Media overlooks urban cops and safety stakeholders working together. Ratings and newsroom muckrakers favor riots and recrimination. Police support still exists in urban areas, no matter how much some wish otherwise.

Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers and my Generation X populate ranks of urban safety stakeholders. I hope the fact police support is solid despite past social turbulence is noted.

My maternal grandparents and divorced mother raised me in the civic values of their day. They never once made a negative comment about law enforcement. Obviously, this is in stark contrast to current anti-police sentiment.

One simple realization should unite urban police officer with urban safety stakeholder: one wants to lock bad guys up and the other doesn’t want to be menaced by them. Together, they can create safety which is prevention oriented like police athletic leagues and explorer posts alongside joint protection partnerships such as neighborhood watch, department-run or recognized citizens on patrol ( COPs ), Volunteers in Policing ( VIPs ) and Citizens Academies.

Police support still exists among urban safety stakeholders, even in the Michael Brown era. I predict growth in defiance of an anti-police media/militant narrative. Bad guys in our zip codes haven’t closed up shop to hit the talk show circuit . They’re content hitting heads, homes and ‘hoods from coast to coast.

-Nadra Enzi aka Cap Black, Your UrbanSafetyist. @nadraenzi on twitter.