It's interesting seeing cell phones out recording everything a person does. It's even more interesting that knowing this doesn't change people's behaviors when they are doing something that is inherently wrong. Get on YouTube and check out the things people do at riots and notice most of them don't even bother to cover their faces. Furthermore, look at the things police officers are doing to people with cameras three feet from their faces. It is atrocious, plain and simple.

Clearly, it is the minority of police officers who participate in such activities, but it is equally the fault of other police officers who do the right thing that these atrocities occur. Accountability is the cornerstone of what makes people do the right thing. As Philosopher Thomas Hobbes puts it in his book "Leviathan": “Covenants, without a sword, are but words and of no strength to secure a man at all.” A covenant being a law and a sword being what keeps one accountable to that law.

A reasonable person would look at laws and understand the consequences of not following them, and would take advantage of opportunities to improve their own lives. For this reason, most laws are in place to keep people and their property safe from other people. Embodying what is right and fair is not something that every person does.

When a police officer does not fear the repercussions of brutally attacking or even killing a suspect, then they will show no remorse or fear in killing them. There is no accountability among fellow law enforcement groups to do the right thing. You can study law enforcement agencies of many European countries and the United States Department of Defense to see examples of people who are held accountable by their peers and the citizens they serve. Through my experience in the Air Force since 2011, I can attest to the influences of people on our integrity. Not many days pass without someone holding me accountable in one way or another.

Social Darwinism has been at work in western societies for a long time. From the freeing of slaves, women’s rights to vote, the civil rights movement in the '50s and '60s and the current movement for LGBT rights, our country has forced out the backward and discriminating groups. Those people who hold these beliefs and opinions are now looked down upon and frequently discredited. This is the attitude we, as a society, must have toward our civil servants who act this way.

Now it is a police officer’s duty to protect and serve their county’s citizens. This may be a hard pill to swallow for some folks who see these men and women and say “they have families at home that need them to return home safe” as an excuse for them use deadly force, but they are doing no favors to those unarmed and scared men and women who also have families at home when they shoot and kill them for no logical reason.

I urge anyone who sees these actions committed by officers to be wrong to take action as American citizens against that which instills fear in our people. We shouldn’t have to look at a police officer and immediately fear for our lives or personal safety. Instead, we should be relieved that they are around. Do something about it; let your voice be heard.

As President Thomas Jefferson said, “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”