An Open Letter to Police

 

To the police, the national guard, and anyone else who may be called:

 

If the time comes, we ask you to stand with your people.

We are all your people.

This government is failing you, too. Here in New York City, the NYPD is male, female, black, white, brown, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, gay, straight, old, and young. It’s easy for people to demonize the police, and the police do definitely have institutional problems, but right now, I’m talking to you. You are just one person doing a damn difficult job. And I am just one writer telling you that we don’t want to fight you. We want you to do the right thing when people take to the streets to stand up for themselves.

You struggle like we struggle, and maybe you took this job because you wanted to be brave, to be useful, to keep us safe. Maybe you decided this was the best way to make a difference and a living at the same time. We support you in that.

We are all doing the best we can, too. We work. We take care of our families. We looked at the world and decided that we wanted to make it better, and we took the best path we could see to get it done.

At some point, that path might cross yours, and we’re asking you to think about it now, so you have time to consider it before it happens. There might come a time soon when you face a protester in the street, when everything is happening loud and fast. We’re asking you to made certain decisions for yourself before that moment comes.

Please do not kill a person to save a window from getting broken.

Please do not hurt someone just for standing in the street.

Please join us by standing aside when the law you were told to enforce is unjust.

Keep the peace.