Written by Randy Sutton of our partners at The Wounded Blue
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Our law enforcement officers are on the front lines of a very new war. It is a war not against crime, but against a disease.
COVID-19 is the scourge that is challenging our nation on a level that has never occurred before; it’s taking lives, instilling fear and disrupting the economy in unimaginable ways.
In times of uncertainty, distress or widespread panic, the American Law-Enforcement Officer has heroically responded, as it is their duty to do so.
The police have faced challenges in regards to their safety since the first police officer or sheriff’s deputy pinned on a badge. They have faced armed criminals, natural disasters and threats of all kinds.
But not in recent history have they faced not only the threat of civil unrest due to economic failure, but, at the same time, the threat of infection from a disease that is not even understood by the medical community.
This, however, is the current reality that officers face.
Society’s rising fears due to economic turbulence, supply chain hysteria and general despair, make the cocktail for criminal behavior.
The reality is this: Without law-enforcement, the United States faces violence and lawlessness on a scale that is in comprehensible. It is only the thin blue line that stands between civilized society and epic criminality on the scale which is almost inconceivable should society degenerate.
Law enforcement presence is needed more than ever, but what is being done to keep officers safe during this national crisis?
In just the past few weeks when this pandemic began to be recognized for the threat that it truly is, law enforcement officers across the United States have become infected, and law enforcement agencies throughout the country have been slow to recognize the threat and deal with it properly.
Some agencies have taken precautions, issued safety equipment and stated they only respond to calls that are prioritized for safety to citizens and police. Others have completely failed to protect their officers, including not even giving them the information when they were exposed to infection.
This is a new threat for the law enforcement community; we must be united in the way we support our officers, so they may continue to be available to protect our citizens.
The Wounded Blue is the national assistance and support organization for injured and disabled law enforcement officers. It is our duty to stand up on their behalf. To demand that agencies and communities fulfill their responsibilities by safeguarding the American Law Enforcement Officer.
The unfortunate reality is this, police leadership and political leadership has often shirked their responsibility when dealing with injured and disabled law enforcement officers. They have all too often turned their backs on these men and women who have sacrificed so much.
With the encroachment of this new disease and new threat, it is the front line officer who once again stands the line.
Hundreds or thousands may become infected with the virus. They will enter people’s homes are infected, they will arrest people who are infected, they will come into contact with literally hundreds of people a day and many will inevitably fall ill.
These illnesses will run the gamut from minor to deadly and here is my prediction: Many of these men and women will be told that they are on their own for healthcare. Many of these men and women will suffer not only from the disease but from the financial burdens associated with falling ill.
Why? Because their departments, their agencies and their city governments will fail them and refuse to recognize this disease as a worker’s compensation injury.
If that sounds incomprehensible to you, allow me to point out that as an organization that works with injured and disabled law enforcement officers across this country, I have witnessed firsthand the abandonment of untold numbers of officers shot, stabbed, beaten and injured in traffic accidents.
This disease will be no different.
The Wounded Blue organization is taking a stand for officers that have been impacted by COVID-19.
This is why, on behalf of The Wounded Blue, I suggest, no, I demand that our governments, on the state and federal level, immediately declare it presumed that any law enforcement officer who has contracted COVID-19 did so while on the job, which makes it a worker’s compensation injury.
Our country is in crisis. We must come together as a people and unite.
We must also recognize that our law enforcement officers are forced into the epicenter of danger and disease. Undoubtedly, they play a crucial role in how our society emerges from this crisis.
In the months to come, civilians and law-enforcement alike will succumb to this illness; many others will become infected and their lives changed forever.
Now is the time to stand with those who stand the line for us.
Support legislation that recognizes law-enforcement officers’ contraction of COVID-19 be treated as a worker’s compensation injury, so that they do not face uncertainty and financial burden as they fight for their lives.
Join me as I call on the governors of each state, as well as city and local political leaders, to step up and enact legislation to protect our law enforcement officers without hesitation.
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