Heroes Don’t Hide

I probably should know better than to write this article. I should know better because I am angry and tend to not choose the best words to describe my feelings under such circumstances. But I am angry and I am sad. I need to do this because this is how I vent. If you are offended by my words, I don’t care. If you place meanings on my words that were not intended or are not there, that is on you. I am not concerned about the feelings of an individual who cannot stand to hear the truth. You can bury your head in the sand or you can wake up and face reality. The reality is that police officers are being gunned down in the streets. But for some reason the media and some segments of the public find it more offensive when a police officer is forced to use deadly force than when a weaselly coward executes a police officer. You are damn right, I am angry.

I am sick and tired of the liberal media constantly reporting on the idiotic actions of groups such as the New Black Panthers or the Black Lives Matter group yet glossing over the real crisis. The real crisis is that our police officers are being gunned down in the streets. This crisis, at least in some part, is the result of the hateful rhetoric being spewed by these groups, and others. For some reason, they seem to think it is an apples to apples comparison. When a police officer performs his or her sworn duty and are forced by the circumstances of the moment to use lethal force it is not the same as when a thug takes the life of a police officer. This is not an apples to apples comparison, it is an apple to assholes comparison. Look at it for what it is. Each event is distinct and not comparable. The taking of a life by a police officer trying to do his or her duty or to save theirs or another’s life is not comparable to a criminal willfully ending the life of a police officer, simply because that person wears a badge and a gun. Anybody should be able to see this, but for some reason there is a lot of ignorance by a lot of people who only look at certain facts and not all the facts.

If a police officer engages an individual, whether it is to render assistance, stop a crime in progress, or effect an arrest, it does not matter to the police officer what the race, gender, age, or sexual preference of the individual is. It only matters to the police officer that a person is engaging in an activity that needs to be altered or is in need of help. Since most deadly encounters are over in a few seconds it hardly leaves time for an officer to determine to use deadly force because of the race of the individual. Anyone who would think otherwise is obviously either living in an alternate reality or using way too many drugs. Wake up people. Consider the fats of each circumstance. It has been said that blacks are killed by police officers at a disproportionate rate compared to the number of whites killed by police officers. Is it not possible that this is not a matter of racial prejudice on the part of the police officer, but instead it is more likely to occur because blacks are committing crimes requiring intervention by the police at a much higher rate than whites? I am not making this up, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports will bear this out, should you care to do the research.

On May 9th of this year, Police memorial Week, I wrote an article entitled “What Were Their Names?”, encouraging people to remember the names of our fallen heroes with the same degree of recall as they do with the names of the thugs killed by police. At that time there were 42 line of duty deaths in the U.S.   As of the date of this article, less than four months later, that number has almost doubled, now standing at 83. I think that is horrific and should be concerning to all law abiding citizens. Yet somehow the media still concentrates on the chants of the disgruntled few and disregards the cries of the families left with out their family member. For some reason the media does not seem to care about the facts leading up to the use of deadly force by the police officer. For some reason the public seems to forget that it is because of selfless dedication to duty that a police officer ends up in a circumstance to either be required to use deadly force or find themselves the victims of criminal act that results in their death. It is real simple folks, there are bad guys and good guys. The good guys must win. Any other outcome is unacceptable.

It is very simple really. It has been said over and over again but the message does not seem to get through. If you are a criminal and don’t want to die at the hands of the police, quit committing crimes, quit resisting arrest, do not force a police officer to use force to save is or her own life. If you are a police officer and don’t want to die at the hands of a criminal, stay home. That, of course,is not going to happen. A police officer is not going to stay home. Heroes don’t hide.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

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