Power is a cumbersome thing. We struggle for it, we trip on it, and in the end we rarely deserve it.
In order for our society to work there must be power structures. Life seems to lean toward hierarchy. Prides of lions will all submit to the one with the most strength or the most experience or the birthright. But underneath all the claws and teeth, were lions sentient beings, who’s to say Simba or Mufasa were actually destined to be good leaders?
To become a police officer, one must have at least a GED, submit an application to the police department, complete training at the police academy and then they get a gun.
Before we go down this long, winding road, full of emails that look like a thesaurus exploded upon them before the author hit ‘send’, let me go ahead and say I respect the work of police officers. I do not respect the way a large number of police officers choose to do that work, and I do not believe just because an individual’s job is potentially dangerous that they are somehow excused from criticism.
As a little girl I was told that, were I ever lost, a police man or woman could be my savior. Now as a young adult all I do is log on Facebook and hear and see brutal depictions of police officers, entrusted with power, abusing their position.
I watch grown men beat, choke, berate and harass the very citizens they are supposed to be protecting. They plead that the victim was resisting. They plead that there was no other way, but on the tapes were you see the doors of cars ripped open and people dragged out and beaten, you don’t really see them considering "another way."
No. I will never know what it’s like to be in that situation.
My biggest problem with this is as I write this I can hear the responses, and I can tell I am being misread because I am being read by the blindly loyal.
Police officers, on a whole, are good. However, getting a job as a police officer is not a heroic act. Acting honorably in that position is. When granted an amazing amount of power and trust by a community, respecting that responsibility is the most heroic act I can think of. (Stan Lee really messed up that sentiment for anyone else who wanted to use it.)
Pointing out that there are horrible, pig-headed, abusive individuals that become police officers does not take away from the fact that there are also good, giving, brave people that become police officers.
However, ignoring that there is a problem with the people we give power to is just going to result in further injuring the reputation of the people that do their job with honor.