A Respectful Letter to my Friends in Law Enforcement:

[TygrBright]

Dear (names redacted),

I remember a conversation we had many years ago about why you wanted to go to the Police Academy in (redacted.) You, (redacted), were just home from Iraq and out of the Army after two hitches. You'd joined up right out of High School and you were hoping that police salary and benefits would allow you to stretch your military educational benefits to get some kind of degree. You thought that the skills you'd learned in the military would transfer naturally to law enforcement, but, more important to you at that time: You wanted to continue doing something to help your fellow-citizens live in peace and safety. You felt that becoming a police officer would give you opportunities to serve your community as well as use your skills.

You, (name redacted,) had "blue in the blood"--family members who had worked in the (redacted) police and in emergency services in (redacted.) And although you graduated with honors in your University of (redacted) class with a double major in engineering and social work (and didn't THAT confuse your faculty advisors!) you wanted to do something "practical," that had a career path that would play to your strengths. You hoped to make it to the upper echelons where you could make a difference, and you have.

We talked long about the downside of law enforcement work--not just the physical risks involved, but the spiritual and emotional challenges that damage so many well-intentioned LEOs, and derail their best efforts. You, (redacted,) had some experience with that in the Army. You'd seen ugly stuff first-hand, done some ugly stuff and examined yourself and come to terms with both validation and regret. You felt that the self-control and discipline you'd acquired at such dear cost in Iraq and Kuwait would continue to serve you as an officer of the law, walking the line between dealing decisively with crime and humanely with criminals. (Redacted) wasn't so sure about how to meet those challenges, but had quality mentorship and a deep personal commitment to justice and your fellow-citizens.

It's hard to believe that conversation was more than fifteen years ago. It seems so fresh in my mind.

I poured out my worries to and about you both, based on my experiences with law enforcement during my youth, when citizens were striving for a voice against a powerful status quo and a heartless military-industrial oligarchy, and law enforcement made many bad choices. You assured me, then, that "modern" law enforcement was different. There were rules. Precedents. Court cases. Indeed, too many rules and precedents in some cases, preventing law enforcement officers from exercising good judgment as well as succumbing to bad judgment. But that "modern" LEOs understood the reasons for those rules and were committed to "doing it right."

I remind you of this, not because I think either of you have forgotten it with regards to yourselves and your service as LEOs, but because I fear for you, and other LEOs like you--the ones who are there for the right reasons, who care about the rules, who understand the Constitution that is the ultimate source of the authority delegated to you by me and my fellow-citizens. You are in terrible danger.

Not physical danger, certainly--not yet, anyway. The Americans taking their petition for a better future to the streets of our cities and communities are committed to non-violence. We are your fellow-citizens, and the better future we want for ourselves and our children, we want for you, too. We want to protect your right to unionize, protect the pensions and benefits that were promised to you. We want to lift some of the worst and stupidest parts of the job off your shoulders by ending the filth and corruption of the "War on Drugs" and implementing sound legal and social policies that will reduce crime.

And I know that you, (redacted) and (redacted), would never in your worst nightmares think of beating on a helpless citizen after they were down, or forcing open a college student's mouth and spraying pepper spray down their throat, or firing a tear gas canister at an unarmed citizen offering you no physical threat. Never in a million billion years. I know you. You just wouldn't.

But too many of your colleagues have been defeated by the job. They have loosened the grasp on their humanity and allowed it to slip away. And too many of them, I am sorry to have to believe, never had much to lose. They went to Police Academy for the wrong reasons, rather than the reasons that motivated you. I say "too many" advisedly. It is not "a few bad apples." Law Enforcement in America is at a crossroads. Are you truly "Peace Officers," protecting the community against violence and crime, and preserving our Constitutional rights? Or are you security forces for superiors who report to superiors who are wholly owned subsidiaries of those who've destroyed our economy, and made a mockery of the concept of E Pluribus Unum and of our Constitution?

If it is the latter, you soon have terrible, terrible choices to make. Think hard. Someday soon you will come across me in the street in front of you, maybe with a sign, maybe not. I may have my arms linked with a fellow-citizen who shares my commitment to nonviolent dissent and the exercise of our Constitutional rights.

Will you beat me?

Will you spray pepper spray in my throat?

Will you lock me in a van and deny me food and communications and access to a toilet?

You may see my child in the streets of (redacted,) bringing blankets to her fellow citizens exercising their Constitutional rights. Will you threaten her? Will you bully her? Will you assault her and arrest her and abuse her?

You may see YOUR OWN children in the streets. You will certainly see the children, the mothers, the brothers, the teachers and students of your family and friends in the streets. Will you fire teargas canisters aimed to hit them? Will you grab them, hit them, take their belongings and throw them in the trash? Will you do the will of evil, selfish oligarchs, cloaked under an oily film of "keeping order," and become the enemies of our Constitution?

I can't believe this of you. But it is the risk you face.

Think hard.

Remember that the sharpest regrets come from actions not taken, and actions taken without consideration. At your life's end, someday, you will look back, and tally the sum total of what you have accomplished to make the world a better place.

I believe that you have it in you--you and many of your fellow-officers--to make a profound difference for the better.

I will always live in that hope.

much love and respect,
(Bright)

[lbrtbell]

1. Nice letter, but it's misplaced hope

They'll do whatever their corporate overlords tell them to. :(

[izquierdista]

2. They can't.

Think hard.

No, they just carry out whatever sadistic deed they are told to do. Unthinking violence by unthinking thugs.

[Old Codger]

3. There was a time

when I would have believed that was possible, but years and reality have made me quite cynical and am now at the point of having to see it to believe it. really makes me quite sad for it to be true but the proof is in what I see happening these days.

[pacalo]

4. Officers who know right from wrong need these conversations. I hope it leads to inner struggles

that will lead them to collectively stand up against violence.