Thoughts on the Most Extreme Responses to Police Brutality

This week I got messages two nights in a row from one of my best friends, which I’ve known for about two thirds of my life, identifying that if I heard about officer involved shootings she was ok. It seems that targeting the police with the intent to seriously injure or kill has become a thing. My friend lives with two other officers and none of them feel comfortable driving their squad cars to the house right now (out of fear that someone may assault them or the property in their absence). There is concern that people will follow them home from the police station at the end of the day. While the general public (minorities especially) shouldn’t have to live in fear, police officers shouldn’t either. As a result, I decided to post about the police and encourage anyone willing to read this to take a moment and consider your feelings/actions.

I am disgusted by videos of police brutality. It is a shame that individuals have decided that they should misuse their position as public servants to harass, intimidate, injure, or even kill others. It is a shame that it has been allowed to persist to the point that it doesn’t appear to be stopped by the other officers on the scene or be prosecuted by the police when these acts are committed/identified. However this does not make all police officers our enemies.

I admittedly have not researched police brutality in any kind of depth, but feel it is absolutely necessary to make the assumption that not all police officers are monsters (this is just too dark of an outlook). Rather, I must make the assumption that most are good people trying to safely perform duties assigned. I believe that there are problems with training (formal and on the job) that do not help. However, I don’t think for a moment, that everyone that ended up working as a police officer did so for the power and the opportunity to abuse that power. Honestly, in many videos of police brutality, you can see that the officers are scared; there is fear in their eyes. This is a clear indicator that there is a lot of opportunity for training to improve outcomes in those scenarios. I must believe that most officers are trying to make their communities better, safer places while ensuring that they come home every day from work without injuries (and actually come home from work).

In Suffolk, VA this week, two nights in a row, officers almost didn’t make it home. The first night a marked police car was shot at while moving. The news article does not provide much detail, but shooting at a moving police car feels very much like someone intentionally targeting police in an attempt to harm or kill them for the simple fact that they are a police officer. The next day there was an officer involved shooting in which shots were exchanged when officers were looking for a man wanted for charges including Burglary of a Residence; Discharging a Firearm in Occupied Dwelling; Malicious Shooting and Displaying a Firearm in a Threatening Manner. Upon encountering the armed suspect, shots were exchanged. The officers were not injured and provided first aid until emergency medical personnel arrived. The officers were put on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an investigation by internal affairs. To me, this is an appropriate response to a situation that sounds like officers just trying to do their job and arrest a man with a variety of gun related charges. The details of the encounter have not been provided, but it sounds like a dangerous situation to have to pursue as part of your regular job. Further, the police department put the officers involved on leave and their pay is dependent on the outcome of the investigation. It sounds like the Suffolk Police Department is trying to do the right thing (unlike stories you may hear of in other places).

At the end of the day, these people have friends, family, and loved ones. They are loved. Again, I will stress that they are people (they have their own problems, their own lives, their own stresses). They don’t need additional stress or fear as they try to get through every day at work and at home. The first shooting, where someone just unloaded on a moving police car (hitting the police car at least 3 times), is especially scary and the second is just a reminder of what they have to deal with on a daily basis. I hope that everyone that reads this understands that police as a whole are not our enemies and random acts of violence against them are unacceptable. We have to come together and drive out the problems on both sides of the fence (officers abusing power and members of the public acting violently towards the police or other members of the public). It is very easy to admonish the police from the safety of your home or in a large crowd, but stress and panic hit people differently and I’d argue that training and accountability would go a lot further in reducing/eliminating occurrences of police brutality than the demonization of the police as a whole. Also, both sides can work to de-escalate any situation… (something to consider in general)

Sorry for the rant… TLDR: Police aren’t perfect, but random acts of violence against them is not the answer.