The Blue and the Blues

Let me get up on the pulpit one last time in 2014, despite the high probability that this will be ignored.

I'd like to speak to all of those folks who completely support those men and women who put on a uniform and swore the protect the public, even if it mean their lives.

Now, as I've said before, anyone who goes out everyday and risks their lives so my family and myself can be safe (that includes the fire department and the armed services) I will always say "thank you."  Despite my disgust at times with the police department, let me be clear...I am disgusted with those who abuse the public trust given to them, not everyone who wears a badge.

The thing that frustrates me (or rather, things) is how folks can, say, raise thousands of dollars for a fallen police officer (See the NYPD's Officer Ramos, which I have already condemned as a senseless and foolish act) but not give a shit about the countless amount of men of color who got shot because those bad apples who do abuse their power know they will more than likely get away with it.

I can't accept or wrap my mind around this concept.

I have seen plenty of posts concerning the recent executions of both Officer Ramos and Liu of the NYPD.  Tons and tons of support.  No problem with that. As far as I knew, they were good cops.

I have a friend...hopefully someone who I can call a good friend, who has a couple of family members that wear blue.  Now, if they are anything like she is, then I know they honor that badge as well.

One of my favorite people in the world, now retired in FL (jealous!) was an investigator...and I KNOW she honored that badge of hers.

However, this is the sad thing.  A lot of people hold these men and women in such high standard, but you can't see when SOME (not all; I would like to think that most of them honor that trust) abuse their power.  Automatically when these folks kill people who look like me...lately when they are clearly unarmed or guilty because there are minorities, are guilty because obviously we are born to break the law...at least that is what is assumed.

I saw a news report a week or so ago about the entire "Breathe Easy and Obey the law" bullshit shirts.  Some old dude...probably wishing that the Emancipation Proclamation was abolished, said that if the young black males simply obeyed the law (referring to Eric Garner in particular) they'd be alive today.

Hell to the no.

I believed there were 4-5 cops surrounding this man.  Couldn't they have taken him down without choking him out and causing a heart attack?  Really?

Oh, let us go to Michael Brown.  Say he did rush the cop.  Shoot out his kneecaps.  Can't rush for shit then.  Or hell, pull ur weapon if you think a 12 year old has a real gun (which I would figure that most cops might have a clue how to tell a toy guy from a real one...even tho I also did hear that now dirtbags can make real guns look fake, so maybe that's a wash).

I've never been a cop or a soldier.  I get tho that these men and women have to make decisions every day that could mean life or death for them.  I hold that in the highest regard...that, and u'd have to be a bit crazy to do that sort of work for what I believe is grossly underpaid.

But when all of those cops turned their backs yesterday on the Mayor of NY during a funeral service, simply because he felt that shit was out of control (and he was a Parent first b4 the mayor), that was ridiculous.  TALK to one another.  Root out the pieces of flotsam that is causing your rep to be so poor.  You want people to trust the cops...go to the communities you swore to protect and chat with its citizens.  Despite what Chris Rock once said, not all folks of color/latin descent/etc were "born suspect."

It is this blinder way of viewing the police is the biggest flaw of all.  It just allows senseless killings on both ends of the spectrum to continue, causing a war that no one will win.