Posted Friday, March 13th 2015 @ 10am 1130 WISN By Dan O'donnell
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In light of recent attacks on police officers in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City, it seems clear that an anti-law enforcement sentiment that has been festering since the shooting of Michael Brown has now become nearly uncontrollable.
Black lives matter, but blue lives, it seems, do not. But are police officers really the monsters that they have been made out to be?
A police officer is now a composite of what all men fear is the toxic mingling of oppressor and despot, vile racist and violent sociopath.
Culled statistics fan the flames of paranoia, while leaders both community and national underscore instances of violence for political gain. What they really mean is that to them, a Police Officer is a pawn—a hero to be held up in New York on 9/11 but a villain to be hated in Ferguson, Staten Island, and Milwaukee in 2014.
But buried in the rhetoric is the truth: Officers are 25 times less likely to wrongly shoot unarmed black suspects than they are to wrongly shoot unarmed white suspects, and officers hesitate significantly longer before shooting armed suspects who are black than they do before shooting armed suspects who are white or Hispanic.
So what is a police officer made of? Is it that noxious blend of prejudiced fear and an itchy trigger finger that has sparked so many protests? Or is it instead a mix of courage and honor, a desire to protect and a need to risk self for society?
A police officer must be such a diplomat that he must settle differences between people he stops but navigate cries of racism if he stops the wrong people.
And if a police officer is right, she’s harassing; if she’s wrong she’s a bigot. If he’s nice he is screamed at, if he’s not, he’s still screamed at.
He must make a decision in a fraction of a second that could mean the difference between going home to his wife and going home in a body bag.
And if she hurries, she’ll be protested; if she’s deliberate she could be hospitalized.
He is the first on the scene but the last one to be thanked. She must know medicine without a medical degree, know law without a law degree, know every detail of every aspect of every crime, and have the patience and temperament of a saint.
He must take a life-threatening beating but respond in a way that doesn’t hurt his attacker. If he uses his baton, he risks allegations of brutality. If he uses his Tazer, he risks the wrath of those who say Tazers can stop hearts. If he uses his gun, he risks becoming the most hated man in America.
A police officer must be a living computer, able to collect DNA evidence from anything and then use it to make an arrest.
But, if the suspect is black, she is profiling. If the suspect resists, she shouldn’t subdue him. If the suspect pulls a gun, she can pull hers, but she must do so with the knowledge that defending her own life and the lives of everyone in the area could cost her her livelihood, her reputation, her privacy, even her freedom.
The police officer must be equal parts mediator and minister, social worker and sociologist, an advocate for both social justice and law and order.
And of course, he must be a genius, because he’ll have to figure out a way to do all of those things flawlessly, every time, or else.
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