Page 10 - January 2020 FOP Magazine

Financial Secretary’s Report
Time to bring back common sense
We made it into the New Year with anticipations of improvements in our jobs and lives. It would be great if the City could recognize all the hard work done by officers and detectives every day without trying to find every little problem and attempt to make them into big problems.
December is the month we try to catch up on all the paperwork from the grievances all year long, so there was no Grievance Committee meeting in December. The next committee meeting is Jan. 16,
and I will have results from that in the next article.
I was on call for New Year’s Eve, but fortunately no officers were involved in shootings for that night. I am glad to see that
we rang out the year on a calm note.
On to something that I want to mention: I wish to relay to
the City that I, like most other officers, want to do the work. We are out there patrolling the neighborhoods, following up on the cases we are assigned and keeping the peace. When the criminals begin to threaten our safety and peace, we will react. There is no perfect reaction when dealing with humanity; there are hundreds of ways people may react in any given situation. This is what police officers and detectives have been dealing
with for years. Honestly, things have ended well most of the time — not always perfectly, but settled enough for people to calm down and relax.
We are not going to have a solution to the elderly couple that has been arguing and calling the police for years, but we will attempt to bring peace to the moment with common-sense solutions.
These are a couple of words that have been left out of the conversation for years: common sense. Let’s start bringing that back into our society so we can find solutions to ongoing prob- lems without looking for the “nuclear” solution. Do not blow it all up, because there is a lot of good with what we have been doing all along; it just needs direction. Let me police and I will police; put me in the car with my good partner, and you will have officers who will enjoy what they are doing. Isn’t that what all working-class people want: a feeling that whatever you are doing, you are accomplishing a goal.
We as the police want to defend the public from criminals and keep peace in our neighborhoods without the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. There are a lot of great officers and detectives out there, and I think it is time to recognize it. Stay safe.
MICHAEL GARZA
773.858.3531 daniel.collins@cbexchange.com
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