The excerpt below is from my latest book Inside a Police Informant's Mind and is the beginning of a chapter called Streets of Blood. The chapter deals with a subject that I think is lost on society today - the brutal environments in which we ask those in law enforcement to call their workplace.
" Traffic creeps slowly through the city, carrying home the many in society who have just finished the nine-to-five shift. They have poured their blood, sweat, and tears into another day and are looking to re-energize their weary bodies and minds. The majority are returning to homes that they hope are comfortable, safe, and secure sanctuaries. They hope to raise their families in a moral environment that allows them to live in harmony with the rest of the community. Most are probably walking into their homes thinking about not much more than what is for supper or whatever event they, their children, or their spouses have planned for that evening. I don’t assume every law-abiding citizen is experiencing this, but, based on the thousands of “normal” families I have gotten to look at over the years, this attitude seems to be more the rule than the exception.
In contrast to this pro-social world, there is another world that is very antisocial, the somewhat disorganized yet organized crime world. This is a world at war with all that would stop it from existing. Everyone knows it is there, but most try to keep it hidden in their TV sets or behind the wall of police officers who are paid to keep it away. Unfortunately, it does coexist, hiding within the normal world and often colliding with it—even when the police are doing all that they can to not let that happen."
The chapter goes on in much detail to describe the insanity that citizens are protected from on a daily/nightly basis. However, for the sake of this post, I just want to take a quick look at the last part of the excerpt and point out a fact that seems to be escaping many and especially the anti-police protesters.
"This is a world at war with all that would stop it from existing."
It is law enforcement that is tasked with going into battle in hopes of stopping this ruthless world from existing.
As I read through the posts of my police connections each morning on LinkedIn there are always two things that I am positive I will see;
Another brave soldier in blue will have lost their life fighting in this war.
Another person or news article will have complained about police behavior.
The majority of police officers do not condone unnecessary or illegal action by any person who is on the side of those who are fighting evil.
Now keeping the above statement as the presupposition that should be held when discussing this subject - as it is statistically factual.
We ask these officers to protect us from; killers, rapists, thieves, drug lords, gangs of all types, assaults, extortions, drunk drivers, road rage, home invasions, domestic assaults, child molesters and the list goes on - on top of protecting us from the bad guys we ask that they clean up the messes from; suicides, car crashes, accidental deaths, natural deaths, drug overdoses, and the list goes on - it does not stop there, we ask then to deal with mental health patients, runaways, the lost, the homeless and a host of other social ills...
Is it too much for us to show our police a little recognition and appreciation? I mean God knows these officers do not do this work for the little bit of money that we give them.
At the very least maybe we could help them in this war by not making the bad guys heroes while making police the enemy!