Police violence seems to be a trending topic both on social media as well as with the national media lately.
Lets start out by getting one thing straight – when a police officer disobeys the laws and unjustly harms another person, they should be charged the same as you or I would be if we hurt another person – period!
Police officers are not above the law, they are sworn to obey the law, that is their job.
However, rushing to judgement on police violence without the knowledge of all the facts is also a problem. The media loves to sensationalize a story and make it seem so much larger than life. They tend to spark anger and outrage just from reporting hearsay so that they can be the first to report about the incident. This anger is what makes a slow simmer into a boiling mess. Local citizens then take that anger and think it is ok for them to cause damage to other people and their property, to loot and burn things. I will never understand why you would want to loot or burn down your own neighborhood, it just does not make sense to me. The reality is that this cycle gets rolling and it is oftentimes very hard to stop and also causes a lot more people to be hurt by these actions.
I see and hear many of these incidents being blamed on the police.
The race card seems to be thrown around quite easily as well.
Everyone seems to want the police to stop being racist and stop being bullies however that is really not the true problem in my opinion.
The problem is not the police! The problem is on both sides and both sides need to change otherwise nothing will change.
The youth of today seem as if they have no respect for the police or for adults in general. If a police officer asks you to get off the street and move to the sidewalk, why is there this need to defy authority and argue or outright disobey? Wouldn’t it be easier to just move to the sidewalk and move on with life? Unfortunately, by disobeying the police, you are creating a bad situation. The officer now have to go into a defensive mode as they now have a citizen right out disobeying them, not knowing what ulterior motive this person may have (is he on drugs or does he intend to cause harm?). Simply following the officers order would have avoided a bad situation. Why is this so hard for people to understand? Why do people think its okay to disobey an order from a police officer? Stop being smart asses people and have and show some respect!
Who is really to blame for much of this violence: The person who is disobeying the police officer!
If everyone has the same respect for others as they want others to have for them (the Golden Rule), we would not have these issues!
If we as citizens start respecting the police more, we will find that the police will respect us more as well.
Mothers and fathers, teach your kids respect and hold them responsible for their actions. We all want the police to be held accountable for their own actions so why shouldn’t we be more responsible for our own actions? You must show respect before you will get respect!
Its a simple life lesson – show respect, get respect. The violence will stop on both sides!
