Sunday, December 21, 2014

The Police



NYPD patrolman in 1943 photographed by Gordon Parks

If we have urban warfare now it's because that's what we want.  After decades of demonizing each other, why should we expect anything different?

Remembering Officers Liu Wenjin and Raphael Ramos murdered in cold blood yesterday as they sat in their patrol car.  They were killed by a madman seeking revenge for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

EXTRA:


People out there really seem to want war; cops versus minorities where no one is safe, certainly not cops. The demagogues are out in force. It seems to me that respect for the badge and keeping every offense from rapidly escalating into a fatal encounter are not mutually exclusive. A cop's job is hard, but is it really any extra burden to have the agents of the law accountable to the same law that they are supposed to enforce? We count on our police to hold the line between us and chaos. We all want police protection. We want to support them and help them do their job. We're already on their side. We only want to be reassured that they are on our side.
 It would also be helpful if our corrupt (but legally corrupt) legislators could do something constructive to restore confidence in a broken criminal justice system that privileges the wealthy and criminalizes the poor, a system that everyone tries to game and no one seems to have faith in anymore. Or perhaps Equal Justice Under Law is but another fond and pretty sentiment like Liberty and Justice for All?



1 comment:

JCF said...

Emphasis on "madman" (who, had he not offed himself, would have been PROSECUTED to the fullest extent of the law).

RIP, Officers Liu and Ramos.