It’s Time for America’s Cops to Pick a Side

Local police officers can no longer afford to be silent.

Credit: U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

By Staff Inspector Thomas J. Cowper, New York State Police (Ret.)

What Donald Trump does to one of us, he does to all of us. Anyone who opposes him is called an enemy of the state. His administration has hired thousands of federal immigration enforcement agents, after unleashing a nationwide recruitment campaign that borrowed heavily from right-wing extremist subcultures. Standards were lowered to allow the administration to rapidly scale up, and the message has been clear that these agents are to “show strength,” to use a phrase Trump likes.

The upshot is clear: Trump has created an army of untrained loyalists and given them approval to carry out his will, irrespective of the law. And these agents are using their apparent immunity to carry out an armed occupation of cities across the country.

No amount of equivocation or hedging or excusing and explaining away these actions, can change the fact that America today—our nation—looks and feels like an authoritarian state. Just because masked federal agents haven’t come to your town or your city doesn’t change that. An authoritarian president has unleashed his untrained and unrestrained agents on America’s streets. They are violently disappearing harmless members of our communities, immigrants and citizens, without due process of law. They are forcibly entering Americans’ homes without a warrant. And they are attacking, and yes, killing, American citizens for peacefully protesting these agents’ lawlessness.

Millions of Americans understand this and have been actively opposing the country’s decline into authoritarianism since the beginning of Trump’s second term. And if America is to survive as a free nation, many more millions will have to stand up and resist this administration’s actions. We the people need to flood the streets with even more heroes willing to peacefully protest and speak out , like the people of Minneapolis have since the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Retreating to our homes and ignoring what is happening, or passively watching this play out on our TVs or on TikTok is capitulation. If it is possible to save this nation in this moment, it will only happen if a lot more people join the resistance. And I am confident they will. True Americans, from all walks of life who understand what America was, what it should be, and what it has become under Trump, will say to themselves “enough is enough,” and will join the millions of us across this nation who have been speaking out.

I am not concerned about most Americans. They have and will continue to step up. I am concerned about America’s state and local police officers and sheriff’s deputies. I am concerned about what side most of them are on. Why?

First, because they are the men and women we vet, train, and pay to stand in the breach and uphold the rule of law. They are the ones with mandates to serve and protect us and our communities. They are the ones who have for decades touted themselves as “the sheepdogs, standing between us and the wolves,” the domestic guardians of freedom and democracy, the thin blue line. Second, because as a group they are either completely silent right now, or actively siding with the authoritarian forces in power.

These are—or were—my people. I’ve spent my entire career in policing and the military. I worked for 33 years in law enforcement, including as a state trooper, SWAT team member, sniper, and firearms and defensive tactics instructor. I suited up just like the federal agents now occupying Minneapolis, except I wasn’t doing it to police peaceful communities and nonviolent protestors. I responded in emergencies, the kinds of scenarios that actually called for head-to-toe tactical gear and long-guns. For eight years, I was also the Inspector in charge of an Internal Affairs Bureau for the New York State Police, which is responsible for holding state troopers accountable. And I was a United States Marine Corps infantry officer.

On January 8, after Renee Good was killed and the mayor of Minneapolis responded by telling ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” the Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police, a police union, released a statement condemning state and local officials for “hateful and anti-law enforcement rhetoric,” and declaring “FOP stands with ICE.” On January 29, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced a plan to try and protect city residents, including directives to the City Police Department. The Seattle Police Officers Guild, another police union, then posted almost immediately on Twitter saying: “Toothless virtue signaling rhetoric like this has already cost two people their lives. The concept of pitting two armed law enforcement agencies against each other is ludicrous and will not happen.” The Guild vowed that its officers would not go along with the Mayor’s new directives.

What got the Seattle Guild, which purports to speak for the city’s police force, so angry? A cursory examination shows that the mayor’s plan will:

• Require the Seattle Police Department to investigate, verify, and document any reports of immigration enforcement activity.

• Mandate close cooperation between city departments and community organizations to ensure everyone has the latest and most accurate information about federal enforcement activities.

• Issue an executive order immediately prohibiting civil federal immigration authorities from using property that is both city-owned and city-controlled for civil immigration enforcement activities, including city parks, parking lots, plazas, vacant lots, storage facilities, garages, and the Seattle Center.

• Establish the Stand Together Seattle Initiative, which invites private property owners to post notices clarifying that their property may not be accessed by federal agents without a warrant.

• Quickly invest $4 million in city funds to organizations engaged in immigrant legal defense, community support, and the long-term needs of immigrant communities.

Nothing in these plans says that the local police are now “pitted against” federal agents. It simply requires the city’s officers to fulfill their duty to keep the city’s streets safe, exactly what local law enforcement has done routinely for decades. Particularly given the outrageous and blatantly unlawful actions of federal agents in Minneapolis, there is nothing unreasonable about the Seattle Mayor’s directive and nothing that inherently pits “two armed law enforcement agencies against each other.” Unless, of course, one of the agencies at issue acts as if it is above the law, and the other agency disagrees with those actions.

It is long past time that we addressed this elephant in the room we call America: When it comes to stopping this administration’s lawlessness, how many more of America’s 750,000 state and local cops and deputies will side with the authoritarians? And how many of them will be brave enough and have enough personal integrity to uphold their oath to the Constitution of the United States and enforce the law, regardless of their political beliefs, even if they must take a stand against those who are actively destroying it?

Those are excellent questions. I hear them every day from citizens who are resisting this administration’s policies and actions. As a retired cop, I try to explain the nuances and complexities of the job. I understand the tenuous position that officers, troopers, and deputies are in and the danger that any opposition to federal law enforcement creates. I understand many of the reasons for local law enforcement’s inaction in the face of federal law enforcement abuses. I know that many of those officers standing between peaceful protestors and masked ICE and Border Patrol agents do not support what these federal agents are doing.

These are unique times with very difficult and complex challenges for officers and their departments to grapple with. State and local officers and deputies are being thrust into situations they did not create and are not prepared for. There is no training program on “How to Police the Federal Government,” no course at the academy on what to do when you see misconduct by a heavily armed Border Patrol agent surrounded by an army of other, heavily armed Border Patrol agents. Today, cops find themselves standing between justifiably angry, but largely peaceful, citizens, and masked agents with guns who have been given apparent license to do whatever they want. I do not envy those local cops.

Citizens need to understand that individual officers are not lone wolves operating independently. Individual cops respond to crises like what’s going on in Minneapolis as a team, directed by dispatch centers with departmental protocols for specific situations. They operate under longstanding conventions and inter-departmental and jurisdictional agreements of mutual aid and cooperation. They have partners, supervisors and commanders who guide and direct their actions on the street. Everyone in that mix has their own level of knowledge, insight and experience, coupled with their own morals and willingness to act. Officers cannot simply oppose federal government agents on their own if their city, department, and more importantly, their teammates, don’t stand with them. And many don’t. So yeah—it’s a tough job.

But because I’m retired now, and an active protestor, I’ve also been asking myself these same questions my fellow protestors are asking: Why are the police not taking a more forceful stand against federal lawlessness and protecting citizens who are simply exercising their constitutional rights? Why are so many cops on the side of the authoritarians? Where’s all the bravery we say law enforcement has?

And the answer I am having to confront, sadly, is that many cops in America simply don’t care about the founding principles like I do, or like I thought they did. Or all that talk about bravery and running toward the gunfire when everyone else was running away from it, was bullshit.

These days I am not at all convinced that America’s state and local cops will join us and resist this administration’s actions, not in the kind of numbers we need to tilt the scale. Based on what I am seeing, and not seeing, I am afraid that many of them will not stand with us and oppose this administration. And I fear that they have sided with or are a willing part of the MAGA, right-wing extremist, and Christian Nationalist movements that are destroying civil institutions and freedom in America. I hope I am wrong.

The first step might be for cops to stop listening to their union leaders, who have their own partisan motivations, and think for themselves. Stop watching the Fox News/Newsmax/OAN propaganda machine and immerse yourself in reality. Talk to your partners, supervisors, and chiefs. Help them devise strategies and tactics that do more to support your communities. Ask yourselves, why would immigration agents need to carry M-4 style rifles, many with suppressors, on ICE operations?

Credit: U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Every cop who understands the oath he or she took to protect and defend the Constitution must start taking actions to oppose Trump’s lawlessness and the federal agents he has mobilized to terrorize our communities. Explore every legal mechanism to hold them accountable. Go back and look again at the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Compare what those documents say with what is happening today across the United States.

I believe America’s police officers have a critical role to play in ensuring the free democratic future of the United States. America’s professional police officers and sheriff’s deputies may be the linchpin that connects today’s resistance to a future America that remains grounded in freedom and the rule of law. The reckless immigration agents in our streets cannot win; they cannot and will not act with impunity in our communities if America’s professional police and sheriff’s departments take a stand.

We need to not just refuse to work with them, but to also stand with patriotic Americans and push back against federal overreach. The police in this country need to defend peaceful protesters, not act against them. Do not let these federal agents define what is criminal on your streets and who fits their definition at any given moment. Any accommodation with federal agents trampling on the rights of citizens needs to be opposed by those empowered to protect our communities.

I am aware that is a bold statement, one that is much easier said than done, and it’s easy for an old retired guy like me to make it. But it needs doing, and you picked the short straw when you swore your oath. Cops need to take a stand for liberty in America. A tall order indeed. But if we are to survive as a nation of free people, you must join the resistance against this administration’s authoritarianism. Do your job as if the country depends on it. Because it does.

Staff Inspector Thomas J. Cowper (Ret.) is a former New York State Police officer. He spent 33 years in law enforcement, including as a trooper, SWAT team member, sniper, and firearms and defensive tactics instructor. He was the Inspector in charge of the State Police Internal Affairs Bureau’s North Region for eight years. He was also a United States Marine Corps infantry officer.