By Nathaniel Meyers
Contributing Writer
—
Recently here at Saint Rose, a special event was conducted on campus called the “Hands Up Rally.” I must admit I was not at the event, but I did speak to a friend who was there. He expressed his misgivings on what he perceived as a prominent anti-police vibe at the rally.
The conversation, along with the recent events involving Ferguson, MO and New York City, re-ignited my own feelings on law enforcement, feelings that stand in stark contrast to the mostly negative misgivings today’s public has towards police.
As a recently-graduated Criminal Justice major, the examination of social problems that ail this country, particularly those pertaining to race, have always been a prominent topic in my studies.
Why they exist, where they are concentrated, and how it affects the field of law enforcement are all topics that found their way into lectures and exams. A major problem is that there is a rising ignorance to the fact that these social issues, the roots of which took hold as long as a century or more ago, are not easily solvable.
It requires, at the least, an overhaul of people’s opinions and prejudices (a nearly impossible task), as well as the vast improvement of living conditions, employment opportunities, education, and wealth distribution and asset accumulation. These are all things that take a lot of time and resources, and human beings are rarely patient creatures. Filling the void to be blamed is often times the men and women of law enforcement.
What has happened is the dehumanizing of police. What I have noticed on both mass and social media is that police officers have been characterized as non-sentient soldiers, straight out of a George Orwell novel. They are, in the opinion of many, programmed by the government to oppress and endanger the masses until their shift is over, when they undoubtedly return to their pods to process more training techniques in holding down the public. Any incident involving police and a minority is immediately met by accusations of racism and trigger-happy tactics, instead of an unbiased examination of the event.
The media often chooses to focus on video feeds of riots, violent arrests, and shootings, rather than looking at the whole picture. Facebook is filled with anti-police pages and individuals declaring a policeman’s decision as fascist and power-crazed. So it may come to some surprise as to what I am about to say next.
Policemen are just like you and me. I ask that you please hear me out, in case you’re considering reaching for the proverbial torch and pitchfork.
It is true that some in the ranks are not suitable to be policemen and are unfit to wear the uniform, and they should rightfully be weeded out. Poor policing casts doubt on the force in general, which in turn makes life even more difficult for the good officers. The citizenry, in turn, is right to call for justice in these circumstances for the betterment of the community.
But we as citizens need to find a way to accept that there is no magic bullet for eradicating social problems in this country. Simply calling a cop a racist for shooting a black teen who robbed a store is ignorant of the many underlying issues that led to that very moment of the trigger being pulled. Questioning the training and the moral character of an officer for firing his weapon “too much” when struggling for his life, is to hypocritically ignore the fact that, given the circumstances, we would all probably do the same thing in the fight for survival.
Just as police officers should learn to understand the community they work in, the community should be aware of the stressors of a law enforcement job, and the underlying threat to their own safety that they face every day.
At the end of the day, police officers are ordinary men and women called upon to do extraordinary things. There can be no doubt that not everyone is meant to be one. But there is futility in every field of life. There are bad cooks, bad businessmen, and even bad professors. Yet, because of our fears of having our rights violated (and perhaps our skepticism toward those with power), the errors of a few policemen seem to outweigh the great amount of good that they do every day.
We must not let a few bad experiences with law enforcement result in hatred toward the whole field. Let it be a learning process for all involved, so that academies educate young officers to the needs of the communities they are sworn to protect, and so that those communities can better understand why policing is such a stressful and difficult job.
But most importantly, we need to remember that the vast majority of officers never want to fire their weapons, nor do they harbor hatred toward a certain race or group. They are simply trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, so that they can go home safely when the shift is through.
