Joseph Sabino Mistick: We should respect the police, not make their job harder

Some people think that teachers have the toughest job in America. Others think that nurses have the toughest job. Or psychiatric social workers. But I think that police officers have the toughest job in America because they have to do all of those jobs and enforce the law.

And Donald Trump just made their job tougher. He has pardoned nearly every rioter who was convicted of assaulting police officers when the pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some had pled guilty, and some were convicted at trial. Others with charges pending and who are awaiting trial learned that Trump’s Justice Department will be asking for dismissals with prejudice so that they can never be prosecuted.

Fourteen members of groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers had their sentences commuted. They will be considered for full pardons later. Then, like the others, they will be able to legally own firearms. Trump, who constantly complains about the weaponization of the Justice Department, has just weaponized the Justice Department against the police.

Trump made no attempt to distinguish between those who merely trespassed on Jan. 6 and those who committed extremely violent assaults on the police. He pardoned a Proud Boys leader who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, along with others who used bear spray to blind the police and beat them with baseball bats, fire extinguishers, crowd control barriers and American flagpoles.

It was a victorious week for those who would violently overthrow our government when things don’t turn out the way they want. Each of Trump’s pardons is “full, complete and unconditional.” It was a defeat for those Americans who still believe in law and order, civil discourse, the Republic and the police.

For those police officers who were injured and maimed and who still suffer — and for those who died in the days following the riot — Trump’s pardons are a disgrace. For all the police officers who suit up every day and take to the streets to protect us, Trump’s pardons are a warning.

Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquillino A. Gonell, whose injuries that day led to his retirement, said, “It’s a miscarriage of justice, a betrayal, a mockery and a desecration of the men and women that risked their lives defending our democracy.”

General deterrence is one of society’s purposes of criminal punishment. It is a signal to everyone that there are serious consequences for breaking the law: If you assault the police — the message has always been — you will be punished severely. Not so much now.

There were many other recent pardons — by both President Biden and Trump — and there are good and bad arguments for each of them. A president has sweeping pardon powers. Presidents use those powers to rebalance the justice system and for political and personal reasons, without any controls or oversight. But pardoning those who have violently assaulted the police is a different story. Do that, and the whole system falls apart.

I feel sorry for my police officer friends who have supported and will continue to support Trump, only to have him break faith with them within minutes of becoming president. Some of them will even be mad at me for criticizing Trump.

That’s OK. It will be very hard for them to admit that they were wrong about someone and that he let them down the first chance he got. But the truth is here for all to see.