Police Atrocities

There are more than 900,000 sworn law enforcement officers serving in the United States. A total of 1,439 law enforcement officers died in the line-of-duty during the past 10 years, an average of one death every 61 hours or 144 per year. According to the Memorial Fund Report, the leading cause of death for a police officer in the United States is by a person with a firearm (Facts and Figures). In 2016, the number of police officers that were killed in the line of duty hit a five-year high (Miller). In my own opinion, most people forget that police officers are human beings, just like the rest of us. Every day police officers risk their lives to serve and protect the public. People often overlook that fact and automatically assume that
police officers are corrupt and out to get them. People are constantly reading up-to-the-minute news on social media and the internet.
This so called news doesn’t always tell all of the details of an event, because it is oftentimes still occurring, which can lead people to make their own conclusions when all of the facts aren’t even
known yet. Some people jump to conclusions about police officers after reading a story and then make the assumption that all cops are bad. If people took the time to realize what officers do each day to keep us safe, they would take back many of the negative statements they make about them.. There have been many occasions where police officers have been in the wrong when it came to a face-to-face encounter with a person accused of a crime. The videos that are shown by the news outlets or by social media sometimes do not show the entire interaction that an officer is having with a suspected criminal. For example, a video was taken of an Arizona police officer punching a woman in the face because the woman stated that he couldn’t arrest her until he showed proof of a warrant. Of course, the officer had absolutely no right to punch the woman in the face, but what this video did not show was the actions of the suspect leading up to the punch from the officer (huffingtonpost.com). Twice I’ve been granted the privilege to ride in the front seat of a California Highway Patrol vehicle, observing an officer in the line-of-duty for twenty hours. I also had the opportunity to observe three different Orland Police Department officers, for a total of six hours. During those twenty-six hours of patrolling the towns of Orland, Willows, Hamilton City, and Chico, I witnessed nothing but proper protocol by the officers that I was with. The CHP officer that I rode with is most likely the nicest man I have ever been introduced to. I witnessed this officer, while on duty and under difficult circumstances, present a great attitude and a desire to help people. When these officers had to pull someone over for a violation, I noticed that all of them took the time to make sure that these people got the right type of help or assistance that they needed. When arresting a driver under the influence of alcohol, the CHP officer that I was on a ride-along with made sure the female was hydrated with water, that the handcuffs were not harming her, and most importantly, talked with her about her future plan of action. He asked her how she was going to get away from consuming alcohol and driving, as this was a repeat offense and he feared for her life as well as for the lives of other drivers on the road. As I sat there and listened to the officer giver her advice, I could tell that he genuinely cared about her well being. He truly tried to do as much as he could for her in the limited amount of time we were with her. It was heart wrenching for me to witness, yet such an astonishing scene to be a part of. This first-hand experience was something many people will never get the opportunity to witness. It is clear that police officers come in different degrees of good and bad, just like the rest of the humans in this world.
Although we are supposed to call our city police officers, “our friends in uniform,” most people think otherwise of that statement. Of course racist, vindictive and corrupt police officers exist, but the number of good police officers outweighs those that are rogue. Reverend Gerald Britt, Vice-President of public policy for CitySquare wrote, “I know most police officers are brave, extraordinary servants who put their lives on the line daily for us all. Their service is dishonored by rogue officers whose bullying and violent behavior promote distrust, resentment and even hatred of the police” (dallasnews.com). Everything that an officer does is scrutinized and is often taken out of context because witnesses didn’t record the whole event or only heard a portion of what happened. Sometimes officers are forced to make a life or death decision after only having seconds to assess a situation (chicagonow.com). Hopefully as more law enforcement agencies implement body cameras those rogue officers will be caught and the good cops will get the positive recognition they so desperately
deserve.