By David W. Marshall
(Trice Edney Wire) – The phrase “to serve and protect” has been the motto of the Los Angeles Police Department since 1963. The popularity of this phrase has led to its subsequent use by other police departments throughout North America. It means actively assisting and safeguarding others by providing service to the community and ensuring their safety. It signifies a duty to uphold the law and protect citizens from harm.
While it is most commonly used in reference to law enforcement, it has a broader application in all fields of government public service. Technically, public or civil servants answer first to the government’s interests, not to political parties, for the continuity of their institutional tenure and knowledge will carry through periods of political leadership transitions and turnover. Whether they work on the local, state, or federal level, they are tasked “to serve and protect” the government and the citizens within their districts and jurisdictions. This would include any elected official and government employee. For the true public servant, there is a balance between maintaining a sincere concern for people and their well-being and carrying out the overall mission of the agency they represent. This balance is often the target of powerful influences from the private sector by way of big campaign donors and the elected officials they control.
The recent shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO has brought renewed focus and increased scrutiny of the health insurance industry. Before the shooting, many of us were unfamiliar with the phrase “delay, deny, defend” regarding business tactics used by insurance companies. Insurers may delay processing claims to make policyholders give up or accept lower settlements. Insurance companies may deny claims outright or offer settlements significantly lower than what might be considered fair. If the delay and denial schemes do not deter the claimant, insurance companies may aggressively defend against the claim through a lengthy legal battle that can be financially and emotionally taxing for the patient filing the grievance.
California government officials fined Anthem Blue Cross $3.5 million this year for mishandling member complaints over denials and other issues. According to the state’s Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), the fine is due to the company’s failure to handle more than 10,000 complaints from its members in a timely manner over a two-year period. Patient care advocate Linda Winkler Garvin said such behavior can be medically dangerous for patients and strain their mental health as well. Unknown to the public, the critical behind-the-scenes work by public servants such as those working for California’s DMHC can easily be taken for granted. Businesses typically don’t like regulations, but citizens and consumer advocates know that fair and reasonable regulation enforced by dedicated public servants is needed to protect the public’s interests.
Some leaders from the private sector would love to purge the federal government of public servants who are in place to “serve and protect.” Behind the rhetoric of cutting government waste is the true motive of eliminating the public servants who care about people rather than power, control, and billion-dollar profits. Servants who stand in the gap between fairness to citizens and corruption from corporations. Those who are in place to fight for accountability and transparency. They are the whistleblowers. They are the checks and balances on the front line of the government. They are the everyday individuals who keep the nation functioning daily.
They represent a major thorn in the side and a threat to billionaire oligarchs like Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Donald Trump, who disdain systems of checks and balances and the true meaning of public service. Federal civilian employees are now the target of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk and Ramaswamy. As private businessmen in non-traditional roles within the executive branch, they are in a high position to shape government policy decisions and cut what they deem to be wasteful government spending. The idea of conflict of interest has no meaning to those with the power to do as they wish without suffering the consequences of their actions. Musk, who leads companies with lucrative government contracts, called for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While Musk and Ramaswamy may never suffer the full consequences of their actions, federal civilian employees and the American public will. “Millions of Americans should brace for massive cuts to benefits and services they rely on for their survival under plans to target government spending and operations,” American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a Nov. 13 statement.
Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt blocked a request by Democratic senators to pass legislation to protect federal workers from civil service reforms. Public servants who normally serve and protect others now need others to protect and serve them. Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget and a key Project 2025 architect, Russell Vought, has endorsed reclassifying federal workers to “Schedule F” to get around civil service protections that make it difficult to fire them. Work with the federal government has historically been a ladder to the middle class for millions of Americans of all races, but especially for Black citizens. The competitive pay scales of government employment have helped lift generations of Black families into the middle class. Black Americans make up 18.2 percent of the federal government workforce, which is higher than their percentage in the U.S. population (13.2%). Republican lawmakers, once they start hearing from their constituents back home, need to reconsider these irresponsible ideas.
David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America.
