I Look for Heroes Wherever I Can Find Them

 

In deference to our traditional heroes, I have to say that the man I’m going to tell you about is not one of them. He hasn’t put his life at risk (although some might disagree, given what he is doing); he hasn’t faced bullets (but he has dodged the slings and arrows of the woke community). And he sets a great example, especially for professors in the universities, for fighting back. His name is Prof. James Moore.

Prof. Moore, who teaches engineering and policy at USC in Los Angeles, has the audacity to hang a pro-police flag on the outside of his office door. The university newspaper, the Daily Trojan, reported the complaint of a student regarding the display:

‘This is an inappropriate and unnecessary symbol to have on an office door where USC is, within the last year or two, trying to have a much broader diversity initiative and to be inclusive, especially in the STEM area,’ one USC graduate student told the school newspaper.

An administrator suggested he take down the flag. He refused:

‘This [USC] is supposed to be a safe space for diversity of thought,’ the professor said. ‘We are charging people very good money to teach them to think. I am just trying to deliver.’

Moore added that he hung the flag for three reasons: Dispute the notion that police are the biggest statistical threat to Black Americans; honor a family member who recently retired as a police detective; highlight the fact that homicides have spiked 30% since anti-police sentiment swept the nation last year.

‘All of that is attached to this flag, an unvarnished, objective look at what is happening in the U.S.,’ he told the College Fix. ‘We need the police to protect us.’

He explained further the importance of policing:

‘I have lived through two riots in Los Angeles in 1992 and 2020, and public authority has a duty to protect property. Property rights are the basis of exchange, voluntary transaction, and the benefits of trade. Our economy cannot function without security. Protecting property and property rights may be the most fundamental and consequential duty that public authority has, because it enables the quality of life we want. Execution falls to the police, which makes them particularly important. The fact that they consistently put their lives on the line for us all deserves recognition and respect, and they have mine,’ he noted to Fox News.

He also added that there are some current policing practices he would change, and believes that the police believe that there are positive changes that could be made.

Some students have stopped by his office to thank him for hanging up the flag. And the university admits that there is no policy that would support the removal of the flag.

With all the pressures and harassment that Prof. Moore has gone through and likely will continue to experience, I thank him for stating his beliefs and supporting law enforcement.

Published in Policing
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There are 14 comments.

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  1. Caryn Thatcher
    Caryn
    @Caryn

    Amen!  Thank you, Susan, for bringing this moral hero to our attention.  May he grow from success to success and provide an example of goodness and manliness to his students.

    • #1
  2. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    As far as this statement in your excellent essay, Susan —

    Some students have stopped by his office to thank him for hanging up the flag. And the university admits that there is no policy that would support the removal of the flag.

    I wonder if a single one of us here imagined 10 or 15 years ago, that campus culture in the USA would  devolve in such a way as to make these two sentences exceptional ones?

    • #2
  3. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Caryn (View Comment):

    Amen! Thank you, Susan, for bringing this moral hero to our attention. May he grow from success to success and provide an example of goodness and manliness to his students.

    Thanks, Caryn! I agree! And he’s not doing it to be trolling (as some of his students say), but because that is the nature of teaching and learning.

    • #3
  4. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):
    I wonder if a single one of us here imagined 10 or 15 years ago, that campus culture in the USA would  devolve in such a way as to make these two sentences exceptional ones?

    I never could have imagined it, CarolJoy. It’s a very sad commentary. Thank you for your kind remarks.

    • #4
  5. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    The good professor might have a reason to be supportive of the police. The area around the USC campus is in a pretty rough area of Los Angeles.

    Click on the link of an LAPD map for a weekly report of crimes committed within two miles of the campus.

    • #5
  6. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Doug Watt (View Comment):

    The good professor might have a reason to be supportive of the police. The area around the USC campus is in a pretty rough area of Los Angeles.

    Click on the link of an LAPD map for a weekly report of crimes committed within two miles of the campus.

    It wasn’t very safe back when we still lived in CA, over 15+ years ago.

    • #6
  7. Clavius Thatcher
    Clavius
    @Clavius

    Sadly I don’t think he’d get any support from the administration were he at my Alma mater across town, UCLA.  They wouldn’t have the courage.

    • #7
  8. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Caryn (View Comment):

    Amen! Thank you, Susan, for bringing this moral hero to our attention. May he grow from success to success and provide an example of goodness and manliness to his students.

    Dittos.

    • #8
  9. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    As far as this statement in your excellent essay, Susan —

    Some students have stopped by his office to thank him for hanging up the flag. And the university admits that there is no policy that would support the removal of the flag.

    I wonder if a single one of us here imagined 10 or 15 years ago, that campus culture in the USA would devolve in such a way as to make these two sentences exceptional ones?

    Yes, it was clear in the 80s that things were going this direction. I have been surprised only by the rate of acceleration. 

    • #9
  10. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Execution falls to the police, which makes them particularly important.

    I could wish that he had used a more felicitous word here. 

    • #10
  11. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Susan Quinn: ‘This is an inappropriate and unnecessary symbol to have on an office door where USC is, within the last year or two, trying to have a much broader diversity initiative and to be inclusive, especially in the STEM area,’ one USC graduate student told the school newspaper.

    “Diversity and inclusion” always means excluding everyone the left dislikes, and especially those who stand in the way of the left’s malevolent goals.

    • #11
  12. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    “Of course we’re diverse! We have black Marxists, Latino Marxists, gay Marxists, Marxist-Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, Castroites, Sandinistas, Trotskyites, Jacobins, Anarchists, Fabians…”

    • #12
  13. Dominique Prynne Member
    Dominique Prynne
    @DominiquePrynne

    Susan Quinn: Prof. Moore, who teaches engineering and policy at USC

    I knew it would be a STEM prof or “hard business” professor – like accounting or finance.  Nearly all other departments in the universities are infected with overwhelming degrees of wokeness.   

    • #13
  14. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Dominique Prynne (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn: Prof. Moore, who teaches engineering and policy at USC

    I knew it would be a STEM prof or “hard business” professor – like accounting or finance. Nearly all other departments in the universities are infected with overwhelming degrees of wokeness.

    Unfortunately, you can find leftists in the STEM fields too.

    • #14
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