These days, it’s not all that surprising to go on Facebook and stumble upon a video of alleged police misconduct. When you scroll through the comments you see a wide range of responses and arguments. Some people are outraged and badmouthing the police, others are defending them and stating that people are overreacting and blowing the whole thing out of proportion; However, the fact of the matter is that none of us can determine which of those two groups are correct because none of us were there. We did not witness the event in its entirety, just the escalation that was recorded on someone’s phone. It’s safe to say that tensions are high right now. We’ve seen it boil over multiple times with the riots that have occurred in the wake of several controversial shootings (i.e., Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri) and protests (i.e., the Dakota Access Pipeline protests).
One of my career aspirations was to go into law enforcement because I thought it was the closest I could get to being a superhero. Police officers are tasked with preventing crime and bringing those that have already committed one to justice. They are first and foremost, servants of the public and their job revolves around keeping everyone safe. And the more I think about it, the more comparisons I make. Our heroes are never perfect. The stories would be less compelling if the heroes just saved the city every week and never faced any controversy. The writers made them human and wrote them with flaws because that is the world we live in. Sometimes the city these heroes protect turns its back on them because of a perceived wrong or a difference of opinion but the heroes stay and do their jobs.
I graduated from a high school magnet program that specialized in Criminal Justice and Law Studies. Whenever a story would break about a controversial shooting that occurred or a police officer that was under investigation, I remember my professors (who are former law enforcement officers) lamenting the fact that the officers involved were further staining the reputation of cops everywhere. One professor predicted it would only get worse. He stated that if similar incidents kept occurring, citizens would soon be afraid to call 911 for help.
No human being is perfect. No human being is without fault. As much as we’d like for our protectors to be the exception to this rule, they are not. We hold these people to a higher standard because they are charged with the protection of our wellbeing so they should be above petty things such as human error but they are not. All this misconception does is create resentment and discord within the community. The problem here, in my unprofessional opinion, is that so many people believe that “one bad apple ruins the whole bunch”. Are there bad cops on the force? Absolutely. There are people out there right now who have no business to be walking around with a badge, gun and uniform but managed to pass that psychological evaluation. Whether it’s corruption or deep-seated racism, there’s no denying that there are more than a few bad apples walking around. But that’s true of any occupation. So why do the police seem to catch the most heat? I suppose because they are the ones who are expected to maintain order. It’s hard to have faith in the system when a criminal is given authority over the masses. However, I choose to believe that the good apples vastly outnumber the bad ones. I also believe that if someone makes a mistake, an honest-to-God mistake in the heat of the moment, they should not be labeled so quickly as a terrible human being. Just because some inherently bad people exist in the same career does not mean that we can automatically label people as good or bad after one incident. Human beings are more nuanced than that. The world is not strictly black and white. I’ve spoken to officers that have explained to me their mindset when they’re involved in a life or death situation. When it comes down to it, they’re not thinking about the reasonable use of force required to resolve the situation. They’re thinking about not dying. I find it practically impossible to judge someone’s actions when I’ve never experienced that rush of adrenalin that comes with having your life on the line.
We should always speak out against mistreatment and wrongdoings. But we should also allow people the benefit of the doubt when we don’t have all the facts. Malcolm X once stated, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Cover Photo: https://goo.gl/images/K6ei35