I can never understand the horrors and terrors that the police face everyday and I will not pretend that I do. What I do know and it's painfully obvious is that an alarming number of Blacks are killed every year by the police and this is not a new statistic.
In almost any city in America you see "Serve and Protect" under the word Police on their cars, but whom are they here to Serve or Protect?
A Police Officer should be a hero in the communities they service. The people that solve crimes and save the day. The people you can count on when you are in harms way. We should feel safe in their presence. They should be the Good Guys, and we should believe that Good triumphs over Evil.
Now the argument is that Police Officers have a reasonable fear of threat or danger when stopping people. Well when you have incidents like the Dallas Sniper I can see why they feel threatened. But keep in mind that the Dallas Sniper incident was reactionary. While I in no way agree with his actions as a Black Male in America I do understand.
I've always said it was a double-edge sword. If there wasn't so much violence, mistrust and mistreatment of people by the police, there would be fewer incidents that the police have to fear. So in essence the police produced this insane fear that they have, by means of their treatment of people. A self inflected wound one might say.
Once again I must state I have no idea of the fears and horrors the police face everyday. What I do know as a member of the Regular Army we are trained to face danger everyday. Our job description says if we are called upon to preform our duties that not all of us are coming home and the ones that do may be physically or mentally damaged beyond help. Now I have was never part of any conflict that we may have had, but I have several friends that have seen combat.
I say this to bring to attention that we do have people out there that face life and death with every decision they make on a daily basis. Yet somehow they are able to exercise restraint when it comes to hostile situations. By definition the job of our Armed Forces is to kill or be killed.
I would never try to compare any Police Department with the Armed Forces, so in essence I can never understand the imagined fear that these Officers claim to have. Too often someone is being beaten when trying to comply with a request while hails of "Stop Resisting" are offered from the offices. Too often they take their badge to mean that they can violate your HUMAN RIGHTS.
At the end of the day the Police are servants of the people and should act accordingly. Just as the Military are responsible for their actions and held accountable so should our Police Officers. I will never condone any actions of harm against Police Officers, but I will not let them treat me as less than human either.
So once again I can never understand the horrors that Police Officers face everyday, but a badge is not a license to do whatever one feels. Your oath is to serve and protect the people in your community, not harm, harass, intimidate, abuse or kill them.
This is why we are a free nation:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Maybe if more time, money and effort was put into teaching the Officers their job and less on military style gear and equipment we wouldn't have this problem. We have graduated from a point where Dirty Harry the rogue officer was a one off to now being a common face on the police force.
On a more personal note, how long do you think we will allow these injustices to happen?
I'm a peace loving man, so if you fear me or what I may do it's your perceived perception of me. If that fear is warranted, ask yourself what have you done to make someone like me angry enough to express violent outrage. If the fear is not, ask yourself not just what were you taught, but how could you foster such an unreasonable ideology within you.
I am not a sheep headed to slaughter, I cannot go gently into that good night. I will resist with every fiber of my body and soul. Long gone are the days of peaceful compliance.
