Truth be told, I know that a lot of my peers may disagree with me when I say that not all law enforcement officers are corrupt. In fact, most of them are great people and they do their job well. I’m not saying that they never make mistakes, and I’m definitely not saying that they’re perfect. Law enforcement officers are just normal people with normal families who have an extraordinary calling to protect people.

I know that a lot of people my age are concerned about the events that have taken place across the country, where it is made to look like the police officer is using his position of authority in a bad way. Truth is, the news usually doesn’t tell the entire story. We don’t usually know the full situation, and we usually don’t know what was going through the officer’s head when the situation occurred. The public is way too quick to say, “That’s a corrupt cop. Our law enforcement across the country is becoming unreliable.”

I don’t know many people my age who are able to say that they are willing to do the job that our law enforcement officers do. They wake up every morning and they don’t know what will happen that day at work. Every day that they get up and put on their uniform, there is always the possibility that they won’t return home to their families. Every police officer I have met would take a bullet to save the lives of the citizens they are sworn to protect. I know I am not brave enough to do a job where I could be in danger every day.

My dad is one of those people. He’s always had a calling to protect people -- whether he knows them or not. I know that he would do anything he possibly could to protect anyone in danger at any point-whether he’s on duty or not. I’ve also met a lot of other police officers, and they’re some of the nicest people I’ve had the privilege of meeting.

Police officers are not all bad. In fact, the number of corrupt police officers is very low compared to the number of police officers who take the oath to protect the citizens in their community very seriously.Police officers are the like the sheepdogs that protect the unsuspecting sheep from the wolves that pose a threat to them.

Police officers are not the enemy. They’re just here to protect us. Yes, they make mistakes sometimes, but we can’t expect them to be perfect. Police officers are human, too.

As a college student who, lately, hears my peers talking about police officers and the controversy surrounding them, I feel like it’s necessary to state my support for the police officers who protect and serve us every day. Every police officer who gets out of bed every day and puts on that uniform has my utmost respect. I’ll always move over to avoid hitting you when I see you on the side of the road. I’ll always say thank you for your service and most importantly, I will always back the Blue. Thank you for everything you do.