By: Sgt. Larry Weathers, Minneapolis PD
In the wake of the unfortunate passing of George Floyd, protests have started around the country demanding justice for Mr. Floyd, and accusing police officers like myself of being “racists” and “murderers” and “racist murderers.”
Now look, I’m not saying there are no racists wearing the blue. And there have certainly been instances in the past where officers crossed a line and, as a result, people got hurt or died. But you have to understand these are only a tiny fraction of the thousands of police officers working in the world today. The rest of us are good, tolerant men and women whose only crime is loving our communities and using any means necessary to defend the racists by violently breaking up the demonstrations that arise after they murder someone.
Personally I can say with total certainty that, no matter your skin colour, orientation or background, I enjoy pepper spraying all people equally. Especially when they are not moving back as quickly as I demand or if they say something about how they are only demonstrating because my colleague murdered their friend. Let me tell you; black, white or purple, everyone hates being pepper sprayed.
It’s like if you worked in an office. There may be some people in the office who said or did things you didn’t agree with. And you would not be responsible for their actions. However if they were accused of doing something wrong you would of course immediately side with them against everyone and claim that the accusations are false, even if a video showed them doing that exact thing. That’s what work buddies do!
And just because some police officers made the mistake of murdering someone in public rather than in custody where there are no video cameras around, that doesn’t give protestors the right to loot and destroy buildings. And it certainly doesn’t give them the right to peacefully march when me and my friends got all decked out in our best riot gear and came looking to fight. We spent so long psyching ourselves up! Fortunately it turns out you can just start hitting people and claim they started it.
So next time you want to paint with a broad brush just remember that not all cops are monsters. Some of us simply protect monsters because it’s easier than trying to create change from within. And because they’re the best hitter on the police softball team, and we really want to win the league this year!
MajorasShoe on June 1st, 2020 at 20:38 UTC »
There are good cops. They're the ones who speak out against bad cops. They're the ones that don't last long.
It's a culture problem. Most people who become cops want to help. But once there, the choice is to compromise and look the other way, leave or be forced out.
I know 3 people who became cops. One quit, the other two became garbage people.
bleejean on June 1st, 2020 at 17:53 UTC »
“I don’t think they pay cops enough. I don’t think they pay police enough. And you get what you pay for. Here’s the thing, man. Whenever the cops gun down an innocent black man, they always say the same thing. “Well, it’s not most cops. It’s just a few bad apples. It’s just a few bad apples.” Bad apple? That’s a lovely name for murderer. That almost sounds nice. I’ve had a bad apple. It was tart, but it didn’t choke me out. Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. I know being a cop is hard. I know that shit’s dangerous. I know it is, okay? But some jobs can’t have bad apples. Some jobs, everybody gotta be good. Like … pilots. Ya know, American Airlines can’t be like, “Most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains. Please bear with us.” “ -Chris Rock
Edit: Just to add, I posted this to focus on the “some jobs can’t have bad apples” part. I don’t know if higher pay for police is the answer (might help?) but it is definitely a profession where we can’t have “bad apples” and we should really stop using that term. Maybe say “criminals” instead?
Disposable_Canadian on June 1st, 2020 at 16:46 UTC »
Sadly, not satirical.
Cops will tell you that most of them are good, only a few bad apples. With their selection process and training, there should be no bad apples. With supervision, oversight and transparency, bad apples should be caught.
Instead, cops do everything they can to cover up for each other, until the point of where an offense is glaring, in which case its quietly put into internal systems, which they dont comment on, when media inquires.