Disclaimer: I am jaded and Biased against the police in this nation. This is not a personal attack on every individual Law Enforcement Officer, this is a generalized rant, I understand that most of you will not agree.
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I hate Cops. I worked as a Federal Law Enforcement Operator for a year and a half, and the folks that worked with me and my outfit are the reason I do not do it today, these people drove me to take up my hobby as my main job, and it has been a blessing, but I feel as though people in my camp (politically) are oxymoronic when it comes to this stuff, and I want to have a conversation about it.
For the same reasons I used to hate liberals and leftists for hating cops, while also hating guns and personal defense, I have began to disdain the bootlicking right. How can people that say they are pro-freedom, champion personal defense, challenge gun laws, and claim to love their neighbors simultaneously be advocates for the literal fingertips of the system that would take their rights? I’m not saying we need NO policing, but the current trajectory is straight into authoritarianism. Any time I talk to someone about the issue, it gets conflated with “defunding” or “abolishing” police, but what I think almost every American would really agree on is that the way these agencies are organized clearly doesn’t work, and neither does the prison system, and they need to change.
When the party that says “Don’t send Ukraine Money, it doesn’t work” is the party that keeps the checks blank for police efforts, doesn’t it seem odd? Doesn’t it seem strange that our own, domestic system doesn’t work and our solution is to, no matter what, give them more resources? I think that if we are going to, as a society, keep cops around and well funded, the very idea needs to change entirely.
Hmmm. I've put some actual thought into the state of our law enforcement, and I look at it from a few different viewpoints. It's an internal debate and hard to explain.
For LEOs, I both have the utmost respect for individuals who pursue a career in the service and protection of others around him, but also some harsh criticism about the current state of things. It's often a selfless, thankless (not always), and dangerous job. I think anyone who is willing to put their life on the line to protect others, even as a career in exchange for money, is someone to be thankful for. On the other hand, when did getting a ticket for 5mph over become "protect and serve" or minor traffic violations for things such as not wearing a seatbelt become constitutional? I know that's more so legislative side of things, but still applies to LEO. It's a tough position for me because I support officers (the good ones) 100% on the individual side of things, but also have issues with them overall. I think officers are often put "above the law" but officers are also heavily preyed upon and targeted, which puts pressure on those same officers performing their duties that do benefit society. I'm grateful to have police but often wonder what home is being broken into, or car being smash and grabbed, or property being vandalized while an officer sits on the side of the road speed trapping looking for funding for the police department.
I know many officers, and the vast majority are trying to do the right thing, but also, I hate the perception that LEO is "there to protect us" and there's this public opinion that they are responsible to do so... and that I can't have the same responsibility to protect myself because I'm not LEO. Which I think is the problem. When you give someone the responsibility to protect you, people think it removes the responsibility for them to protect themselves... that's stupid. Why can officers walk freely armed more so than the citizen? Why are government employees given more rights with guns when the 2A was specific for citizens having the same capabilities as the government in protection FROM the government (2A is not about general gun ownership and self protection, but I digress...)? I think the concept of LEO should be there to aid in the private citizen protecting themselves, and far more power should be granted to the citizen to do so. There's NO one that will have the same drive and dedication to protect my family as I would. Now I not saying I'd have the same capability to do so, but I'm a firm believer in police show up after the fact.
I think some of the fallout from the "I can't breathe" movement has opened up to police both being vilified unjustly but also providing needed oversight, too.
Much of my issues are powers given to police by government officials, officers and officials that abuse them, and the lack of my ability to retaliate. The thought of an officer treating my wife the way some of these officers treat women (whether deservedly not) and the fact being that if I intervened there's a chance I'm risking my life to do so. So the "just sit there and take it and do what the officer says" mentality is garbage, but having that respect for the individual I am rarely anything but Johnny be Good during onduty interactions with officers because I know they deal with a lot of bullshit people and I don't need to contribute to that. But... I can see it only taking that one cop that goes past the line if my rights where I could see myself in trouble. It's a very weird thought process.
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