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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE Commentary by Rob Riley, President, White Plains Police Benevolent Association. June 1, 2012:

It is not easy being a police officer. Every day you put on your uniform is one where you may look death in the face.

But even more frightening than the threat against your own life is that you may have to take someone else’s. It is the worst nightmare of every police officer to be forced to draw their weapon and defend themselves or save others with lethal force.

Unfortunately, officers often are left with no choice. They must make the incredibly difficult decision between their own lives, saving others and taking that of another.

This judgment many times must be made in a split second. An officer can only hope that years of training and experience along with a strong moral character will lead them to act justly.

There are no winners in these situations. Even in the clearest of circumstance, when the police are apprehending violent, dangerous people, every officer hopes that the confrontation will end without incident. Many times, it is much more complicated. 

The shooting of Kenneth Chamberlain is a tragic example of when – all too common in law enforcement –there are no positive outcomes. It is incredibly sad that Mr. Chamberlain was shot and killed, but if the officers had acted differently, perhaps we would be mourning the death of a policeman who had come to help Chamberlain instead.

A grand jury was convened and examined mounds of evidence about the incident, concluding that the officers involved acted in accordance with the law. That is likely little conciliation to Mr. Chamberlain’s family, who are understandably angry at the loss of their loved one. Our hearts truly do go out to them.

Though it may be difficult for some to believe, the officers that night were trying to help Mr. Chamberlain. He was acting as a danger to himself and potentially others. If the officers had simply left that night, it could have produced the tragic result and we would be talking about police negligence instead of police acting out of necessity.

We will never know.  It is easy to look back and second guess the actions of officers faced with such difficult circumstances. The fact is that police work is not pretty. It is ugly business keeping people safe, locking up criminals and generally dealing with people during their worst moments.

It would be naïve to assume that both the actions of every officer and their consequences exist in a vacuum. Race, gender, societal norms, etc. all play a role in deterring right from wrong. Rightly so, such actions are evaluated by the public, the legal system and our politicians. But it is importantly that they do so fairly and with perspective.

People outside of law enforcement have the luxury of looking at the world in simple terms. Police officers do not. Every case is different and must be weighed based on the conditions – even with a barrel of a gun or knife in your face. It is indeed a very difficult job.

And yet we need officers in order to make our society work. They are the ones willing to make those difficult decisions. They are the ones willing to put their lives on the line for all of us. When we judge them in our hearts and minds, we must not forget that fact.

What is certain is that no officer joins the force in order to take a life. They join to save lives. Sometimes, those two values conflict.The decisions they have to make because of that areso often tragic. What would be more tragic, however, is losing our faith in the people that must make them.

Rob Riley is the president of the White Plains Police Benevolent Association.

Griffiths began serving as the executive director of NETS in November 2003. NETS received almost all of its funding from government grants sponsored by a Bronx Assemblyman. In 2008, the FBI began investigating the not-for-profit and how it had used those government funds.

In June 2009, Griffiths made materially false statements and representations in documents he provided to the FBI in response to a Southern District of New York grand jury subpoena. The documents were purported minutes of meetings of the board of directors of NETS that related to, among other things, alleged authorizations he had obtained from the board to take certain payments from the not-for-profit. Griffiths gave the minutes to the FBI in an attempt to mislead them and obstruct their investigation of NETS. Specifically, Griffiths attempted to cover up tens of thousands of dollars he had taken from NETS with no authorization and his scheme to take almost $200,000 more from the not-for-profit.

In September 2010, Griffiths, on behalf of NETS, attempted to obtain additional grant money from a New York State agency under false pretenses. Specifically, Griffiths misrepresented to the agency that the not-for-profit and its officers and directors had not been the subject of a criminal investigation, a civil investigation, and/or unsatisfied tax liens and judgments for the past five years. At the time Griffiths made these misrepresentations, he knew that both he and the not-for-profit were under investigation by the FBI as well as by the State Attorney General’s Office and that NETS had unsatisfied tax liens and judgments against it.

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Griffiths, 66, of White Plains, New York, faces a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 in addition to the proceeds of the crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced after post-trial briefing.

Mr. Bharara praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the investigation of this case.

This prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Carrie H. Cohen and Justin Anderson are in charge of the prosecutions.