I grew up as a pretty normal kid. I played normal childhood games. I read books and played outside. I went to bed at an early hour and went to school every day, like everyone else. Nothing was different for me, except that my parents were police officers. I grew up in a family of law enforcement and I didn't realize it would be a problem until I got much older.
As a kid, having parents that were police officers was a cool thing. Every year, my mom came to my school's career day and all my classmates thought she was a superhero.
As children, we all thought police officers were great. They helped us cross the street when the street lights weren't working, they kept us safe at football and baseball games, and they worked late nights to keep our neighborhoods safe. They wore cool uniforms and had shiny badges, and they drove police cars with lights and sirens and a P.A. system that they would talk into.
It was such an awesome feeling, knowing that all the other kids thought my parents were the coolest. My dad was a firefighter and a paramedic for the SWAT team, and all the kids thought he was a bad ass.
To most kids, those officers were just other people, doing their job, like anyone else. What they didn't get to see was the life they lived in private. When hurricanes would strike Florida, my parents were the first ones out there, along with other officers, to ensure the safety of everyone that had endured the storm.
While my grandparents watched over my sisters and myself, my parents were helping direct traffic, cleaning up debris in the streets, and handling the smooth operation of the shelters where people stayed for the storm. They'd come home late at night, tired and soaked in sweat, and would make us dinner, even after all they'd done.
When I was little, my mom would have to work on the road, which meant that she patrolled neighborhoods (never our own) and responded to calls at any given hour of the day. Some nights, both of my parents would hop in their police cars and drive off, leaving us with the promise that they'd be home soon.
There are things my parents have seen, things they will never tell me, that I know keeps them up at night. My mom worked in sex crimes for the school board and she was haunted by the atrocities other people committed against children. She feared for the safety of her own children, as did all parents, but she saw the evil firsthand and knew we needed to be strong and aware of our surroundings.
I was taught to always keep my head on a swivel. I didn't walk down dark alleys at night, I didn't talk to strangers, and I never helped people look for their lost puppy. I grew up cautious and often paranoid because I knew what my parents knew- that the world was a scary place.
When I got older, I would hear the kids at school yelling obscenities at cops, saying how they weren't afraid of cops and that cops were the root of all evil. I would bite my tongue, but when friends of mine began joining in, I would nonchalantly mention my parents were in law enforcement.
"Oh, we didn't mean it," they'd quickly say. "We weren't talking about your parents, just other cops." What they didn't know was that I had grown up around police officers my entire life. Those "other cops" were friends of my parents. I had an aunt and uncle that were police officers. There would be police officers at all of my birthday parties, at my graduation ceremony- and not as law enforcement personnel, but as family friends.
It hurts when people talk poorly of the men and women that keep us safe. They want to categorize all cops as bad people and immediately hate anyone with a gun and a badge. How foolish to spit on those that risk their lives every day just to make sure you can shout and yell "f--k the police!"
It's becoming the norm, to wish bad upon the men and women of law enforcement.
We hear it in music and see it on TV, like regularly scheduled programming. People are teaching their children that cops are bad, and to stay away from them. I once heard a woman threaten to call the cops on her little boy because he was crying in the grocery store. Behavior like that not only puts a negative light on law enforcement, but it trains young minds to fear the police when they should be feeling safe around them.
There were always guns in my house as a kid. There were cop cars in the driveway. I'd smile and thank police officers, even ones I didn't know when I'd pass them on the street. I felt safe when there was a police officer present. Chances are, they knew my parents, and I always heard good things about them.
My parents are the best cops I know and they are good people with big hearts and they only want what's best for the community. I #BackTheBlue and I wish that all law enforcement officers are safe and make it back home to their families each and every day.