One cop, one view

I have been thinking of writing a blog for several months. What has changed to make me start this? Well, another cop was shot and killed in Texas in an ambush style murder as he was gassing up his unit. Then a few days later another cop was shot while chasing three suspects. The local media where I live barely covered these murders and the national media venues covered them for about 30 seconds and not as in depth as they would have if it had been a civilian shot and killed by a cop. Through all of this chaos and the murders of police officers there has not been any kind of outrage from the top tier of our government trying to put an end to this. They have been strangely quiet about these killings. Did you know that a presidential representative has gone to all of the latest, highly publicized sites where a cop has killed a suspect? They started special investigations into these shootings and keep claiming that they are all racially motivated by the police. Does anyone care that the suspect that was shot was not complying with the officers orders or they were trying to take the officers gun?  Since I was not there personally, it is hard to comment on the racial portion. What I can say is that in my career I have never seen this to be true.  If those officer involved shootings are being considered racially motivated, then what about the suspects shooting a cop because they wore the tan or blue. They are shooting cops just because we wear a badge. Has our federal government sent any representative out to any of these murders? Have they started any special investigations into the hate crime of murdering a cop? No they have not! It seems to me that what they are doing is perpetuating the very racism that they claim they are trying to stop. Cops are not second class citizens that don’t matter. I think it’s time for the government to stand up to this war on cops and stop backing the criminals that are killing cops. This is not a political soap box since anyone who knows me knows that I have no political affiliations and I think in general that most politicians are lying, underhanded, self serving, and deceitful people.

I must admit that when one of our local officers was killed this last year the local press and our community came together as I have never seen before. It was refreshing to see the huge outpouring of support for the officer and his family. The suspect was never made out to be a hero or martyr, just the POS that killed a cop. I wish it was this way everywhere.

One of the things that has really pissed me off this past year are these tag lines of black, brown, red etc. ‘lives matter.’ So I guess a cops life doesn’t matter? As cops, we are black, white, brown, and every other color and race. We have chosen to wear the blue or tan of law enforcement and to pin a badge on our chest mostly because we care about society and we want to make a difference. Some people seem to feel that when we put on a badge we are no longer human, that we don’t have feelings, families and lives outside of our chosen profession. When people (media etc) talk about the racism in the police ranks today they make it sound like every one of us is a bigot or racist and we hate everyone of color. In my experience this is absolutely not true. I can’t speak for every officer in the country but in my 24 years as a cop, I have not found this to be true. I am not naive enough to believe that racism does not exist, I know it does.  On the flip side to this, has anyone ever considered the bigotry and prejudice that we have to endure just because we wear a badge? I guarantee you that there is more prejudice  towards us from the same ones that claim we are prejudice against them.

Our lives matter just as much as anyone else’s life. Are you aware that police fatalities are up 24% so far this year? Most of those killings are due to ambush style attacks. Already this year we have lost 84 officers with eight being killed in the last few weeks. I was a cop for 24 years and I have seen the changes that have occurred during this time. When I first started there was a sense of respect for the police from most people. Today, if someone gets caught and arrested it’s not their fault for breaking the law, it’s ours because we caught them. Parents get angry with us because we arrested their child rather than be mad at the child for breaking the law. We do not intentionally go after or arrest innocent people. We truly don’t have the time for that.

I am aware that the vast majority of people in these United States still respect police and know that we are trying to keep the laws of the land. Some may not like us and that’s okay. I don’t like everyone I meet either. I do know that most people appreciate what we do but they don’t know how to tell us or don’t think about telling us. During my career I was told only five times, ‘thank God you were here.’ or ‘Thank you for finding and arresting the suspect’  or just ‘thank you.’ Those few times made me feel great and needed. You don’t go into law enforcement unless you can be happy knowing  you made a difference on your own.  If you know a cop or have an interaction with one, just let them know that no matter what, you appreciate them doing a hard job. It will mean more to them than you know even if they don’t show it.

I will be posting a new blog every two weeks about what is on my mind and the reasons why it is bothering me. I will be upfront, honest, and direct in my blog regardless of whom it may offend. People today need to know the truth and the facts from an officers point of view. They need to see the realities of life as a cop. We matter, our lives matter, our families matter and we have taken it upon ourselves to be that thin blue line between total chaos and order, despite the possible outcomes. I welcome responses to my blog and if any of you reading this would like a certain area to be discussed, let me know and I will try to address it. This first blog was more or less a general sense of things as I see them and I will go into more detail on one or two subjects on the following posts.