It used to be that the line between cop and bad guy was well defined: cops chased and bad guys ran.
The legends surrounding our most infamous crooks such as Jesse James have been more about the chase and capture than about the stolen loot. Dirty Harry made everyone’s day by challenging the ‘punk’ as he lay cowering on the ground. We wondered along with the crook if Harry had one more bullet left in his .357 magnum.
This game of chase is a by-product of our frontier society. Citizens expect it. Cops are exhilarated by it.
But the world is getting to be a more dangerous place and the criminals don’t necessarily subscribe to our model of street justice anymore.
Our bad guys act in their own skewed self interests, not with the intent to effect social change by robbing a bank or committing indescribable sex crimes. Normally,they are only as committed as their ability to get away. And most importantly when they do what they most often act with the intent to escape because they fear the goods guys.
But across the world a new breed of bad guys do not necessarily agree the pursuit of a peaceful and lawful society rank high on the list of “the best method of effecting social change”. Their definition of collateral damage of street violence is not based on placing the highest of value of human life including theirs. It is based in the belief that killing innocents at a street bombing is the price of doing business without which they can’t make their point.
They not only are not afraid of the good guys, they are not afraid of death. They won’t run, they come to die along with the unsuspecting they take with them. They do not fear the good guys and cherish their deaths. Instead they promote the fatal clash with authority as a method to further their martyr’s cause.
They are members of a religious death cult that uses terror as their weapon.
Don’t give into the temptation to play the mentally ill card as a way to explain away their commitment to violence. That view seriously underestimates these new age bad guys and the new type of fearless violence which is arriving and on our streets and the streets of other nations. The difference between the tragically mentally ill who want to confront the cops to facilitate the end of their mental torture often mean harm to themselves.
This is a new type of street violence and a new type of bad guy. It is does not matter if it is the act of out of town terrorists, brought back from Russia by self radicalized zealots or imported in cyber form to be acted out Middle Eastern style on our streets by religious zealots. We are a nation and criminal justice system unprepared for street bombings and dynamite jackets.
I believe that two brothers who calmly bombed the street of Boston had no intention of running away to escape capture. At best they were retreating to regroup to bomb again. I believe they were very willing to die for their radicalized beliefs regardless of how poorly planned or the likelihood of success. This is a warning shot for our cops and our nation. Lone wolves or not, they introduced new type of criminal attitude our law enforcement establishment had better heed.
The daylight killers of a British soldier waited fearlessly at the body on the streets of London for several minutes –giving interviews to unarmed citizens!–only to be shot by the police. Their purpose was about visibility for their cause not running to escape their deed.
Understand that these criminals are different. They are driven by personal gain fueled by religious extremism and it is a very dangerous difference for us all. When it comes to the kinds of criminal acts we will experience on our streets and in our communities, we should have bad taste in our mouths given the events of the last 45 days.
Why would we believe our streets, our communities, or national gathering events are inoculated from these kinds of acts by our current law enforcement model?
Our cops are relentless in their pursuit of those who challenge the laws of our society and we place a high value on their bravery and commitment. The time has come for our law enforcement leaders to call out this new age bad guy and their new type of violence. There must be a very high value placed on early warning, early identification and seamless intelligence. Excusing connecting the intelligence dots threatens the well being of our citizens and the stability that safety brings to a free society and one we must be able offer to our children.
Our measurement of law enforcement success must change. The new breed of death cult crooks won’t need to be chased after the act because in the years to come they will be waiting, not running.
