Stop resisting and comply?

  



“The future is yours, so take responsibility for making decisions that serve your best interests.”


The life of a police officer has changed dramatically over the past two or so decades. The days when citizens admired the women and men in uniform are slowly fading. Scrutiny aside, the cellphone has been the bane of the profession, even though it was believed that greater transparency and the advent of the body-worn camera would put those issues to rest. I am not the one to critique a shooting, but I have eyes, and as a civilian, I have the right to share my thoughts and concerns.

Times have changed, and so has policing. It is no secret that over the past year, there have been several police-involved shootings involving armed and unarmed assailants. While many in the white community have been affected, the more controversial shootings have occurred when minorities are the targets. I won't sugarcoat shit; some of the officers I observed should never have passed a psychological exam. Shooting someone in the face because they had a pot of boiling water in their hand is no excuse; shooting someone in the back while they're running away from a police officer is also no excuse, to cite two incidents.

The argument regarding standards is null and void. A new-age police force has emerged with no formidable training and is backed by the highest office in the country. Racial profiling has been intensified with the strongest form of steroids, and there is no reasonable end in sight. Several questionable police-involved shootings have put a deserved bullseye on their backs.

However, in the past two years, their federal counterparts at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have damaged these tenuous relationships. I believe there are phenomenal men and women who work for this agency, but recent hires and the new mandate for quota-driven deportations have led to strong criticism, and rightly so. The tactics used to apprehend suspected undocumented immigrants leave much to be desired. The Constitution has been bastardized by those who pander to a constituent hell-bent on ridding the United States of people who don't look like the founding fathers. Call it what you want, but I have surmised that it is blatant racism. While there may be a problem with illegal border crossings and visa overstays, it doesn't justify how ICE agents have been treating those arrested and ultimately deported.

Anyone with a modicum of decency may or may not agree with my position, but after viewing the two recent killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national and father of three American-born sons who had no criminal record and had built a business building homes, and Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian national and father of an American-born daughter, their opinion might lean toward my side. Both of these men, who were not the actual targets of ICE agents, lost their lives to the overly aggressive behavior of those needing to fulfill a mandate.

As I sit and ponder what, if anything, could have changed their circumstances, it boils down to the current rallying cry among defenders of law enforcement. If they had just complied, they probably would still be alive. Inasmuch as it pains me to write those words, they are probably true. However, that does not excuse the conduct of those sworn to uphold the law. Compliance can save lives, and citizens, regardless of their status, have a responsibility to obey lawful commands. But law enforcement has an even greater responsibility to exercise restraint. As always, two things can be true at the same time, and our society should demand nothing less.

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