With the recent events in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and St. Paul, Minnesota the nation as a whole has been trying to make sense of what had occurred before, during and after these violent incidents. Many have decided to exercise their first amendment right to protest and exercise their free speech via social media and news media. These actions are protected under the Bill of Rights and citizens are certainly allowed to exercise these rights. However, it is when these protests turn violent that they lose their meaning and cause more distress. When people use their right of free speech to speak hatefully and vengefully, their words lose meaning and push those who do not agree with them further away. Hateful speech and rhetoric, from any standpoint, destroys the possibility of open and honest dialogue that could possibly lead to a resolution.

Last Thursday, five innocent police officers were killed because of the actions of two officers elsewhere in the nation. This unjustified action led to the deadliest incident for police officers since 9/11 when terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the Twin Towers. Many mourned the loss of these police officers, but some celebrated the deaths of these innocent men who did nothing but their job that they are paid to do. It would be impossible to claim that all police officers in the United States are good and always properly do their job. In the same sense, it would be wrong to claim that all African Americans are criminals or that all are innocent. Both groups are human and make mistakes, but what we need to remember is that we cannot treat police officers disrespectfully because of a few bad officers, and the same goes for African Americans.

Just like us, police officers have families. They are someone’s child, sibling, spouse and parent. Each and every day, these men and women put their lives on the line, leave their families and patrol the streets, all in an effort to protect civilians they do not know. They are constantly in danger and never know what they will encounter when they respond to a call or knock on a door. Yet they perform their job fearlessly because they know it is their duty to keep our cities safe. Those who demonize all police officers fail to realize that often they are just doing their job. When a crime occurs, the first thing that people think to do is call 911. The police quickly respond and try to track down the perpetrator so he is not free to roam the streets and possibly commit the same crime again.

Police officers go beyond the call of duty to help citizens and provide comfort to those during scary situations. When most people see police presence in an area, they feel at ease, knowing that if something happens, the cops are there to protect them.

Unfortunately, heroic acts by police officers rarely receive any news coverage. Instead, the news media mainly covers violence and thus creates a sense of distrust of police officers. However, as a nation as a whole we need to focus on the good, not the bad, of all people—not just police officers.

May Officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith, Brent Thompson and Patrick Zamarripa rest in peace. Thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice and condolences to your family, friends and coworkers. Thank you to the Dallas Police Department, the NYPD and all of the other police departments throughout the United States for keeping our cities and citizens safe.