Words for my brothers in Blue

 

“Your bold effort to challenge the established rules around controversy will force people to confront the consequences of your decision.” Dr.BLR

 

 

The day has come for us to address not the elephant in the room, but the Tyrannosaurus in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. To what am I referring? It is the performance of police officers in society. Many have placed their lives on the line every day. Protecting and serving the country's citizens is their calling. In return, they sought an opportunity to earn a good living and the prospects of a decent retirement with medical benefits. To get their just due, they needed to be honest and professional. However, somewhere along the way, they lost focus and began to believe they were greater than the sum total of society. They forgot that they are public servants, paid by taxpayers to serve them. Why did this happen?

 

It happened because many of them forgot where they came from and how far the profession has progressed. The days of chasing down slaves only to return them to the plantation, of course, after the beating, are over. While that last sentence is a bit extreme, if you knew the history of policing in America, you’d know about slave patrols and the mindset they fostered. I always want to give the benefit of the doubt to every police officer who encounters criminals and must take appropriate action to effect an arrest. However, cellphones and social media have changed the game.

 

I cannot count the number of controversial police interactions with civilians that have gone awry, in which the police officer was captured on video using excessive force. Police officers are paid professionals and must, at all times, maintain their discipline and not be coaxed into losing control. Yet many forget their training, fail to use appropriate coping mechanisms, and lose all rationality. Voices are raised, boundaries are crossed, and ultimately, someone’s feelings are hurt. Some police officers resort to brutish behavior, which leads them to be overly aggressive. At this point, all bets are off, the combatants are engaged, and the cameras come out. 

 

This scene has played out far too often, and sometimes the results are deadly. Either right or wrong, the news media will receive a copy of the deadly encounter, and the news cycle will run for days. That video will likely go viral on social media and spur private, collegial, and law-enforcement conversations about who to blame. While the debate will continue for some time, responsibility must be placed on the appropriate police officers involved.

 

Yes, policing is a difficult and often dangerous job, but police officers signed up for it and must do better. I will say it as plainly as I can. If you can’t deal with an ever-changing society, please leave now! Find another profession where you won’t be counted on to exercise restraint in the face of adversity. And yes, police officers are human with emotions like everyone else, but they are different. They wear a gun and a badge, which give them the authority to disrupt people’s lives at any given moment. 

 

For some reason, it is assumed that police officers are immune from the acts they commit while acting within the authority of the agency that employs them. To an extent, this is correct, but they don’t have full immunity. That is why they must check their arrogance, brutality, insecurities, and any other factors that may lead them to infringe on citizens' rights. Focus should be placed on the transparency of hiring, and law enforcement departments must also do a better job of identifying prospective police officers with mental health or personality deficiencies that are not apparent on the surface. Background investigations should be more extensive and may include requiring a polygraph test for all applicants. While this will definitely be contested because some family members of law enforcement officers may be excluded, policing should never be a familial profession. Moreover, citizens should never be required to earn their constitutional rights, which undermines the rule of law. 

 

Change within any profession takes time before progress is observed, but playing the long game undermines equality and disregards the sustained struggle many groups have endured. The pressure placed on law enforcement can lead to the removal of police departments that allegedly maintained practices described in the Clark Twp Sundown lawsuit. Non-whites were specifically targeted by law enforcement to scare them from driving through town after the sun went down. 

 

It will be up to the brave and honest police officers to stand up and be heard. They know things are bad internally and must be the voice for the voiceless. A scan of police departments shows that most officers have tuned out. They’re tired of the scrutiny and the feeling that no one “backs the Blue.” This may be true, but at some point, the brothers in Blue must take responsibility for their brethren. Just as minorities wait for change, we must also wait for Blue to challenge Blue.