowledging that the 11 year old in question was able to handle those complex decisions in a stressful environment, a feat that many grown adults cannot do. In that same respect, trying to twist Milo’s comment that some people younger than the legal consent age are capable of making mature decisions into something it was not takes a yoga-like flexibility my mind is incapable of.

Ben highlighted this comment because apparently he has an issue with it; “You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means. Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to someone 13 years old who is sexually mature.”

But here’s the thing, Milo is exactly correct. Per the Merriam Webster dictionary:

Pedophilia
noun pe·do·phil·ia \ˌpe-də-ˈfi-lē-ə, ˌpē-\
: sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object; specifically : a psychological disorder in which an adult has sexual fantasies about or engages in sexual acts with a prepubescent child (emphasis added)

I’ve heard many point to the fact that Milo was referring to a relationship between a “boy” and an older man who provides for the boy. People are suggesting that Milo was again suggesting that pedophilia was okay, but in doing so, they are ignoring something that I was not aware of until this whole Milo incident. The word “boy,” or in the slang spelling of “boi,” has its own special meaning in the LGBT community.

“A ‘boi’ is (generally) the younger person who prefers older partners, and is the ‘boi’ in a ‘daddy and boi’ dating, relationship, or sexual situation, where ‘boy’ and ‘boi’, respectively, are used to differentiate between someone who is underage, and someone who just identifies as the younger who wants or needs someone older. In this context, ‘boi’ can be masculine or effeminate, or anywhere along that spectrum, and some males identify as a ‘boi’ well beyond their 20s, and especially so long as they are involved with older men. Often, though not always, a ‘boi’ prefers a submissive role.”

Getting beyond what was said in the video, I’ve seen many conservatives eager to throw Milo under the bus because “he is not a conservative.” No, he is most definitely not a traditional conservative. Hell, he is a very in-your-face flamboyant gay guy, from England no less. He is absolutely not a traditional conservative, and that is in fact the beautiful thing about him. He reaches audiences that olderish straight conservative white guys like me can never reach, and I am about 100x more adept at interacting on social media than the conservative establishment is. While he may not be a traditional conservative, he definitely preaches many conservative values.

Another bogus attack on him is that he has made “anti-Semitic comments.” In the anti-Milo hit piece published by the traditional conservatives over at the National Review, they had the following to say on that topic:

“Yiannopoulos — who has himself hurled anti-Semitic slurs (he recently described a Jewish BuzzFeed reporter as ‘a typical example of a sort of thick-as-pig s**t media Jew’)”

Calling that comment, made by someone of Jewish ancestry, anti-Semitic is the logical equivalent of calling a black guy calling another black guy the N-word a white supremacist, or suggesting that because I refer to myself as “some dumb street cop” that I am anti-law enforcement. To those unfamiliar with the concept, there is a thing referred to as “in-grouping” and it is not a new concept.

Lastly, some folks point to the flippancy with which Milo discussed his victimization. Any cop, or firefighter, or EMT, or ER nurse can tell you, victims of crimes, especially those of a violent or sexual nature, all react differently to them. Some blame themselves, some get angry, some sad, some depressed, some even get suicidal, and some use inappropriate humor to deal with the stress. In fact, if you are or know any first responders, or folks who have served in combat, you damn well know we are masters at cracking socially unacceptable jokes at the absolute most inappropriate times, such as standing at the scene of a grisly homicide. Hell, I’ve been known to make self-deprecating, inappropriate jokes about stupid or silly things I’ve done on my Facebook page. It is a coping mechanism, a well known one at that.

Here’s the thing folks, those of you upset with Milo need to take a few steps back, take a deep breath or two and look at this from a logical perspective. Where is this information (the edited video) coming from, and who benefits from Milo being shamed into the shadows? It looks an awful lot to me like we are eating one of our own, who is being spoonfed to us by the enemy. Throwing Milo aside because we he does not fit the Jell-O mold of what one thinks a conservative is, is the same thing the Republican establishment did to the Tea Party early on, and that they often do to the Libertarians. It is stupid, and self-defeating.

LAST MINUTE ADDITION: In writing this, I totally forgot to mention the “actions speak louder than words” argument. Milo’s comments in that video are being touted as him speaking positively about pedophilia. However, at least according to Milo (and it should be easy enough to confirm his statements) he has outed at least three different pedophiles. That doesn’t seem very accepting to me. On the other hand, it is the political left who continually tries to normalize pedophilia and even protects certain famous, liberal Hollywood type pedophiles.

Idiocracy in California Culminates in Cop’s Murders

MattFebruary 21, 2017February 21, 2017No Comments

The 2006 movie Idiocracy was just supposed to be a stupid comedy based on some social commentary. It is quite an enjoyable movie, so long as you don’t mind a bunch of sexual innuendo and locker room humor. Sadly though, it seems that the idiot politicians here in California, my home state, have used that movie as a blueprint for how to run the state.

They have ignored infrastructure maintenance to the point that our dams and roadways are crumbling; they throw tax money away on unnecessary pet projects and illegal immigrants; they exacerbated a multiyear drought by mismanaging the existing water resources; prior to that they ignored the growing demand on water and have failed to add water storage capacity even though demand has doubled every decade or so; hell, the California State Senate and Assembly house a collection of idiots that closely resemble President Comacho’s cabinet from the movie; and to top it off, the majority of the population of this state resembles the brainless morons who populate the world in the movie by continually re-electing the idiots who are in charge of this once “golden state” because the idiots say what the moron voters want to hear; those same morons (populace) gather to protest a recently elected president wearing vagina costumes and hats. Lastly, yesterday, once again, a felon who was released early from prison, due to decisions made by the idiots in charge and the morons who vote for them, shot and killed a fellow cop. Sadly, he was not remotely the first cop killed by a felon who was released early from prison, and the way things are going, he will not be the last.

At about 18 minutes into the movie, the main character Joe wakes up 500 years in the future to find a society that has let the buildings and roadways crumble (see screen grab). While it took 500 years in the movie for this to happen, it has only taken a couple decades for California to accomplish this same feat. The state has known for 12 years that the Oroville dam, a dam that was completed in 1968, needed serious attention but they did nothing during those 12 years and now the dam is quite literally crumbling away. The seriousness of the situation at the Oroville dam prompted the evacuation of 188,000 people from the city of Oroville, CA and surrounding towns. State officials managed to drop the water level behind the dam, preventing (at least temporarily) the dam from suffering catastrophic failure by stopping the outflow from multiple dams upstream. However, those upstream reservoirs are already at capacity and it is still raining, with several more days of rain in the forecast. In addition to the total fumbling of the Oroville Dam situation thus far, the state fired a number of the workers repairing the dam because they posted photos of the damaged spillway to social media. Seriously? Priorities askew much?

Moving on, California state roads and highways have been ignored so long, that they are crumbling and falling apart. This week, Highway 1 near El Sur, one of the most scenic stretches of one of the most scenic highways was closed because the bridge supports are crumbling. North of San Francisco, the same highway was closed because portions of it are falling down the hillside. Just three days ago, the streets in Los Angeles swallowed up an entire fire engine (a mere $600k fire rig) as well as a couple of cars. Just last night, part of Highway 50 in the Sierra Mountains buckled and collapsed causing one westbound lane to be closed. According to reports, the roads in California are the worst in the nation. The situation with the roads in California is so pronounced that there is a coalition of businesses, labor unions, municipal transportation utilities and local governments demanding the roads be repaired.

Meanwhile, the Democrat leadership in California has been spending Billions of dollars on Jerry Brown’s high speed choo choo train, because he likes trains. It was originally supposed to be a high speed rail that extended from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but now the high speed portion has been limited to only a stretch in the central valley. The initial estimates for this high speed train to nowhere came in at $64B (billion), but at last report, the already vastly over budget train is projected to run 171% of that initial estimate.

In addition to wasting nearly $100B dollars on a train, in just 2014, California democrats spent millions to issue over 600K illegal immigrants driver’s licenses. Those same liberal politicians extended healthcare benefits to those same illegal immigrants at a cost of $1.3B (billion) to the taxpayers. Lastly, the democrats running the state have burdened the California tax payers with a $14.4B annual cost to educate illegal immigrants in the public schools.

Another favorite topic of the Democrat politicians running California is the need to raise the minimum wage. They keep harping that everyone flipping a burger should be earning a “living wage.” Last year, Jerry Brown signed a bill with the sole purpose of raising the state’s minimum wage. Oddly enough, the totally foreseeable outcome of an overpriced workforce was yet another issue that was also addressed in Idiocracy. I offer you the fully automated Carl’s Jr. store from the movie. Not surprisingly, as wages have been artificially raised, fast food chains have been seeking ways to lower costs. One of those ways is to remove workers and introduce automation, and now we are starting to see the introduction of self-serve kiosks in fast food restaurants, and Carl’s Jr. is already heading that way.

In the movie, the idiots populating the world have almost entirely replaced water with Brawndo, a fictional energy drink, because it has to be better than water, it has electrolytes. They even began watering crops with the stuff, and the only place they used water was in the toilet. The world in Idiocracy has become a dustbowl because nothing would grow, and thus they are suffering a long term, manmade drought.

Welcome to California, where the total mismanagement of our water resources has greatly worsened a naturally occurring drought. Despite the population of the state more than doubling since the late 1970’s, our water storage facilities (dams and reservoirs) have had no new additions since 1979. In fact, since the completion of the last dam built in the state, California has actually removed an absolutely shocking number of dams, and many for reasons as ridiculous as “habitat restoration” or “improving fish passage.” Yet one more way in which this state wastes millions of gallons of water every year is by maintaining the outflow from dams in order to keep water levels in the San Francisco bay delta waterways in an effort to prevent a tiny 3” long fish, the delta smelt, from going extinct. Despite those herculean efforts, a recent survey found only 6 of them still alive. Meanwhile, the statewide water shortage has been forcing farmers to reduce their crop sizes because they do not have enough water to grow the food. Not only does this drastically hurt the food supply, and thus raise the cost of produce, but California has historically been the largest agricultural producing state in the nation. With California producing less agriculture, the amount of income from outside the state naturally dwindles.

In Idiocracy, the president’s cabinet is comprised of three complete moron adults, a kid that won a contest and gets to be the Secretary of Energy, and the attorney general who got the job due to her large breasts. Here in California, the mentally deficient population keeps re-electing a senile, burnt out hippie as governor, and votes for babbling liberal politicians like senators Kevin “Ghost Gun” De Leon and Isadore Hall. Hell, just recently Democrat Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher introduced Assembly Bill 250 that would create taxpayer funded beach vacations for the poor. Not only does the bill seek to subsidize those beach vacations, but it aims to use eminent domain to forcibly take beach properties from private citizens so that they can be converted to these new low income, government funded vacation homes, and at a time that the California budget is billions in the red, and is currently asking the federal government for money.

Also, just like in the movie, where the “dumb angry mobs” began to turn against Joe, the entire state of California (via our elected leaders) have turned against the recently elected president. Governor Moonbeam recently vowed to fight any federal enforcement of immigration laws and to that effect, the state hired former US Attorney General Eric Holder to fight President Trump. The flat broke state of California is currently paying Holder $25k a month (for those with math difficulties, that is $300k annually) to do that, whatever that is. In addition to the state’s fight with the current president and his policies, a large number of residents seem intent on proving their similarity to the populous of the Idiocracy world by having various protests against the recently elected leader of the country. In an apparent attempt to prove their stupidity, many donned pink vagina hats, or dressed in full body vagina costumes to protest his election, while others chose President’s day to stage a “Not my president’s day” protest.

Lastly, and perhaps the most personal aspect of this whole similarity, is the idiotic way in which California is releasing convicted felons from prison en masse. The ease with which the liberals running California have convinced the voting populace to cut those felons free reminds me of the scene in Idiocracy in which Joe escapes from prison, although it is hard to call it an escape. The voters in California have twice voted to decriminalize certain felonies, and to shorten sentences, thus releasing thousands of convicted felons from prison, all because some politicians named the ballot initiatives something entirely misleading. Since those felons have been released early, a number of them have gone on to murder some of my fellow California law enforcement officers. Just yesterday, Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer who was shot and killed by a convicted felon gang member who was released early thanks to idiotic liberal policies. Sadly, Officer Boyer was not the first cop killed because of these lax liberal policies, he is only the most recent.

Just as in the movie where it was not too late to save the country, it is also not too late for California, but it is getting close. However, as in the movie, it is time to stop doing the same stupid stuff that has got us here. As a state, we need to stop electing liberal politicians who have mismanaged us into a total state of disrepair and total lawlessness. Stop voting with your hearts people, start voting with your brains.

PoliceOne Just Destroyed Their Credibility

MattFebruary 16, 2017February 26, 2017No Comments

NOTE: I have written a follow-up post to this, one in which I take back some of the things I said here. If you read this post, please read part 2 as well.

PoliceOne.com used to be a valuable source of information for law enforcement personnel. They wrote articles that contained valuable tips, offered ideas for training, they published articles discussing trends in law enforcement, and they conducted polls of active duty law enforcement personnel regarding related issues across the country.

But that was then.

Now, they have turned into just another leftist media outlet. Most of their “news” articles are just Associated Press (notoriously not law enforcement supporters) articles published in their entirety, lacking any corrections for blatantly obvious errors. I first noticed this a few years ago when they ran a news story regarding a liquor store robbery in which the suspect was described as having fired an “assault weapon” during the commission of the crime. The article included surveillance video from the liquor store, in which the suspect could be clearly seen wielding nothing more than a handgun. The error was so obvious, and as a pro-gun cop, so annoying that I emailed PoliceOne and had a short email conversation with the editor, Doug Wyllie. He explained the source of their information (the AP) and that their agreement with the AP does not allow them to edit the articles. I argued that agreement or not, knowingly publishing bad information is not acceptable, especially for a publication representing law enforcement. He never replied.

Well, here we are a few years later and the number of horribly biased (against the cops) and blatantly anti-gun AP articles that PoliceOne has run just continues to grow, despite the fact that their own surveys have routinely shown that cops do NOT support gun control.

As coincidence would have it, I was just discussing PoliceOne’s unreliability/bias a few days ago on Twitter when someone I follow pointed out an error (bias) in one of their articles.

It appears to me that their being located in San Francisco, CA has drastically affected their ability to focus on the real attitude of the national law enforcement community. Instead, they continue to sound more and more like the average resident of the city in which they reside.

Today, I stumbled upon an article that was written by “Police One Staff” (because no one there was willing to put their name on it?) that is a whopping nine (9) paragraphs long; not a substantial piece by any means. The article was published on February 14 and the title is “More than 200 police chiefs criticize Trump’s ‘law and order’ executive actions.”

It is a short read so I recommend you not take my word for it, read the article yourself. By publishing this piece, which they wrote themselves, PoliceOne has lost ALL credibility in my mind. This is nothing more than a leftist, anti-Trump hit piece. Unless I am taking this article the wrong way (if I am, please explain it to me), they are seriously attempting to cite a group named “Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Incarceration” as a group that supposedly represents the overall opinion of law enforcement. Really? I know an awful lot of cops, I am personal friends with three police chiefs, one sheriff, and acquaintances with more than a couple hundred other ranking law enforcement officials, and not a single one that I know would ever dream of suggesting that we need to incarcerate fewer criminals, yet that is the goal of the group PoliceOne is citing.

PoliceOne, you just proved you are nothing but just another mouthpiece for the leftist propaganda machine. You are dead to me. Pound sand a-holes!
-Matt

Update: A couple hours after publishing this piece, I came to find that a friend of mine, whose opinion I greatly value, is personal friends with Doug Wyllie, the editor at PoliceOne.com. He did not contact me regarding this either, but rather I contacted him when I learned of their friendship. It appears my take on Doug, which I based on both the email conversation we had and the articles that have been published on the website, was very far off. I trust my friend when he tells me that Doug is a stand up guy and on our side. For that bad assumption on my part, I apologize.

That said, I still take serious issue with some of the content they have been running lately, and especially with this particular article.
-Matt

NOTE: I have written a follow-up post to this, one in which I take back some of the things I said here. If you read this post, please read part 2 as well.

Sutter Health CEO Sends Anti-Trump Propaganda to All Employees

MattFebruary 8, 2017February 9, 20172 Comments

YHN_Krevans01b — Sarah Krevans, President and CEO of Sutter Health

If you know anyone in the healthcare field, it will likely come as no surprise to you that a majority of the folks in that line or work are of the liberal persuasion, politically speaking that is. (EDIT – apparently, based on comments from a number of folks from around the country, this liberal healthcare worker thing might just be a California issue) That is not a problem per se, but when the CEO of a large healthcare provider network goes out of their way to write and disseminate anti-Trump propaganda to all employees and volunteers, that becomes an issue. As a conservative, if I were an employee who received this in my email, I might feel less than welcome at work.

The following is the text of the email:

“This message is sent on behalf of Sarah Krevans, Sutter Health President and CEO

To: All employees, physicians and volunteers across the Sutter Health network

Many of you have shared your questions about the impact of President Trump’s recent executive order restricting entry into the United States for nationals of certain countries.”

Really? You’ve had employees, doctors and volunteers contacting you, the CEO of the entire health system to ask you about a presidential executive order regarding a temporary ban on immigration from a handful of countries, that were identified by the Obama administration, as harboring terrorists? Your doctors, employees and volunteers were so concerned about how that executive order might effect their ability to provide health services that they went straight to the president of the entire health care system?

Sorry, but I smell some serious male bovine excrement…

Continuing:

“Our primary concern is the health and well-being of patients in our care, as well as the health of our communities. Respect for diversity, inclusion and cultural competence are woven into every aspect of our not-for-profit network. All patients and their families – regardless of their religion, background or country of origin – are welcome in our care centers. We will continue to admit and care for patients in a manner consistent with our non-discrimination policies and practices. We do not check immigration status nor do we plan to in the future.

I deeply appreciate the unique backgrounds and experiences of the more than 53,000 employees, more than 10,000 doctors and 5,000 volunteers who serve our patients. I firmly believe that our people’s divers perspectives and insights lead to better decisions and better care. My commitment to you and our patients and their families has not changed.”

Blah, blah, blah. Lots of liberal feel-good dribble.

“We’re also actively evaluating how we can support any employees, physicians and their families possibly impacted by this uncertain environment.”

Holy crap! You actually have employees and doctors who are currently not American citizens, and whom are living in those specified countries known for harboring terrorists? How did you manage to hire them if they are not here and do not have valid resident/citizenship status?

“Within Sutter Health, we will continue treating each other with kindness and respect. As I shared with you in November, we are unwavering in our commitment to diversity and inclusion and will not tolerate prejudice, bigotry or discrimination.”

… unless it is directed at the current US president, and any of you hate mongers who voted for him …

“Every day, I see your remarkable dedication and compassion and that you continue to provide exceptional care and service to our patients, their families, our communities and each other. Thank you.”

Seriously, does Sarah here realize how divisive this email is? She just sent an email to every employee and told them that if they support the presidents TEMPORARY ban on immigration from a small number of countries, that she will not tolerate their opinions. I wonder if she realizes that this is the same exact thing that Obama himself did previously. Did she send out an email to all employees when Obama did this?

The following photo of the department wide email was sent in by a follower of our Facebook page.

The amount of irrational behavior being exhibited by those on the left over the past several months, which has only increased tenfold over the last two weeks, is absolutely mind boggling! Talk about completely out of touch with reality…

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Month: February 2017