Terry Seilhamer

The right of the people to “assemble peaceably” is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Police officers take an oath to uphold the Constitution. Therefore, they are required to safeguard this right, no matter how popular or unpopular the cause may be that is the reason for the assembly.

Prior to retiring as a State Police commander, I was required to provide security for several protest rallies conducted by the Ku Klux Klan in western Pennsylvania.

As personally distasteful as we found this assignment, my staff and I, along with local law enforcement, provided the necessary security so that these assemblies could be conducted without any violence. In those instances, as with most assemblies, there were protestors and counter-protestors, as well as individuals who had their own agendas.

Thankfully, these events occurred with minimal police intervention/arrests required, despite the police officers involved having to endure a steady barrage of verbal abuse directed toward them from both the protestors and the counter-protestors.

The individuals and organizations who attempted to co-opt these peaceable assemblies for their own agendas were unsuccessful.

Unfortunately, as we have recently seen, that is not always the outcome. Individuals and organizations that have their own agendas often infiltrate these peaceable assemblies, no matter how noble the original reason for the assembly.

They then attempt to bait police officers into over-reacting by non-compliance with instructions, physical assaults, and property destruction. Upon provoking a response from police officers, these individuals then seek anonymity by fading into the crowd and pushing others to the forefront.

They then agitate others in the crowd, hoping to turn a peaceable crowd into an angry mob. Once the mob mentality takes hold, physical assaults and property destruction soon follows.

The way to avoid these nightmarish scenarios is to have police officers and the people they serve get to know and respect each other as human beings, not through text or email, but actual human interaction.

Sadly, many people today, including some police officers, seem to lack the interpersonal skills necessary to listen and respectfully disagree with each other. The “my way or the highway” mentality is way too prevalent, as is racial and religious stereotyping.

Police officers are human and, like anyone else, they have personal feelings and prejudices. However, these must be set aside in order to adhere to the professional standards of conduct that are required of all police officers.

Police supervisors and commanders must enforce these standards and immediately intervene whenever these standards are violated, or the result will be a loss of trust by the very people that police officers have sworn to serve and protect, which can result in tragic consequences.

In these turbulent times, I believe that we all need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and follow The Golden Rule.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Chief Terry Seilhamer began his police career in June 1974 as a member of the Waynesboro Borough Police Department in Franklin County, and joined the state police five years later. At the time of his 2011 retirement from the state police, he was in charge of over 1,100 personnel assigned to 23 stations in 18 counties in Western Pennsylvania. He went on to his position with the Jackson Township Police Department.