I was a little irritated the past few months with people who have been real hard on the police for a variety of reasons. Most recently, the you tube video from St. Paul. When I see this, I am concerned with what I see in more ways than one. Both from the side of the office but also those around the incident.
First, think about the life of a police officer. It is awkward having a policeman around the house when friends
drop by and a man with a badge opens a door. The temperature in the room drops 20 degrees. If they are part of the party, people
perceive that badge gets in the way.
All of a sudden there isn’t a normal guy in the crown, everyone becomes
a comedian and jokes about the police. “Don’t drink to much or the man with the
badge will run you in” or “How is it going Dick Tracy, how many jaywalkers did
you pinch today”. Then at once those
who are known as police lose their first name… they are call copper, pig, dick, flatfoot, a bull, john law,
bad news, trouble, fuzz, the heat, pick the poison... They are called everything but a policeman.
Often being the police is not much of a life unless you like
missing important family events because a homicide happens, not unless you like
working Saturday, Sunday and holidays at lower than average pay. They are paid enough that if they pinch
the pennies they put the kids through college but have to learn about Europe on
TV.
They spend years on the beat where they arrest a drunken
prostitute and she destroys the uniform.
Years ago, the office had to pay for a new uniform. Police get a front row acquaintance
with the worlds diverse and elite. Pimps, addicts, thieves, bums, drunks, girls who cannot keep
an address and men who care, tyrants, liars, cheats, con men and many in skid
row. They see the heartbreaks such
as beaten wives or girlfriend.
They see first hand beaten, neglected, underfed, molested kids with
broken arm kids or broken legs.
They see dead kids, lost kids, homeless kids, hit and run kids, sick
kids, dying kids. They see the old
and homeless, the ones often nobody wants, the pensioners, the people who walk
the street cold, hungry and homeless.
They work day in and day out and try to pick up the pieces
of many lives while trying to preserve their own sanity. Many times going on a call and never
knowing whom they will meet. They
could meet a kid with a knife, a crazed person with a gun, ex-cons with nothing
to lose, or an angry mob who hates authority.
The cops get all the down time to think and have to live
with it. Lawyers and the courts
have the police pounded with paperwork.
They fill out a report when they are right and fill out another if they were
wrong. May even fill out a report
on filling out a report so some twisted legal representation cannot skew the
facts to let the killer go free.
They have to write more words in a life than most human beings.
They have to live with doubt, anxiety, frustration, court
decision changing the job’s expectations and requirements. If it not bad enough
that the have to deal with the basic criminal element, at times they have to
defend themselves against lies and deceit or you tube video taken out of
context. They have to defend
themselves to judges, juries and much time the public who has no idea what the
day-to-day activities of a Police are.
Most of the time, people are very unhappy with the outcome.
Think about it next time when we believe what we see… I am not saying the St. Paul Policewere not out of line for the way they treated that person, but what I hear is
an angry crowd yelling and making comments in the background. They are telling him "you gonna get paid man". The crowd was antagonizing the police for trying to arrest a felon. This was a guy with a warrant and threatened to harm his girlfriend. I hear a person yelling about “getting
it all on tape”. I could only
imagine that officer with his back to the crowd was wondering if someone in
that crowd would pull a gun and be the last day that officer would see his wife
and kids… I know if I was near that area, I would be very scared.
Been watching Dragnet lately and in the words of Joe Friday,
“being a Policeman is a thankless, endless, glamour less job that has got to be
done, and I am dumb glad to be one of them.” I for one am very glad when I see one, even if I am
speeding!
Carry on…
