Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the world and how it works. I have been wondering why all my life I have been told that life works in law and order and that there will always be someone above me telling me what to do, how to behave, how to respond and how to be. But why? I ask myself why I should accept this notion. Is it not my life to live? I cannot accept the notion that allows my decisions to never be mine to make, that forces of society would just exercise those rights for me. Who is to say that those people who do make decisions for me are not making the wrong ones? My life cannot be lived through the unfairness that flows in the veins of dangerous authority figure heads.
I am of the common people, and many of us common people wish our voices to be heard, wish our opinions to be expressed. Recently, I came across a video directed by VICE news.
The video showcases interviews from people all around the world stating their views on police. What do they think about them? What roles do they believe the police play or should play? The MAJORITY of the people interviewed in the video expressed their fears and dislikes of the presence that police bring, indicating that they do more harm than good. One woman from Mexico said that when she sees the police she avoids them because they are “bad people.” Another interviewer expressed how unreliable the police were in responding to a dangerous incident she was victim of in her violent neighborhood. Others say they avoid the police because they are brutal and prejudiced. I wonder if these views on police were ever different, more positive. Yet, I myself cannot remember the last time a policeman protected me or my family. I avoid them. With all the recent outbreaks about police brutality, how could anyone come to respect their name and title? Obviously, there are good policemen out there that protect and love the citizens they serve. However, the problem is that there are not enough of them. If life works in law and order, as an individual, I have no choice but to have my life gunned down by corruption.
Authority. The word never really made me feel good. I am getting sick and cold just by thinking about it. Authority's synonyms are power, control, command and domination. All words that have come to shape our understanding of history and life. Authority. What the police are granted, even the bad ones. When I hear shot guns and their pointing at the little black boy dressed in blood, who was just reaching in his pocket for his phone, I think to myself, authority did that. It did. The videos are proof. Yet, authority is what we constitute to be the “way of life.” I cannot trust that my life is in good hands, if the hands that hold them are stained and threatening. But, I cannot live my life fighting forces that society has convinced us keeps us safe. So, I will not fight it and I will not avoid it. I will look at it in the face and say, “Hello officer…Yes officer…I understand officer…Please do not hurt me officer.” Click. BOOM.
