I Support The Police Brutality Protesters...But I Stand With The Police

WE may not be too interested in running out to vote in high percentages during elections that a black man is not a presidential candidate on the ballot, but America is full of courageous and proud advocates for change.

Those young folks in Ferguson might be changing the world. At the least, the town of Ferguson will never be the same again and the rest of the world has taken notice.  Eric Garner triggered bi-partisan disgust, but even he only achieved this stature aided by a long history of police violence towards black men. WE know it is a problem, but due to laws that limit the reporting of such violence- and no video before Rodney King got caught on camera- all of America has been free to sweep their police violence dirt beneath a carpet.  Michael Brown Jr. could have become the villain that Darren Wilson supporters believe him to be, but a spray of bullets from Wilson's gun insured that his body alone would represent a dirty carpet that lives in every community of color.  When, at last, the carpet was pulled up from the filthy concrete, a cloud of dusty memories spread throughout a horrified world waiting in anticipation for a sign of something other than the same foggy feeling of injustice.

They are still waiting.

Within all of our confusion over who is most worthy of blame when black men lay dead in the streets at the hands of police, most agree to the presence of a problem and one that prisons are exacerbating, not curing.  Love 'em or hate 'em, the police officer unions are sworn to the protection of officers just as the officers are supposedly sworn to the protection of the communities they police.  In an increasingly violent society, the promise to be officers of peace has evolved into cops who promise Friends and Family that they will do everything they can to get home alive.

When the mission evolves from preserving the peace to getting home alive, trigger fingers grow itchy.  Nationwide, violent crime is on a sharp decline- just don't tell that to someone who was a recent victim.  They may be alive today because of a cop who answered the 911 call. But let's not get it twisted.  We pay taxes for the benefit of such things, so those who choose service careers do so with an understanding that society will find someone to do the job simply because it must.  Conflating the prevalence of black deaths by cops to nothing more than a Human Resource issue seems extremely simplistic, but is diversity hiring and/or diversity training the key to quieting the thousands of protesters around the world? As we work to change the face of policing, do we run the risk of running off good cops while starting a manhunt to remove bad ones? At what point do we put all lives in greater danger while protesting against the unreasonable deaths of  a few too many black men?

In principal, I stand with the cops because I know too many good ones to stand anywhere else, and standing on the other side of the man with the gun and an itchy trigger finger is how you get shot in the first place.  We live in a world full of racial distrust and ethnic biases.  These biases reveal themselves in all aspects of society so it seems peculiar that we don't expect these things in the realm of law enforcement as well.  The remedy for racially motivated killings by law enforcement is similar to the remedy for reducing the unusually high suspension rates for black kindergarten children versus white children of the same grade level.  Blacks represent too small a percentage of inhabitants in America to be so heavily incarcerated, or killed by cops, or suspended from kindergarten compared to other racial groups.

The Chain of Humanity is only as strong as its weakest link.
Lets focus on the chains that bind us together.

So what is the answer?

Faith and Family.  WE all have (or need) families and we mostly pray to the same God if we pray at all. The effectual, fervent prayer of like-minded people must come to bare if change is to occur. Things WE have in common are the only chains that bind us. In the end, WE will only be as strong as our weakest link, so our strength will come from the kind of Faith WE can share.  If blacks unnecessarily killed by cops are humanized by the tears of their mourning families, the cops must too be humanized by the tears of joy from the children who hug their policing parents when they survive another dangerous night of law enforcement.

In God WE trust?!  Through faith and family we live and thrive. 

God Bless America!