Citizens vs Police
A Reflection on Police Brutality
The difference in how the police and government handle and approach the issues that affect the black community have been consistently and historically imbalanced and prejudice.
The police are the ones with the guns and military gear with a license to kill. The police are the ones we entrust to keep our communities safe. It should be beyond reasonable to expect and demand that the police are better than average citizens. We should be able to expect that they will be tasked with taking the high road and being the bigger people in every instance.
If the police don’t agree with something citizens are doing, as long as what they are doing is protecting by the law it is not for them to disagree with it. So if they don’t like the protests so much that they allow a truck to run into a crowd, they are not only being childish and selfish but they are breaking the oath the took to uphold the law and protect the citizens of this country. The should no longer be employed by any police station.
The problem is that fear feeds fear and hate feeds hate. When the police brutalize a community, that community loses trust and builds fear and hate towards the police. If the police are not better than average citizens they are prone to resent distrust and as a result, they could see that community as an enemy or adversary.
Since we are removed from the overt slavery of the past (we can discuss private prisons at another time), many right leaning people use the argument that since they didn’t own slaves they are not responsible.
That is problematic because it ignores the roots of distrust and fear. When something bad happens to a family of people over generation and generation, the effects are deeper than just what is happening today.
Instead of having the arguments of who is right and who is wrong it should be expected that the people paid to “serve” the citizens of this country should take the high road and side with finding a new approach that helps break down the generations of pain and build trust so that the tension can be relieved.
That same tension is the tension that shows up in video after video of racist attacks and police brutality. The perpetrators of these crimes have so much built up distrust and resentment that it boils over into their actions. They don’t see the humanity in people, they only see the threat that they have created in their minds as a result of allowing negative stereotypes to play in their minds.
So long story, not so short…the police should be expecting and required to protect citizens, even the ones they don’t agree with, even during times of civil unrest. But moreso, we should be hiring the kind of people to police that WANT to protect the citizens regardless of race or situation. We should hire the people that genuinely care. Not the steroid, small dick, Napoleon complex fucks that need a gun and total authority to make themselves feel tough.
We should be seeking an intelligent, empathetic police force that we take good care of because they take good care of us.
Adam Chase has been a professional musician and touring drummer since 2001.
