Good heavens! Captain Johnson shouldn't be a police officer.

[calimary]

He should be MAYOR. Better yet, GOVERNOR. Maybe SENATOR - or higher. THAT is the kind of leadership we need. Pretty much across the board!!!

[immoderate]

1. I too am impressed with Captain Johnson.

He is a LEADER!

--imm

[bravenak]

2. We need better leaders.

He has been golden throughout this. Like Bunny from the Wire.

[NuclearDem]

3. Captain Johnson is a role model.

[justabob]

4. with all due respect

He has been fabulous, but why always the desire to push guys like him out of the job they have? He is a cop, and a decent one.... by all means promote him, but doesn't the police department/highway patrol need to keep guys like him? Especially at the top? I appreciate what you mean, and I admire him too, but this is one of my irritations lately.... seems like any time some person shows up well in a difficult situation we go a little nuts with praise and expectations.... Wendy Davis comes to mind. After her filibuster people were howling for federal positions for her. Um hello..... Texas needs to keep people like her for a bit. Likewise, Ferguson and Missouri need Capt Johnsons to better the lot of the people there.

on edit.... unless of course Capt Johnson himself *wants* to pursue politics.

[Wait Wut]

5. Agree 100%

We need more cops like him, not fewer.

[calimary]

6. Understood. This is in absolutely no way a wish to push him out of some job.

I'd like to see him promoted to a larger forum of influence where he commands MULTIPLE police departments. Where HIS mindset dominates and shapes policy and writes or rewrites the rules for greater numbers of people and communities and populations. I want to see guys like him (and women, too) in BIGTIME leadership positions because we DO need their leadership. And people like him should advance as far as they can.

Frankly, Captain Johnson kinda strikes me as someone who would not be interested in higher office. Just an impression - I have no facts to back that up. Just what I've observed of him on camera, in action and in words. He seems like a guy who would want to stay dug-in, in his community, in his neighborhoods where the hurt is huge. There are activists like him all over the place, working in small venues, many times unseen and unappreciated. Toiling in the back of the vineyard, as it were. I think some of those individuals absolutely should be elevated to greater prominence. Virtue rewarded. They they, hopefully, would be able to appoint or hire or supervise others - of their same mindset. So they would be in positions to grow that kind of mindset within their own organizations or command structures.

That is what we need. YES I'd want this particular public servant elevated, promoted, even elected to higher office. I think we need that kind of leadership. THAT is the only "trickle-down" policy that works - and for the benefit of most of us - beyond just the 1%.

[bigtree]

7. +1

[justabob]

9. Understood and agreed

Sorry for taking your thread to talk about one of my personal issues.

He is a good man in his job and for him, and people like him, to have greater influence/presence with LEOs in Missouri and beyond would be great.

[calimary]

17. Huh?

Um - isn't that most of what goes on here - our personal issues in wide and vast discussion, popping up all over the place, everywhere in every thread?

No need to apologize, justabob! I can see your point completely. And part of me would indeed want to keep him where he is. But he seems to be so effective in compassionate, intelligent policing that it's professionals like him who should be promoted all over the place. If his wise, calm, steady hand had been at the wheel last weekend, I doubt we'd have the conflagration we've seen.

You make me think of this one Mr. Rogers moment - which I think was after something really awful like 9-11 or Katrina or some other really horrible event. And he was asked his advice about what to tell the kids, in the event of... His answer: "go find the helpers. Find the helpers." The people helping. As in - authority figures and first responders and, yes, the police who are supposed to be your friend. And it's just a crying shame that "the helpers" in this case were the ones who set out all the open containers of gasoline and then started throwing lit matches around. What little kid would think it was safe to try to approach a being who was dressed up to look like an Imperial Stormtrooper and armed with the most ferocious-looking guns imaginable - that were pointing directly at the people? Some helper THAT is! I'm 61 years old and I myself wouldn't be able to regard that as ANY kind of "helper" in the remotest regions of the imagination! That would be something from which I myself would want to run and hide! Doesn't matter that I'm not African American. I'd still be terrified in their presence and wondering how soon one of 'em was gonna go off, half-cocked, at ME, too.

The fact is - we NEED our police. We need them. We need them to be among us and watching out for real bad guys for us and we need to be able to trust them. We need to feel safe in their presence. SAFER in their presence! The police officer is the one we SHOULD run toward in crisis moments. The police officer is NOT the one we should cower from - someone who raises our level of mistrust and vulnerability. Shit. We have police officers and police departments on duty in the community to STAVE OFF that feeling of vulnerability!

And how anyone could have felt, earlier this week, that the police in Ferguson were in any way helpful to stave off that feeling of vulnerability and impending danger - is beyond me. Armed to the teeth with their stupid fucking war toys. SHEESH. What is this? The Ukraine? Downtown Baghdad? Outer Afghanistan? WTF?

No. Your point makes perfect sense, too. And frankly, in that anguished community, if I lived there, I'd want to hug him as hard as I could, and hang on to him for dear life to make sure he'd stay put. They'd probably have to peel me off of him, physically, 'cause I wouldn't want to let go. I wouldn't want him out of my sight for a second. Because with him around, just knowing he was around, I'd personally feel much more safe.

[justabob]

18. Agreed... the helpers

I know it. It has become absurd and terrifying, and there is more and more every single day.

I honestly didn't mean to stomp on your enthusiasm for the Captain in any way. He is doing an excellent job and hopefully the people who work for him are equally decent. He *should* have an opportunity for broader reach. I just think it should be within the local LEO community on the ground... for a while, rather than higher up in the elected offices. There aren't enough good guys on the ground.... or anywhere at the moment. The local pd need to see his style in action and use it in future rather than donning gas masks, armor et al Much more effective and less traumatic for everyone.

[calimary]

19. No worries, my friend!

You didn't stomp on any enthusiasm of mine, at all!

[Schema Thing]

8. Hush; this man should obviously be the next leader of the free world.

[FiveGoodMen]

10. He IS probably better than what we'll GET as the next leader of the free world

Unless someone decent throws their hat into the ring.

[GliderGuider]

11. He would probably decline the offer.

The people who would be best at something like that are usually too smart to take it on...

[sabrina 1]

13. Surely there are more people like him around that we could get a chance to vote for?? No need

to push him out of HIS job, but I think people are literally YEARNING for actual leadership whose first priority IS the people who elect them.

Seeing an example of such a person, since it is so RARE in this country, naturally people express a desire to see leadership like this in elected office.

However, I think he belongs right where he is, but it would make his job easier IF there was that kind of leadership in actual power in this country.

I don't see it, wish I did.

[justabob]

15. yes, what you said nt

[scmoore120]

12. He has done a great job!

[calimary]

21. Welcome to DU, scmoore120!

Glad you're here! Indeed. And he's got a growing fan base, too. Well-deserved! He's probably too humble to want to aspire to something bigger. But one can always imagine, anyway!

[tblue37]

14. I believe he will have many opportunities for a more

elevated and remunerative career because of the way he has handled himself and this volatile situation. Good thing, too, because the corrupt and racist powers that be in Missouri politics and among the bosses at various levels of the state's law enforcement structure are never going to forgive him for his honesty about their screw-ups, however carefully phrased it is, or for showing them up by being so darned much more competent and decent in his handling of this mess.

[AverageJoe90]

16. Capt. Johnson is a great example of humanity.

Were I living in Missouri, and he were to be running for any office, you can bet my bottom dollar I'd vote for him straight away..

[HipChick]

20. Not impressed...

He's a black face on an underlying problem that has not been resolved

[calimary]

22. But it's a start. It's the first policing we've seen in awhile that actually makes sense

for the community involved.

It's a bit depressing, though, to think of the underlying problem(s) you mention. I find myself marveling, in a sad way, at how many problems we all face - that may actually not have a solution. The whole Israel/Palestinian thing. May not be solvable. East versus West - dunno about that. Extremist Islam versus Extremist Christianity, who can see a realistic, workable end to that? Maybe the only real, workable, practical solution in a case like this, here, is that we may just have to wait til the old racist shit dies out. If indeed that is ever possible. And I don't know if it is. I sure don't see any big rush to pull down all the "stars 'n' bars" banners out there. Hell, one of the police officials involved in the whole Ferguson calamity has that frickin' flag hanging in his LIVING ROOM!!!!

Btw - what is that video clip in your sig line? Is that everybody's favorite Canadian mayor in there?

[HipChick]

24. Yep...that's my fav mayor

I'd like to attend a beer summit with him

[JaneyVee]

23. People said the same about MLK jr...at first.