Many attitudes I have encountered lately seem to be accusatory towards our peace officers, people think that they are corrupt, enjoy giving punishments, or even that they go out of their way to give undeserving people a good beating. Look online, youtube sensations bear titles such as; “police brutally beats civilian”, or “cop gets what he has coming”, even kids’ entertainment games and videos call cops derogatory names. I myself have been a witness to each of these; from people berating a cop for doing what she had to in order to protect her partner from someone combative, to a kids show calling a cop a pig, to video games and tv commercials who make cops out to be dumb and/or the bad guys.
Mainstream media paints a worse picture. Often cops are called out, challenged for decisions they made by a public who has never had to stand in their shoes of kill or be killed, or stand by and watch someone they’ve sworn to protect get killed. The very public they are trying to protect is being stirred against them, tying their hands with legal jargon, making it harder to punish criminals intent on breaking the law, harder to do the job that is in their heart to do. One has only to look at most recent movies to see Hollywood’s portrayal of today’s cops and bad guys. The cops are corrupt and the bad guys always have good intentions. I fear for those brave enough to put their lives on the line as police for this public who cares not for law enforcement officers or the laws that are protecting them.
Courtney Bertin
(Just a quick note, I did not say that there are never cases of corruption or bad cops, I did not say there are never cases of police brutality. I am just saying that 99.9% of our police force is NOT corrupt, does NOT go looking to brutally beat people up, and DOES deserve our support. I for one want to say thank you to all these men and women laying their personal wishes, and often their personal safety aside to protect me. Feel free to comment and tell me what you think.)