Law and Disorder

Do you remember the good old days when you would turn on the television and be able to watch television shows that portrayed the police as the good guys, the go to guys in our communities? We were entertained with shows like Adam 12, Chips, Dragnet, The Mod Squad and Starsky and Hutch and more recently Law and Order, with its numerous spin offs. All of these depict the police as good guys, our defenders, righters of wrong, and something any young boy or girl might see as an honorable career.

So what has happened? From New York to Ferguson, police officers are being called into question for doing what many people see as their jobs, protecting us and themselves from men and women suspected of crimes. Across the nation, white police officers stand accused of the wholesale slaughter of young black men in this nation. Right now it seems like open season on the police. They can do know right. If they happen to kill someone resisting arrest, they are treated like blood thirsty monsters who act before they think. If they hold back on policing as they were accused of doing during round two of the Ferguson rioting, then they are accused of being heartless racists who only protect white communities and those who care nothing about minorities. According to the mayor of Philadelphia, there are police officers who are afraid of the community and vice-versa.

Are there bad police officers on the world? Of course, there are. Just like there are bad salesmen, politicians, preachers and even the occasional good lawyer. When one police officer dishonors the badge, this does not justify labeling all police as corrupt or racist. We never know when one of them may just have to put his or her life on the line to save one of us.