Today, September 17th, is among the lesser known of the official days on our national calendar, and such is quite the shame. Happy Constitution Day to all in America. The U.S. Constitution is essential to ensuring simultaneously both the protection of individual liberties and the advancement of public safety. Here we provide two recommended resources. Of course, a link to the full text of the Constitution maintained by the United States Congress. Secondly, a link to the Constitution Day website. Additionally, we provide our thoughts on the importance of remembering the founding principles of our nation. [Click the link below to read more.]
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On a fundamental level, changing problematic behavior is a personal struggle. While others can help, the involved individual either makes the needed change or not. Simple logic and critical thinking tell us, if we seek another to do less of something, we should discourage such behavior. So to we know, a key method by which to encourage a behavior is to incentivize it. When a financial benefit is linked to a behavior, we tend to see more of it. However, such is true even if that behavior is damaging. In the Summer 2022 issue of City Journal, public policy analyst Judge Glock provides a devastating look at how government policies have incentivized drug addiction and criminality. Taxpayer funds purportedly seeking to address homelessness are instead fostering misery and death. The article and an interview this past week with the author are recommended resources. [Click the link below to read more.]
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The 28th Annual Breaching the Barricade Law Enforcement Conference will be held on 30 September 2022, at the Lerner Theater, in Elkhart, Indiana. The conference and its companion Officer Appreciation Day are premiere industry events made possible by the vision, work, and mentoring of Jim Bontrager. The appreciation day event will be held in Sturgis, Michigan on Saturday, 1 October 2022. A U.S. Marine veteran, Jim is a long serving lead police chaplain for the Elkhart Police Department. At Bontrager’s invitation, Thomas Lemmer will be presenting again at the conference. [Click the link below to read more.]
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In Illinois, state’s attorneys are the elected county prosecutors. They represent the people of their respective counties in court. When 100 out of 102 elected state’s attorneys have a warning, then the people are wise to listen. The coming full implementation of the SAFE-T Act in January 2023 will make Illinois far less safe. On 5 August 2022, AM560’s Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson, from Chicago’s Morning Answer, interviewed two county prosecutors from the Chicago area. One Republican, Robert Berlin, from DuPage, County. One Democrat, James Glasgow, from Will County. They are agreed. Public safety will be jeopardized. Law-abiding citizens will be confronted by emboldened criminals, and the police and prosecutors will be far less able to do much about it. The full interview is a highly-recommended resource. [Click the link below to read more.]
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The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police (ILACP) is presenting the 2022 Midwest Security & Police Conference/Expo (MSPCE) on 18 and 19 August 2022, at the Tinley Park Convention Center, in Tinley Park, Illinois. This annual expo showcases the latest products and services for law enforcement and security professionals. The event also hosts a comprehensive training conference accredited by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. Thomas Lemmer, the Founder of Secure 1776, LLC will be presenting two executive training sessions during the conference on 19 August 2022. Registration is free for law enforcement and security personnel. [Click the link below to read more.]
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I suppose the timing of Memorial Day, on the cusp between spring and summer, explains part of the confusion, but there is more at hand here. Memorial Day is not a holiday celebrating the start of summer. Far from it. In reality, Memorial Day is less a day of celebration, and more a day intended to be one of honoring and remembrance. Who are we honoring and remembering? Military veterans? Well yes, but not quite. There is a day on which we are to honor all those who have worn the uniform of the United States of America. That day was established in November 1919, and is now known as Veterans Day. Memorial Day is more specific in its focus. Memorial Day is intended to honor this nation’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who did not return home alive – or return at all – from service in defense of our nation. Have we earned this? Can we earn this? No. Such selfless devotion is always a gift beyond what is owed to any of us. But, as a nation, we can strive to be more grateful and more worthy. [Click the link below to read more.]
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Last week we posted on the continued lawlessness and outright evil observed in three American cities on a single day – 14 May 2022. The most horrific of the incidents occurred in a Buffalo supermarket. But, evening lawlessness in the entertainment and downtown areas of Milwaukee and Chicago also stood out. Less than a week later, Chicago’s downtown was the scene of yet another mass causality shooting incident. The latest mass shooting left two people dead and seven others wounded outside a major subway stop and a popular McDonald’s restaurant on Chicago Avenue. That shooting incident happened on Thursday night, 19 May 2022. Today, Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) gathered the signatures of 29 other council members to call a Special Meeting of the Chicago City Council. The focus – Chicago violence and the city administration’s plan to address lawlessness. [Click the link below to read more.]
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Since May of 2020, the nation has witnessed growing lawlessness. Compared to 2019, violence in cities like Chicago drove the year-over-year national murder rate higher by nearly 30 percent in 2020. That single-year murder-rate increase is the largest ever recorded. While the final 2021 national murders statistics will not be released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) until later this year, we already know that last year lawlessness and violence remained at elevated levels. Saturday, in Chicago and Milwaukee the nation witnessed more lawlessness in the centers of those two cities. A 16-year-old boy was murdered near the Bean (Cloud Gate) sky sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Two others were also shot in downtown Chicago as the night progressed. In downtown Milwaukee, 21 people were shot in three separate shootings, in the blocks surrounding Fiserv Forum, following the NBA playoff basketball game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics. In Buffalo, lawlessness does not begin to describe the tear in the social fabric. Pure evil was on full display with the deliberate taking of ten lives. The Buffalo carnage was streamed live on the Twitch social media site by the attacker. For those who are apt to find social forces as a ready excuse for criminal acts of cruelty, the streamed video is definitive proof of the existence of pure evil. Hateful, demonic evil. Not only must law and order return to the nation’s cities, this one nation under God must seek revival and renounce all such evil. [Click the link below to read more.]
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It has long been said, “knowledge is power.” It is important to note that the pronouncement is not “information is power.” In the “Bizzaro World” of the news media, so much of what passes as the “news” is little more than information. The rise of 24-hour cable news has provided more time to pass more information. But, often the platform simply passes the same information in a mind-numbing extended loop whose output does not foster actual knowledge. Pseudo-knowledge is advanced through the frequent use of split-screen commentators and political operatives advancing their own narratives. These often competing narratives generally distort true factual analysis, and they often end in an incomprehensible mash of over-talking and shouting. This phenomenon crosses the spectrum of political, social, and daily-life topics, particularly when there is an overlap into politics. Lawlessness is one of these topics. Even the local – allegedly straight news – news programming runs a steady flow of lawless incident-of-the-day segments, particularly when the incidents are violent with shock-seeking video. These segments are generally little more than sensationalized information, and rarely is their presentation one that advances knowledge. Secure 1776 offers this “cops ask questions” question in Latin: “Cui bono?” Translation: “Who benefits?” [Click the link below to read more.]
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The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police (ILACP) Annual Conference will be held on 27 to 29 April 2022 in Northbrook, Illinois. Thomas Lemmer, Founder of Secure 1776 and the creator of the “Eight Levels of Supervisory Engagement,” will be presenting at the conference. A fundamental truth of organizations, including law enforcement agencies, is that underperforming and problem employees exist. When the underperforming or problem employee is a supervisor, the need for the organization to respond is elevated. This is true even when supervisors are merely ineffective, as ineffective supervisors foster a less effective workforce. However, the impact on the agency is even worse, when supervisors do not support the organization’s values, goals, and strategies. A 90-minute conference version of the course, “Understanding the Eight Levels of Supervisory Engagement,” will be provided to law enforcement executives. Through this course, leaders will have a solid introduction to the model and enhanced skills from which to foster supervisory excellence within their agencies. [Click the link below to read more.]
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Well it has started. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has begun to terminate department members over Covid-19 vaccinations. As reported by the Los Angeles Daily News, two LAPD officers were fired following recent “Board of Rights” administrative hearings. The terminations were reported by the LAPD at the Los Angeles Police Commission meeting held on Tuesday, 8 March 2022. These two officers join another LAPD officer, who was previously terminated on 8 February 2022. The firings are based upon the failure of the accused officers to comply with the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for Los Angeles city employees. Such controversial vaccine mandates have faced increased questioning over efficacy, safety, autonomy concerning personal healthcare choices, as well as individual and religious liberty. Seven additional LAPD officers, and four civilian department members, face termination hearings in the coming weeks. For months, governmental actions, including vaccine, masking and social distancing mandates, as well as lockdowns and forced business and school closures have come under challenge at the federal, state and local levels. More recently, these actions have been substantially rolled back. Here is a “cops ask questions” question: Is Los Angeles safer after these terminations? [Click the link below to read more.]
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Well not surprising actually. On 10 February 2022, Newsday posted their article, “Report: Nearly half of 16-year-olds arrested under RTA committed new crimes in NYC.” Some background. What is “RTA?” RTA, stands for “raise the age,” and concerns the oldest age at which an offender is considered a juvenile. RTA measures seek to push older and older individuals away from the criminal courts and under the jurisdiction of our juvenile (or family) courts. Many advocates have pushed for raising the juvenile court age to 21 or even older. These efforts tend to go hand-in-hand with the assertion that our juvenile courts are ineffective, and there should be a complete diversion from all formal court processes. The problem – absent a formal court response mechanism, the youth most at-risk of continued and deepening delinquency do not actually participate in needed interventions. Oh, and absent both accountability and intervention, they are at a substantially increased risk of violent crime victimization themselves. The Newsday article covered a research report from the New York City Criminal Justice Agency (CJA), a non-profit, pre-trial services and “court-involved” (aka offender) advocacy organization. Their report was released in December 2021. [Click the link below to read more.]
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