Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
I back the concept of a strong police department with humane, properly trained peace officers who know how to put their bias aside when it comes time for them to do their jobs. Honestly I don't care if they have a bias against the disabled, or if they're racists, or hate Jews and Muslims. As long as they leave that stuff at home and not bring it to work. But the second they step over that line, then the entire blue line disintegrates. Because of the actions of any singular officer. They rise together, and they fall together.
I'll gladly offer a thirsty-looking officer a bottle of water if I see him in the neighborhood on patrol. But if I see that same officer stop someone on the street because he's walking while black, that's when I turn on the video on my smartphone. Police are not a singular infallible entity. They are a collection of individual personalities. When we demand that they be treated as a singular unit deserving of respect that the ENTIRE collection hasn't yet earned, then we justify how any ONE member of them can commit crimes against anyone who isn't one of them.
Humans are flawed creatures. We ALL have our weaknesses. Police are not immune to that, and it's time we stop putting them up on a pedestal. I've worked with the police, I've had to call the police for help in the past, I've been pulled over for speeding by the police, I've been friends with the police, my parents' best friend was a cop and he and his wife and my parents used to go out once a week for dinner. So I have no beef against "the police." My problem is with the individual officers, and the departments that protect them even when they screw up. They are the ones that give "the police" a bad name, they are the ones who need to be held accountable, and they are the ones who need to either be rehabilitated, or removed from the force.
No one is above the law. That includes the police.
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Well said.
I am sort of tired of the same kind of threads on here and discussions on certain national channels...
The implication of this thread and the comments are that if you want justice for all, and applaud when it is applied fairly, then you
must be anti police.
Of course all support the police, but not injustice.
Thus it is not a either or, and I, for one resent being placed in the position of picking one or another.
It is new commentary the last few years.....if you do not support me 100% totally, right or wrong, then you are totally against me and my enemy. What short sighted immature childish view that is.
I think as with some national figures, these threads are pleading for some kind of adoration and pledge of loyalty no matter what.......THAT alone is un-American, but even so it is so dumb and waste so much time.
And on behalf of those you
think are anti police, I can only say...you dont know them and thus you cannot judge them.
Have done much "work" in the field....as a young man and in the last few years on the streets of Tampa with young black males and females who have total and complete respect for police in general but fear for their very life when confronted by them.
I call to mind the recent event of the 2nd LT in the Army pulled over in Virginia for having temporary tags on his back window, as is the case most time when you buy a new car and await permanent tags.
Pulled over and greeted with guns drawn (he has driven to a lighted are to stop)....in his face and explained he was afraid to get out of the car....told that "he should be afraid", he was pepper sprayed. No charges filed by the police for a man in his Army uniform.
Black americans have grown up with a "fear" of police but recognize them as having a tough job. That fear is manifested differently, but starting threads like this or broadcasting things in a slanted light is not fair at all.
Hard to think of one single person I have met in my 82 years on this earth that do not respect police.
It needs no special affirmation, and these kind of threads, etc. simply imply facts that are just not in existence.
I have thanked many police officers in my life.....do not need a thread on here or some kind of talk of riots to have me do that.