UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett University of California at Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett was in the news again Monday and it wasn't good news. In fact, it was a repeat of some of the not so good news she was involved in back in February as well. For the second time in just two months, Chief Bennett told her officers to stand down while citizens were pummeled and physical damage was incurred during a riot on the Berkeley campus.
Now Berkeley is a college town and UC Berkeley is a very large school, so protest is certainly something we can expect on this, or any college campus. But when the protest becomes violent, when serious physical damage is done to businesses and the campus itself, coupled with beating and injuries perpetrated by violent radicals against others, the men and women in blue have a responsibility and obligation to return the situation to a condition of peace and arrest those who have broken the law. After all, isn't that the reason why they are called "peace officers" and drive in vehicles which say to protect and to serve?
The San Francisco Chronicle ran pictures on Monday showing the police standing by with their arms crossed over their chests, watching the fray from a safe distance. When a reporter asked several officers why they didn't break it up, they just shrugged and said, "Ask the Chief." It sounds like a case of plummeting morale, which is likely under such conditions. Some of you might also recall that Chief Bennett had her own official sidearm stolen from her squad car back in 2015 when she left it in her car while she went jogging before work one morning in a park. It was just sitting inside the car, not locked carefully away as it should have been.
Might I suggest that Chief Bennett give herself a quick refresher course on the mission statement for her department which can be found on line. She clearly doesn't follow the guidance that she likely played a part in developing and now we learn that the FBI is looking into complaints from the first altercation in February. Maybe they were just given more to investigate. Here's hoping that she gets more than a mere slap on the wrist. Oh, on second thought, since it's Berkeley, she might even get a commendation from her Administration, which generally fails to stand up for anything that most of us would call normal.
My sympathies to those students and faculty who truly want to deliver and receive a first rate education at a school which used to be one of the finest. Sadly, you are outnumbered.
Now Berkeley is a college town and UC Berkeley is a very large school, so protest is certainly something we can expect on this, or any college campus. But when the protest becomes violent, when serious physical damage is done to businesses and the campus itself, coupled with beating and injuries perpetrated by violent radicals against others, the men and women in blue have a responsibility and obligation to return the situation to a condition of peace and arrest those who have broken the law. After all, isn't that the reason why they are called "peace officers" and drive in vehicles which say to protect and to serve?
The San Francisco Chronicle ran pictures on Monday showing the police standing by with their arms crossed over their chests, watching the fray from a safe distance. When a reporter asked several officers why they didn't break it up, they just shrugged and said, "Ask the Chief." It sounds like a case of plummeting morale, which is likely under such conditions. Some of you might also recall that Chief Bennett had her own official sidearm stolen from her squad car back in 2015 when she left it in her car while she went jogging before work one morning in a park. It was just sitting inside the car, not locked carefully away as it should have been.
Might I suggest that Chief Bennett give herself a quick refresher course on the mission statement for her department which can be found on line. She clearly doesn't follow the guidance that she likely played a part in developing and now we learn that the FBI is looking into complaints from the first altercation in February. Maybe they were just given more to investigate. Here's hoping that she gets more than a mere slap on the wrist. Oh, on second thought, since it's Berkeley, she might even get a commendation from her Administration, which generally fails to stand up for anything that most of us would call normal.
My sympathies to those students and faculty who truly want to deliver and receive a first rate education at a school which used to be one of the finest. Sadly, you are outnumbered.
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