There's something I've been meaning to say in light of the whole Ferguson thing and people's reaction to it on social media. While that whole situation is absolutely horrible and there are countless accounts -- reported and unreported -- of police officers displaying excessive force, brutality or flat out murder, I do think we tend to get a bit carried away in our generalizations regarding those of us employed in that field. I have at least one very dear family member who works in law enforcement and he's a great father, husband, brother and cousin. Not at all the monster so many of us have been using as this blanket assessment of ALL police officers. Again, I agree that there are far too many who go way overboard in their enforcement of the law and far too many who may be flat out corrupt...but they all aren't. Honestly, criticize cops all you want but there's not a single one of you who would trade places with them if given the chance. I mean, unless you relish the idea that on any given day, you could be responsible for taking (or saving, let's give them SOME credit) someone's life. Or telling a parent that their child is laying in a morgue. Or dealing with any number of messed up situations that we do to each other on a daily basis. I've been a pretty horrific situation involving cops and my life could have been taken in a hail of bullets and the only thing I was guilty of was driving while Black. (The car I was driving fit the description of one that had been involved in a drive-by just moments earlier.) I walked away unscratched, a little scarred perhaps but physically unharmed. I did what Michael Brown did, I put my hands up. I walked away, he didn't. Do I hold a grudge against all cops because of this? No. My point is, we get upset when people make blanket statements about women, when people make blanket statements about homosexuality, race, religion. But the one's whose job it is to run towards potential life-threatening situations when our common sense says to run away, it's okay to lump all of them into one category? Sorry, it's not. I don't want their jobs and as I said above NONE of you want it either. There are any number of systemic fixes that could prevent situations like Ferguson, Rodney King or Amadou Diallo from happening again. And as we would with any fellow citizen, hold those that do wrong responsible for their actions. Scrutinize every minute of this entire situation in Ferguson from the shooting of Michael Brown to the man-handling of reporters and protesters but also think of how tense a situation this whole thing and ask yourself which side you'd rather be on. Would you really opt to put that badge on? So let's stop with the generalizations. Stop Because I know my cousin's a great person and so is your brother, sister, husband, father or mother who have also CHOSEN to wear that shield and carry lethal burden on their hips.
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