Police officers are a figure of authority. Police officers are- or are supposed to be- trained to carry out a very specific job. They’re trained in close combat, they’re trained in using a gun, using a taser, disarming people, using multiple types of weapons, and more. If one of the main premises of your job is apprehending criminals- people who tend to be violent- you should be trained to do that in a nonlethal way so they may actually meet justice within the judicial branch of the government.
If you have gone through that training, and are still unable to do your job without taking someone else’s life even though you have a significant advantage and the fight is heavily weighted in your favor, you shouldn’t be a police officer. There’s definitely a problem when hairstylists & cosmetologists go through more training than cops do.
Let’s look at other countries. In Iceland, only ONE person has been killed by the police throughout the entire history of the country. The officer tried desperately to save his life and the entire country came together to mourn the loss of this person. There are countries all over the world where police officers do not carry deadly weapons or rarely use them against others because they have been trained to apprehend suspects without murdering them.
If you are in a position of authority that puts you in favor of winning a fight due to the weapons you carry and the training you have and you can not do that without killing another human being, you have failed to meet the requirements and the standards for your job. You should not be a police officer.
People online say that if you don’t want to be killed by a police officer, you should just “be nice.” Not respecting someone or being overly polite to them does not justify murder. I do not see how anyone could say “Black Lives Matter should be protesting for the cops.” Why? The blood of the cops who were killed is not on their hands. They are protesting because cops are killing their brothers and sisters, and less than 1% of the time are they indicted. They protest because nobody is paying attention.
There is no such thing as “blue lives.” You can not separate someone’s blackness from their life. Being black affects every aspect of a person’s life. Black people cannot remove themselves from their blackness, and “blue” isn’t a race. When police officers go home at night or go out on the weekends, they can take their uniform off. Plus, #bluelivesmatter doesn’t seem to benefit police officers at all when hearing that a Muslim off-duty cop & her son were harassed because of their faith.
Protests are the voice of the unheard. Police have nothing to riot for because they are an authority figure. Their voices don’t have to be recognized because they are not part of any race, ethnicity, or religion. Stand up for those who are abused and mistreated, don’t deny that there is a problem. Be part of the solution.
