For years (especially recently) I have taken issue with the public opinion of law enforcement drastically reducing simply due to the hypocrisy of arguments surrounding various incidents, most of which have occurred over the past year or two. Recently, a Michigan teenager was unfortunately shot and killed by a Sheriff's Department sergeant following what was supposed to be a routine traffic stop which eventually turned to violence. As a result of the death of their son, the parents have decided to present a case to the Federal court in order to, as they put it, "find justice."

Because I watched the video and became incredibly frustrated with the inevitability that people would use the video, regardless of content, as "evidence" that law enforcement deserves any kind of scorn from the American public, I will not include the video in this article apart from this link to a CNN article which includes footage of the traffic stop.

While I indeed hold sympathy for the family of the deceased, I absolutely refuse to state that they are correct in filing a federal civil rights suit based on the occurrence which unfortunately resulted in the loss of their son in February. To me, this is simply another example of people taking a horrifying experience and milking it in an attempt to make money, plain and simple. I fully understand that this makes me sound unsympathetic, but it is wholly my opinion that this needs to stop. I also understand that I myself cannot fully put myself in their position, so I will at least try and refrain from stating anything that may come off as a personal attack.

However, I will say that I have witnessed firsthand the opposite side of the argument that these people are making in order for "justice to be served." Without going into detail or using any names whatsoever, I can say that I have personally viewed and felt myself the aftermath of a law enforcement altercation which resulted in a loss of life, and I can say that the feeling is something which has not and will not ever escape me, no matter how much I wish it would. I have seen the affect it can have on the regularly criticized (E.G. Law Enforcement officers) following these kinds of incidents which people seem to entirely disregard, only focusing on the fact that one life was physically taken by another. Taking a life is an absolute last option for a police officer, despite the evident public opinion that officers of the law have a "license to kill" and a vast majority of police officers will do anything in their power to prevent a potentially lethal situation. With that in mind, it seems evident to me that the parents of the deceased teenager clearly did not care to consider that on video, their son refused to comply with an officer of the law and eventually attacked the officer and beat him to the point that the officer nearly lost consciousness, at which point the teen could have very well taken the officer's firearm and caused the altercation to go an entirely different way, albeit still with the loss of life. While this is merely speculation of how the altercation "could have gone", the parents' argument that their son "never should have been pulled over" is entirely irrelevant.

The fact of the matter is that their loved one made a choice, and that choice was to refuse to comply with even the most simple instructions given by the officer which inevitably led to his unfortunate death. There is little to no argument which can be made which states that the officer in question did anything against regulations or any argument against the fact that everything that happened during the traffic stop came as a result of the choice made by the now deceased. For the parents of this teen to now be suing based on the fact that their son "never should have been pulled over" does not matter whatsoever. Their son was not killed because he was pulled over, their son was killed because he chose to do everything wrong in what was an otherwise routine procedure that the officer even states [to the teen] could have gone entirely differently had the teen simply complied with the officer instead of choosing to remain hostile.

I will cut this article at this point and leave the reader with some issues to think about in regards to what I have been explaining. The basic gist of my ranting is that I am sick and tired of people using incidents such as this to state that we "would be better off without the police" without any attempts to view the other side of the coin as it were. All these people see is that someone was killed by law enforcement; they do not care that, while absolutely unfortunate and awful the death may be, the officer did what was necessary to ensure that he did not lose his own life. In closing, by no means is this article meant to state that law enforcement is incorruptible, nor is it even remotely perfect in any way, nor to state that unlawful killings performed by some police officers never take place. This article is simply to state that in a situation such as this, it is entirely necessary to view two sides of a story (a story which, in this relatively uncommon case, is almost completely caught on video) instead of simply saying "a cop killed someone, police are bad" as many people as of late have been so ready to do. Lastly, while I will not apologize for stating a potentially conflicting opinion on the subject, I do want to apologize for any feelings of contempt or perceived disrespect this article may cause as this was never my intention. My sympathies go out to the family of the deceased and by no means do I intend for this article to seem disrespectful or unsympathetic to their situation.