Open Season – On Cops?

God I hate this headline.

When I was much younger I had an authority problem with policemen. It was the 1960’s in Chicago and policemen were big, beefy and swaggerish. Later I learned the swagger came from hefting so much equipment on their belts and they had to swing their bodies to walk with all that extra weight. Then came bullet proof vests and their torsos became even thicker, not from fat or muscle but from peacekeeping equipment.

I still had an authority problem with the police, however. Of course it didn’t help that much of my contemporaries were anti draft, anti Viet Nam War and anti authoritarians. I wasn’t anti authoritarian, but I came to distrust the police in their exercise of authority. I saw them crack heads, bloody onlookers at protests, and shove people to the sidewalk to subdue the larger crowd.

My attention was not on Viet Nam. I didn’t like that particular war, but my mind was focused on civil rights. Martin Luther King was the person of the day and he provided much to think about and to make white people uncomfortable. That alone was not a problem with me. We needed to focus on race relations if we were to understand what kind of people we are and were and would become. If we disrespected people of color – from whatever ethnic background, please! – we simply were not the good people we preferred to think of ourselves. Period.

So it was important to me to redress the wrongs of American history as it related to our fellow citizens of color. They were our brothers and sisters. But I saw them arrested beyond their share of the population. I saw them much poorer than was statistically appropriate. They were also under educated but bright. Why couldn’t we all see that and offer them the help they deserved and needed to improve their lives?

Why indeed. So I came to the public authority venue with a bias against cops.

The anti war protesters only added fuel to my bias. The country was out of control on major public issues and the younger generation’s fervor and research were being dismissed. Out of hand dismissed.

Then came the 1968 Democratic Presidential Party Convention and the police riot that ensued at the behest of the elder Mayor Daley to keep order during the convention on the streets of Chicago. At least that’s what he claimed. My take on this historical event was deep and disturbing. I saw my country sinking to the very depths we accused our enemies of doing in the well documented past!

Much later I entered minor public life as a city councilman in a small suburb of 14,000 people. I soon learned that the police department was the rubber of the city’s efforts to govern – you know, where the rubber meets the road?  We knew more about our town because of the experiences of the police. They interacted with more citizens than we did, try as hard as we might. So I came to meet with and know as professionals and friends, many members of the police department. And they began to know who I was as well. We waved to one another as our cars passed on the streets. We nodded in grocery stores and at public meetings. Through their eyes I came to understand the town much better.

And I also understood their humanity and our need to protect them as they pursued their duties to protect and serve the community.

Today I see a great welling up of anti police sentiment. I don’t like it. I distrust that feeling more than the reasons the anti’s say they are roiled up. Here’s how I view it:

Today’s police are required to enter highly dangerous areas of our cities and towns to keep order and to enforce the laws. It is inherently dangerous. With the proliferation of hand guns and assault rifles, violence has flared throughout the nation as a god given right. Instead of supporting police to combat this scourge, we accuse them of brutality.

Is there police brutality? Are there missteps by police in carrying out their duties. Yes, I suspect there are, but I don’t know it and refuse to jump to that conclusion without proof. There will always be people on the police force who overstep their bounds regardless of all the training to control such actions. There are also bad apples in the cop barrel just like there are in every walk of life – ministers, lawyers, judges, ambassadors, politicians, etc..

Rotten apples or sour grapes, such individuals distort the phenomenal good of the police forces throughout the land. They are good and effective and caring. They are people with spouses and kids at home. They are at risk of accident, terrorism, criminal actions against them, and deranged nut jobs wielding guns.

In large cities black gang members – and Hispanic gang members, too – kill each other and innocents as collateral damage. Police are required to enter these violent venues. Best they enter with guns drawn for immediate action. In such circumstances, though, accidents and bad judgment are likely to increase. As professional as the police are, they each are trained on different schedules, are of different health and age, and experience. They put their life on the line knowing in the final analysis they may have to kill or be killed.

If I were in their shoes I’d want to balance that playing field. I want guns out of the hands of bad people. I want my police to be safe as they protect us and serve us.

It is easy to complain and level condemnation against people we don’t know for reasons too complicated for us to understand. But to work hard to fix the problems, yes, even the problems we contribute too? I guess that’s too much trouble for some people. But I say:

If you are not part of the solution to our problems, then you are part of our problem. Either put up or shut up. And that goes for media, politicians and church people who simply don’t get it.

Please. Build peace. Be nice to one another and help find solutions. Don’t just sit there and complain. That’s so cheap!

January 21, 2016