This Needs to Stop. NOW.
This post has sat in my drafts folder for a long while (and in my head long before that), but I decided it is time to finish it and hit publish, because, this all needs to stop. And NOW.
It is no secret that we are a law enforcement family. And even though my husband is the one who's a police officer, our entire family is part of law enforcement: it impacts our lives every single day. We have to be flexible with our schedules: some days Mike works late and gets off hours after he was suppose to, other days he gets called in early because his unit has been especially busy and need extra manpower to process whatever crime scene needs processing, some days off get canceled because of unexpected events that force officers to be working 12 hour shifts to protect the city. Our city. Yes, that is what these men and women in our LEO family are doing: they are protecting. Protecting others from domestic abuse, protecting property from being stolen, protecting roads from dangerous drivers, and sometimes, protecting themselves from those who wish to harm them.
However, ever since the events in Ferguson last summer, just one county away from where my husband works, it seems that a lot of people have lost sight of what the police and law enforcement personnel are actually out there doing. Instead of being protectors, police have been tainted as murderers, brutalizers, and racists. All of a sudden this movement has sparked about how we need to end police brutality, outfit every police officer with body cameras that are on 24/7, hold the police accountable for every act of 'violence' they commit, and so on. I'm not a police officer, but, as I said earlier, I'm a member of a LEO family and I have an idea as to what these officers endure day to day; however I (as well as every other civilian) really don't have a true understanding of what they deal with because I am not a cop. So, even with that little tidbit of ‘inside’ knowledge, I don't get how non-law enforcement persons can make these accusations and call for justice against a profession that they themselves aren't a part of.
But, with all that said, and giving these movements and protestors the benefit of the doubt that even though they aren't police officers they are still free to take a stand against something that they are passionate about, they all--every single one of them--seem to miss? ignore? the most obvious and fundamental flaw to their calls for justice against the police:
Five simple words that have been seldomly spoken behind every single police shooting since Ferguson. The law has been broken! This person, who justice is being sought for, BROKE THE LAW. Simply not listening to an officer's directions IS BREAKING THE LAW. How do people not understand this?! All of these men and women who have been 'brutally killed by police' would be alive today if they did not break the law. Plain and simple. And forget throwing out the race card: it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, yellow, purple, or green, if you break the law, there are consequences. I can promise you no cop goes around thinking (or heck, acting on), “I’m gonna kill someone today.” It doesn’t happen. However, when a person they confront for whatever reason decides to break the law and poses a threat to the officer, they do what they’re trained to do: protect themselves.
I am just furious that police officers who are hired to do what their job entails--protect--are now being labeled as killers and targets themselves for shootings. According to this article, FOUR officers have been shot and killed in the last 10 days. WHERE ARE THE PROTESTS?! WHY DON’T THEIR LIVES MATTER?!
This is the eternal struggle I am having with everything that has gone on in the past year, and it needs to stop. People need to stop breaking the law. Period. All of these shootings--on both sides of the badge--will then go away...but I realize it’s not that simple. I worry day and night when my husband is at work if someone in this ‘anti-police’ movement? mentality? agenda? is going to take their call for justice into their own hands and sink a bullet into him. No one should have to fear for their significant other’s safety every.single.minute., yet I, along with probably every other police wife and family I know, do.
What baffles me even more are the people behind this ‘end police brutality’ movement who have no idea what they’re blindly fueling: hatred. They are stirring up so much anti-police sentiments that just encourage those crazy enough to aim a gun at a cop to actually pull the trigger. The police aren’t the bad guys. at. all. They are the protectors, the ones who will comfort you when your car is broken into and all of your stuff taken. They are the ones who will give you a ticket to slow you down to protect you--protect you from speeding again and causing an accident. They shouldn’t have a movement against them, but for them, in support of what they do: protecting. The real movement should be against the bad guys and the violence that is plaguing my city day in and out--and cities across the country. How hard is it to see that the police aren’t the problem, but the people who are breaking the law are?! They are the roots of this problem, not the police. I pray each and every day that more people come to see this and start backing our police instead of building walls in front of them and putting targets on their back. Wake up people and start taking a stand against the real problems in this country, not those risking their lives each and every day to protect you, and give you the freedoms you have.
It is no secret that we are a law enforcement family. And even though my husband is the one who's a police officer, our entire family is part of law enforcement: it impacts our lives every single day. We have to be flexible with our schedules: some days Mike works late and gets off hours after he was suppose to, other days he gets called in early because his unit has been especially busy and need extra manpower to process whatever crime scene needs processing, some days off get canceled because of unexpected events that force officers to be working 12 hour shifts to protect the city. Our city. Yes, that is what these men and women in our LEO family are doing: they are protecting. Protecting others from domestic abuse, protecting property from being stolen, protecting roads from dangerous drivers, and sometimes, protecting themselves from those who wish to harm them.
However, ever since the events in Ferguson last summer, just one county away from where my husband works, it seems that a lot of people have lost sight of what the police and law enforcement personnel are actually out there doing. Instead of being protectors, police have been tainted as murderers, brutalizers, and racists. All of a sudden this movement has sparked about how we need to end police brutality, outfit every police officer with body cameras that are on 24/7, hold the police accountable for every act of 'violence' they commit, and so on. I'm not a police officer, but, as I said earlier, I'm a member of a LEO family and I have an idea as to what these officers endure day to day; however I (as well as every other civilian) really don't have a true understanding of what they deal with because I am not a cop. So, even with that little tidbit of ‘inside’ knowledge, I don't get how non-law enforcement persons can make these accusations and call for justice against a profession that they themselves aren't a part of.
But, with all that said, and giving these movements and protestors the benefit of the doubt that even though they aren't police officers they are still free to take a stand against something that they are passionate about, they all--every single one of them--seem to miss? ignore? the most obvious and fundamental flaw to their calls for justice against the police:
THE LAW HAS BEEN BROKEN.
I am just furious that police officers who are hired to do what their job entails--protect--are now being labeled as killers and targets themselves for shootings. According to this article, FOUR officers have been shot and killed in the last 10 days. WHERE ARE THE PROTESTS?! WHY DON’T THEIR LIVES MATTER?!
This is the eternal struggle I am having with everything that has gone on in the past year, and it needs to stop. People need to stop breaking the law. Period. All of these shootings--on both sides of the badge--will then go away...but I realize it’s not that simple. I worry day and night when my husband is at work if someone in this ‘anti-police’ movement? mentality? agenda? is going to take their call for justice into their own hands and sink a bullet into him. No one should have to fear for their significant other’s safety every.single.minute., yet I, along with probably every other police wife and family I know, do.
What baffles me even more are the people behind this ‘end police brutality’ movement who have no idea what they’re blindly fueling: hatred. They are stirring up so much anti-police sentiments that just encourage those crazy enough to aim a gun at a cop to actually pull the trigger. The police aren’t the bad guys. at. all. They are the protectors, the ones who will comfort you when your car is broken into and all of your stuff taken. They are the ones who will give you a ticket to slow you down to protect you--protect you from speeding again and causing an accident. They shouldn’t have a movement against them, but for them, in support of what they do: protecting. The real movement should be against the bad guys and the violence that is plaguing my city day in and out--and cities across the country. How hard is it to see that the police aren’t the problem, but the people who are breaking the law are?! They are the roots of this problem, not the police. I pray each and every day that more people come to see this and start backing our police instead of building walls in front of them and putting targets on their back. Wake up people and start taking a stand against the real problems in this country, not those risking their lives each and every day to protect you, and give you the freedoms you have.
