"Accusations fly, like bullets do"

The police profession is one of the most valiant professions in this country. There aren’t many careers that force people to sacrifice their individual safety on a daily basis to protect the lives of others and preserve the moral fabric of the surrounding community. This is exactly the reason why not everyone can be an officer. In order to properly fulfill his/her duty to the public, an officer must necessarily hold values and skills that the rest of us can conveniently and routinely ignore. Officers must genuinely care for the safety as well as the rights of those whom they protect. They must also have responsibility—responsibility to know when to use force and have the logic to quickly gage the level of force appropriate for each unique situation they may find themselves in. Some may think this is an impossibly high standard for someone who is essentially no different than you and I, but I ask, would you hold someone to a lower standard if the merit of their decision is the difference between your life, or your death? These are the chosen few men and women whose split second decisions carry the heavy burden of our safety, our rights, and our livelihood. Because their burden is so heavy, because their mistakes are so costly, I hold their integrity to a higher standard.

In this police shooting video http://www.filecabi.net/video/goddammit30.html, the officers that killed the unarmed man were completely unjustified in their actions and are wholly responsible for the man’s death. I have no idea what this man did before he was killed that night, nor do I care. What I do draw concern with however, are the officers that used their government issued uniforms, government issued badges, and government issued firearms, summarily meaning they used the authority of the government, to unjustly deny a man of his most basic right as a human being, his right to live. It is incomprehensible for me to believe that officers; with bullet proof vests, automatic weapons, attack dogs, and riot gear, not to mention at least 21 weeks of police academy training and the common sense they were born with; would find it reasonable to use lethal force and shoot an unarmed man in that situation over 80 times, then leave him to die on his porch.

Unfortunately, what I can comprehend is what is far too common the case, that these officers acted without reason at all but more on an instinctual level not more developed or trained than a young boy with a water gun, eager to soak up anything that moves. They completely disregarded their responsibility to protect the rights of everyone around them and abused their privileges that come with being an officer, and made a decision without thinking, a bad a decision. We all make bad decisions, I am guilty of a few (only a few) in my lifetime, but the difference between my bad decisions and the bad decision of those officers, is that in their case someone’s life was at stake, and so many others lives have been affected as a result of their bad decision. It affects the man’s child to be born, his girlfriend who has to raise a baby alone, and his parents who now have to find the money to have a funeral for their son. But guess who it doesn’t affect? It doesn’t affect those officers who shot the bullets. Through their qualified immunity and the low standard of reasonableness for an officer to use force, chances are these officers will not be reprimanded in any form by their department, and they certainly will not face any type of criminal charges for the murder they committed.

So why isn’t this a big issue? Why don’t we hear debates over police misconduct reform alongside more popular issues on a national scale? The sad answer to that question is that cases of excessive violence and police brutality are overwhelmingly minority problems. White cops shoot and kill Black/Latino suspect. White cops beat Black/Latino suspect. These physical displays of violence that graze the 10:00 o’clock news every so often but occur every day are visual reminders that racism is still prevalent in American society. Unjustified shootings like the one in this video will continue as long as officers go unpunished for their actions. Officers will continue to treat suspects, especially Black suspects, as lives less than human and will act accordingly unless police policy addresses the problem. Not everyone possesses the skills and principles to become an officer and most officers are some of the most admirable people you will ever meet, but academies seem to let anyone through their programs and give them free reign to protect some, and terrorize the rest. It only takes one bad cop, to kill one person, what we don’t know is who that one person can be, and as long as it can be me, my family, or the children I plan to have, I will fight these injustices and binge the law enforcement profession of its imperfections until it shines crystal like my vision of what police policy should be.