To the individuals who think they should not respect our police officers:

Although recently in the media there have been many controversial stories regarding police brutality, I hope and pray this article may change the opinions of those of you who do not respect our police. Some may think this article is biased because my boyfriend is a cop, but I promise you that before I sat and watched him walk across the stage at his police officer graduation, I believed these things I am going to share with you.

Have you ever thought about what our police go through every day? Have you ever thought about what our police have gone through to become a police officer and protect society? First, these men either PAY to go through training or are paid to go through their training. Either way, this training is intense and consists of things such as: being pepper sprayed, waking up extremely early, academics, intense physical training, being verbally harassed by their instructors so they develop thick skin, and the list goes on. All of this is done so they can properly protect society. Not everyone has what it takes to go through this difficult training; it is mentally and physically draining. Who would put themselves through all of this just to be seen as “the bad guy?”

Once the training is over and these men and women become police officers, they wake up each morning knowing that they are going to go into work and could potentially get shot at, abused, beaten or even called names. They wake up knowing that these things may happen--all while doing this for your protection every day.They are a walking,running, driving, bicycling target. They must follow orders and do what they were taught, so if one breaks the law of course they are not going to be nice about it. It is as simple as this: Do the right thing, and don’t break the law--you will not have a problem with the police. Not every cop is out to get you. Especially when they arrive to accidents or cardiac arrests, fires or crime scenes--they may act as your best friend in some of these cases.

From what I have witnessed, a majority of our society lately has an obsession with giving people the benefit of the doubt--forgiving those who have done wrong. This is great--this is how I was raised! And we must remember, that it is wrong to fight fire with fire. We must remember that just because a few police officers did something awful, that not every single police officer is awful. When I watched my boyfriend graduate from the police academy, a guest speaker said “Some of you will have to be marriage counselors, a shoulder to cry on, and may even save lives.” This is why our police officers are police officers. There is a hidden drive to help others, no matter how scary or cold hearted they may come off. We should not categorize all police officers as “bad”. I was always taught that police officers are our friends, and I will continue to live by that.

Remember: Just because you had a few bad apple does not mean all apples are bad, just because you had a few mean teacher doesn’t mean all teachers are mean, just because you have seen a few cops under a bad light in the media does not mean that all cops are bad. Respect our police.