The news today is riddled with stories of police brutality, unlawful force and stories of corruption. Police officers are not the enemy; no one is the enemy. I refuse to believe that all police officers are corrupt.
No one decides to join the academy because they want to "beat up minorities". No one suits up and clips on their badge deciding that today is the day they're going to kill someone. I'm not saying there's not corruption. I'm just saying that I really don't believe that there is anyone who joins the police force planning on killing a civilian.
But it does happen. There are people who are corrupt. There are "meat eaters", who feed into crime, and take payoffs and cuts of the deal, and get off on the fact that they have some pretty high authority, and they let it get to their head, to the point that they make poor decisions. Sometimes they rough people up, sometimes someone dies.
There is also the contrary. There are people who get up early in the morning, and hold their loved ones a little longer before leaving because they don't know if they will see them again. There are people out of their home for days, not sleeping in their own beds, completely exhausted, but still doing their job because there is something inside of them that tells them that even when it gets tough, even when they feel completely isolated from the community, they are part of the greater good, and to them that is enough. They serve the city, they protect the people, no matter race, creed, sexuality or economic status. There are good cops.
There are good cops who don't get rich off their job and don't get an immense amount of respect for their career, especially in an anti-police America. Something that was once an honored profession is now one of the civilian enemies.
Please remember that for every bad cop in the world, every racially driven and violent cop, there are 50 good cops who are getting the brunt of the anger that should only be directed at a few. The good police officers are real, they exist and they are only a phone call away.
