I work in a non-restraint facility for special needs kids (21 and under) with extreme behavioral issues. Iâm talking real violent stuff. Sixteen and twenty-one year old boys who can (and do) home-run swing desks at your head.
As a non-restraint facility, we are trained to respond to these outbursts in the most non-threatening, non-confrontational way possible, while still protecting both the bystanders and the person currently attacking us.
We are monitored every second of our shift to make sure the safety and dignity of our clients is maintained, especiallyâand just let me emphasize thisâthe safety and dignity of the person attempting to hurt us. Their right to be treated fairly and with empathy is not forfeit just because their brain chemistry fucked them up today.
We have to be calm, regardless.
We have to be gentle, regardless.
We can never respond with any kind of force, ever.
Those rules apply to all the staff, all the time, no matter what.
So when I hear bullshit about how somebody âreached for their waistbandâ or they were âresisting,â when I hear yet another police officer got off because the situation was âscaryâ or he âfeared for his safetyâ or whatever the fuck, I lose my shit.
You wanna talk about how you were frightened for your safety, walking up to someone in the middle of a psychotic episode? Yeah, well, Iâve been there. Pretty regularâprobably twice a week, at leastâno gun, no taser, with guidelines that state I cannot even use my fucking thumb because thatâs considered âgrabbingâ and therefore a ârestraint.â
And you know what? Iâve walked away from every one of those. I havenât died. Iâve never even been seriously injured. We defused the situation in ways that didnât involving riddling the other participant with bullets and at the end of the day, everyone went home. Go fucking figure.
And yetâand fucking yetâI keep hearing ânot all cops.â
âNot all copsâ are bad. âNot all copsâ shoot innocent people .3 seconds after rolling up on the scene. âNot all copsâ are racist fuckbags, misusing power for a personal joyride. âNot all copsâ rape people at gunpoint (and get off scott-fucking-free).
Yet, at my place of employment, somehow everyone is calm in a crisis. Somehow everyone responds to violence with non-violence. Somehow everyone is always able to act like a goddamn compassionate human-being in the middle of the worst kind of street fightâ
but youâre telling me that cops, people paid to protect, canât all do what I do?
Youâre telling me that cops, trained to respond to crises, canât all respond to the same crises, with the same skill, that I do?
And youâre telling me that cops have to stick together in the face of these âpotentially falseâ accusations. That cops have to support each other, no matter what, because their job is dangerous or whatever. That yeah, some cops, but ~actually, sweetie, not all cops~
Fuck that noise. My job is dangerous, too. But you better believe that if anyone sees a member of our staff breaking regulation, their ass gets reported immediately. That person loses their clearances; they can no longer be hired in the field, anywhere. Thereâs no moving to another district. Thereâs no finding another location. We make it stop.
So until every cop is cleaning house, until every cop stops this strategically blind bullshit, until every cop refuses to stand by and watch the rampant abuse and corruption inherent in this system, until all the bad cops are weeded out and unemployableâ
Until that moment, then yeah, all cops.
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