What I, you or anyone else would do doesn’t matter; we’re not police officers. That’s a loaded question for a majority of folks here.
I have a neighbor, six houses away, who is a sergeant in my local police department and we’ve had these discussions. Full disclosure; my son and son-in-law are in law enforcement too.
It’s a tough job, nobody disputes that. It takes a certain kind of person to do it and it’s why they’re paid so well and have generous benefits.
He told me once about a domestic incident, where I blurted out afterwards, ‘I’d of bashed the guy’s brain in’.
His reply? And I’m paraphrasing, ‘That’s why you would never make a good cop and you’d be fired. The badge doesn’t give you the right to do whatever you please or beat somebody up because he hurt your feelings. It’s just not allowed and shouldn’t be. If your ego can’t take it, go get a day job at Costco’s. Now if you’re attacked physically, that’s another kettle of fish. It has to be proportional and that’s why its mandatory that they keep on their body-cam and patrol car-cam’s on at all times, so both the cop and the community are protected’.
Having said that, he also pointed out that the community needs to shoulder some of the blame too for shutting down public mental health facilities and other social programs, especially for kids and teenagers in the poorer areas of the community; they expect cops to be psychiatrists, babysitters and whatnot. It’s just not realistic.
The job is not easy and will never be but the community has the right to demand that they be treated fairly and equally regardless of race or social standing.
