Retired Police Captain Ray Lewis Discusses His Arrest at OccupyWallStreet (Video)

By on November 23, 2011 in News 7

A followup to this post, retired Philadelphia police officer Ray Lewis discusses his arrest at Occupy Wall Street with We Are Change:

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  • Anonymous

    I love this guy. A real man if there ever was one. 

    He’s right, don’t antagonize the police. If things get bad, let the fault fall on the authorities. Focus your pride and anger on a worthy goal rather than just bile and spit. Make the cops respect you by being respectable. If you choose to be there, this is more important than the urge to retaliate.

    Make no mistake, this could easily become civil war if the wrong path is chosen….  

  • Anonymous

    That said, it’s probably incumbent upon guys like Lewis to organize pressure groups to de-politicize law enforcement.

    Lewis knows for a fact that incompetent elected officials are going to steer coppers into trouble, by deploying them against lawfully assembled citizens and failing to give them clear, appropriate rules of engagment.

    Guys who know cops understand that the culture of law enforcement, by nature, is given to physical confrontation.  That’s their raison d’etre–to interdict quickly and forcefully, hold the monopoly of legitimate violence within society.

    Old hands, like Lewis, also know that the inevitable corollary of this role is continual moral conflict.  Without constant, thoughtful leadership and reflections on the proper limits of their monopoly on violence, cops are doomed.  It’s no wonder that these guys have rates of psychosis, alcoholism, sexual misconduct, spousal abuse, etc., etc. that are many multiple times higher than the population at large.  You throw a guy in a meat blender, don’t be surprised if what you get is bloody hamburger.

    Really, better defining cops’ role is probably more important for the cops themselves than any other segment of society.  Incompetent, aggessive policing only exacerbates tensions, never diffuses them.  If left without any effective leadership, cops will burn out in the tens of thousands and only heighten the tensions that worthless elected time servers allegedly sent them to deal with.

    I haven’t heard anything recently about this, but I do know that during the height of the Madison Uprising, there was some scuttlebutt about cops consulting with legal counsel to formally refuse illegal orders by the Scott Walker junta (i.e., arrest of abstentionist Wisconsin senators).  Let’s pray Lewis’ frank comments moves the ball forward.

  • Anonymous

    That said, it’s probably incumbent upon guys like Lewis to organize pressure groups to de-politicize law enforcement.

    Lewis knows for a fact that incompetent elected officials are going to steer coppers into trouble, by deploying them against lawfully assembled citizens and failing to give them clear, appropriate rules of engagment.

    Guys who know cops understand that the culture of law enforcement, by nature, is given to physical confrontation.  That’s their raison d’etre–to interdict quickly and forcefully, hold the monopoly of legitimate violence within society.

    Old hands, like Lewis, also know that the inevitable corollary of this role is continual moral conflict.  Without constant, thoughtful leadership and reflections on the proper limits of their monopoly on violence, cops are doomed.  It’s no wonder that these guys have rates of psychosis, alcoholism, sexual misconduct, spousal abuse, etc., etc. that are many multiple times higher than the population at large.  You throw a guy in a meat blender, don’t be surprised if what you get is bloody hamburger.

    Really, better defining cops’ role is probably more important for the cops themselves than any other segment of society.  Incompetent, aggessive policing only exacerbates tensions, never diffuses them.  If left without any effective leadership, cops will burn out in the tens of thousands and only heighten the tensions that worthless elected time servers allegedly sent them to deal with.

    I haven’t heard anything recently about this, but I do know that during the height of the Madison Uprising, there was some scuttlebutt about cops consulting with legal counsel to formally refuse illegal orders by the Scott Walker junta (i.e., arrest of abstentionist Wisconsin senators).  Let’s pray Lewis’ frank comments moves the ball forward.

  • Anonymous

    That said, it’s probably incumbent upon guys like Lewis to organize pressure groups to de-politicize law enforcement.

    Lewis knows for a fact that incompetent elected officials are going to steer coppers into trouble, by deploying them against lawfully assembled citizens and failing to give them clear, appropriate rules of engagment.

    Guys who know cops understand that the culture of law enforcement, by nature, is given to physical confrontation.  That’s their raison d’etre–to interdict quickly and forcefully, hold the monopoly of legitimate violence within society.

    Old hands, like Lewis, also know that the inevitable corollary of this role is continual moral conflict.  Without constant, thoughtful leadership and reflections on the proper limits of their monopoly on violence, cops are doomed.  It’s no wonder that these guys have rates of psychosis, alcoholism, sexual misconduct, spousal abuse, etc., etc. that are many multiple times higher than the population at large.  You throw a guy in a meat blender, don’t be surprised if what you get is bloody hamburger.

    Really, better defining cops’ role is probably more important for the cops themselves than any other segment of society.  Incompetent, aggessive policing only exacerbates tensions, never diffuses them.  If left without any effective leadership, cops will burn out in the tens of thousands and only heighten the tensions that worthless elected time servers allegedly sent them to deal with.

    I haven’t heard anything recently about this, but I do know that during the height of the Madison Uprising, there was some scuttlebutt about cops consulting with legal counsel to formally refuse illegal orders by the Scott Walker junta (i.e., arrest of abstentionist Wisconsin senators).  Let’s pray Lewis’ frank comments moves the ball forward.

  • Anonymous

    That said, it’s probably incumbent upon guys like Lewis to organize pressure groups to de-politicize law enforcement.

    Lewis knows for a fact that incompetent elected officials are going to steer coppers into trouble, by deploying them against lawfully assembled citizens and failing to give them clear, appropriate rules of engagment.

    Guys who know cops understand that the culture of law enforcement, by nature, is given to physical confrontation.  That’s their raison d’etre–to interdict quickly and forcefully, hold the monopoly of legitimate violence within society.

    Old hands, like Lewis, also know that the inevitable corollary of this role is continual moral conflict.  Without constant, thoughtful leadership and reflections on the proper limits of their monopoly on violence, cops are doomed.  It’s no wonder that these guys have rates of psychosis, alcoholism, sexual misconduct, spousal abuse, etc., etc. that are many multiple times higher than the population at large.  You throw a guy in a meat blender, don’t be surprised if what you get is bloody hamburger.

    Really, better defining cops’ role is probably more important for the cops themselves than any other segment of society.  Incompetent, aggessive policing only exacerbates tensions, never diffuses them.  If left without any effective leadership, cops will burn out in the tens of thousands and only heighten the tensions that worthless elected time servers allegedly sent them to deal with.

    I haven’t heard anything recently about this, but I do know that during the height of the Madison Uprising, there was some scuttlebutt about cops consulting with legal counsel to formally refuse illegal orders by the Scott Walker junta (i.e., arrest of abstentionist Wisconsin senators).  Let’s pray Lewis’ frank comments moves the ball forward.

  • Anonymous

    That said, it’s probably incumbent upon guys like Lewis to organize pressure groups to de-politicize law enforcement.

    Lewis knows for a fact that incompetent elected officials are going to steer coppers into trouble, by deploying them against lawfully assembled citizens and failing to give them clear, appropriate rules of engagment.

    Guys who know cops understand that the culture of law enforcement, by nature, is given to physical confrontation.  That’s their raison d’etre–to interdict quickly and forcefully, hold the monopoly of legitimate violence within society.

    Old hands, like Lewis, also know that the inevitable corollary of this role is continual moral conflict.  Without constant, thoughtful leadership and reflections on the proper limits of their monopoly on violence, cops are doomed.  It’s no wonder that these guys have rates of psychosis, alcoholism, sexual misconduct, spousal abuse, etc., etc. that are many multiple times higher than the population at large.  You throw a guy in a meat blender, don’t be surprised if what you get is bloody hamburger.

    Really, better defining cops’ role is probably more important for the cops themselves than any other segment of society.  Incompetent, aggessive policing only exacerbates tensions, never diffuses them.  If left without any effective leadership, cops will burn out in the tens of thousands and only heighten the tensions that worthless elected time servers allegedly sent them to deal with.

    I haven’t heard anything recently about this, but I do know that during the height of the Madison Uprising, there was some scuttlebutt about cops consulting with legal counsel to formally refuse illegal orders by the Scott Walker junta (i.e., arrest of abstentionist Wisconsin senators).  Let’s pray Lewis’ frank comments moves the ball forward.

  • Folkwoman

    Meet Philadelphia’s finest…and one of my new HEROES!