The Police

For about as long as I can remember, I've had profound respect for police officers. The only blip in that pattern has been when I'm behind the wheel and there is one in a squad car behind me. It bears similarity to having someone look over your shoulder while you're writing. Now though, the image of police officers is in a state of crisis and I find myself reevaluating my respect. Michael Brown's death at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson caused a number of issues to flare up, including but not limited to racial profiling, police brutality, and racial tensions between whites and blacks. While the evidence I've seen seems to indicate that Officer Wilson shot Brown in self-defense, I do not claim to know whether or not he is guilty. That was the decision of the grand jury, who had better access to evidence than any of us. Aside from the riots that it provoked, I was basically at peace with the matter. Then a black man was choked to death in New York by a white officer for the crime of illegally selling cigarettes, the events of which were captured on video. The following acquittal, in the face of far clearer evidence available to everyone calls much into question and all the while racial tensions boil.

I don't have a romantic view of police officers. They are only human, underpaid, and under tremendous pressure. The history of corruption in the police force is well-documented and there have been times and locales where said corruption has become toxic and highly extensive. As the Supreme Court has recently made clear, the police have no obligation to protect anyone, only to enforce the law. Undoubtably, we need the police to do so, but only where the law exists to protect us from one another. Laws meant to protect us from ourselves deny us liberty and enforcing those laws makes it the duty of the police to deny us said liberty. A certain amount of violence will always be necessary to enforce the law and a certain amount of civilians and officers alike will necessarily die as a result of said violence. Police officers are not, however, above the law they enforce and an attitude, whomever by which it may be perpetuated, that they are makes them our lords and us their subjects, instead of the mere agents of law enforcement they ought to be.

As to the racial tensions that this has brought on, I have two main thoughts on the matter. First of all, I do not buy into massive institutional racism as a given, although I certainly am open to the idea that it may occur in certain locales at certain times. If there is racism, to whatever extent, in law enforcement, I favor addressing that in whatever manner will be most effective, of course. Second, I think that anything that causes or justifies racial strife is necessarily a bad thing. When I see rioters on my television screen, I do not see anything worth having. At best, those who riot are enraged beyond the point of being rational actors and, at worst, they are amoral opportunists, using an environment of anger and mistrust to contribute to anarchy that will allow them to take what they want and destroy the rest. Above all, I see that there are massive problems, both in society and in law enforcement, that must be addressed somehow. In the past 15 years, I've smoked many a cigar with many fine members of law enforcement and my experience with these men tell me that there are too many good people in law enforcement for me to ever justify hatred of the profession or those who serve in it in any general sense. However, a police officer who abuses the power to enforce the law cannot be tolerated and falls from being exalted in my estimation to being vile.

-Frank