To protect and serve

I've seen a lot of video's of late of police beating “innocent” civilians. A lot of people are quick to criticize police and what they do. While I acknowledge that there is a lot of times when there has been an inordinate amount of force in some of the videos, in some of the videos people watching them get angry for no reason. I have had very few run ins with the police, most times it wasn't for me. I was amazed when I was walking a client on the way to a protest and stopped by the store to pick up a pack of smokes. The police drove by and the client said watch while I get questioned. I went into the store and sure enough wasn't there an officer questioning him as I exited the store. Being a counsellor at a drop in centre meant I could pretty much wear what I wanted and so I usually would forgo the business suit for something a heck of a lot more casual. I waited until the police man was done and was amazed when he turned his attention to me. I was clearly wearing my name tag from work (I had to since I was pretty much always dressed in street clothes). I pointed to my name tag and said hey I'm a street counsellor. This did not dissuade him. He questioned me still which wasn't a problem because I have a clear criminal record and usually am a pretty law abiding citizen (except for the odd speeding I may do) I remember feeling very angry that this officer was questioning me when I hadn't done anything wrong and that I was a victim of guilt by association. BUT here is the thing. Years later when one of my co-workers was arrested I didn't feel so bad. It was 2 minutes out of my day.

I saw this video the other day where a guy gets punched in the head.  I tried to link the video, but it just wouldn't work.

Now people were getting upset that the man got punched in the head. What I saw was a man who had broken the law and wouldn't put his hands behind his back. Although he wasn't really struggling hard, how much longer would it have been until he did. If he had simply put his arm behind his back he wouldn't have gotten punched in the head. When I got pulled over for speeding and the officer asked me, “Ma'am do you know why I pulled you over?” I replied, “Yes sir, I was speeding.” I'm not military, but the use of sir to denote someone of authority is something I was raised with. By all rights he could have slapped me with a huge fine, given me points on my licence and it would have hiked my insurance up. Why the hell wouldn't I be polite? I broke the law and he caught me fair and square. He let me off with a far lesser ticket and I thanked him again using sir. Why, because I actually admitted that I was wrong and this man gets paid to catch people who break the law. I respect them and in turn most times get respected by them. So, if you get arrested for doing something wrong then be polite deal with it later. If you get arrested for something that you didn't do. Don't resist, go with it and sort it out later. Is it really worth getting punched in the head for it?