Why You Should [Loudly] Support Your Local Police

As any of you who have followed my writing lately know, I have very closely watched the Gates case in Cambridge, MA. I am intensely interested in the case because 1) my grandfather grew up in Cambridge and I still have family there so I have spent much time there and the city is close to my heart, 2) I was once a big fan of Professor Gates and assigned his writing to the freshman I taught at UCO and 3) I have an obvious professional interest.

As I have followed the story in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, one of the things that has pleasantly surprised me has been the incredible outpouring of support for the Cambridge Police Department by people commenting on the websites of both these papers. Over the past several days, I have seen hundreds of comments that support the police in general and the involved sergeant specifically, but almost none condemning them. People have hung signs of protest in Professor Gates's front yard, yet Sgt. Crowley's yard has gone untouched. This, to me, has been an impressive -and rare- show of public support.

Many officers today feel under attack. I think it's safe to say that, across the country, morale on our police departments is extremely low. Officers feel unsupported, and unprotected. They feel that people are slow to act on their own, but quick to criticize, eager to sue, and indefatigable at second-guessing. Officers, I think, feel like they are constantly placed in no-win situations. After all, don't ask for an ID, and later you'll find out that the person you had contact with was a burglar. Ask for ID, and you'll get accused of racism by the homeowner that arrogantly thinks you should know him. Because of situations like these, many officers feel that they work to protect a public that doesn't appreciate, and perhaps even hates them.

Of course, I honestly believe that this is not the case, and I think that the support from the Boston community following the Gates debacle shows that. I think, by and large, an overwhelming majority of citizens appreciate and respect police officers and the sacrifices they make. But they are not called the silent majority for nothing. Arrestees and malcontents call police departments and send letters all the time railing about what officers have done wrong, but very few ever call in or write in to say thank you to the officers who served them or to congratulate officers on a job well done. Officers routinely find themselves being investigated after a formal complain, but rarely get to stand in lineup to hear a letter of appreciation about them being read in front of their peers. Instead, officers only hear complaints and accusations. But officers deserve to, and need to, hear audible public support.

And if there's any doubt that officers deserve praise, consider this: since September 11, 2001, 667 American soldiers have been killed in the war in Afghanistan. In that time, 1,157 police officers have been killed on the streets of America. Officers are giving their lives in a war that is being waged all around you. Yet, though it would be unthinkable to accuse an American soldier returning from Afghanistan of going to war only because he hated Arabs, we give an open ear to people who accuse officers of racism without a stitch of evidence to support the claim. When a convicted felon accuses an officer of excessive force, we drag his name through the mud on the nightly news. I'm not suggesting that we turn a blind eye on actual police malfeasance, but we owe to men who are sacrificing their lives at least the same benefit of doubt that we allow to felony suspects - the assumption of innocence until proven guilty.

And it isn't just their lives that officers are sacrificing. If most people were to watch a person aspirate on their own blood until they die, were to see a thirteen year old child floating dead in a swimming pool, or to see children who have been given cigarette burns by their mother's boyfriend, the person would be effected and haunted by these sights for the rest of their lives. Yet these are all things that officers can to expect to see numerous times through the course of a twenty five year career. After each of these events, the officer will not be offered psychological treatment, or days off to process the event. Instead, he will write a detailed report and go back in service, the event being added to a bank of such mentally destructive memories. The officer can't arrive on the scene of a brutal murder and fall into the street sobbing the way the witnesses around him are. Instead, he must somehow cope with what he is seeing and perform the work his profession requires.

Officers subject themselves to these sights so that the citizen will not have to. He runs into situations that others run away from. He doesn't do these things so that he can harass those he hates, or so that he can get the power and force the respect he didn't get in high school. These rewards would not be worth the sacrifices. And, because you pay his salary, you know he doesn't do these things for the meager pay.

So, when you are being stopped by an officer, and you find yourself quick to think that he's a jerk, remember that he may have just helped pull the lifeless body of a kid from a swimming pool, or he might have been called a racist by someone he was trying to help. So, if it seems that he's having a bad day, remember that a bad day for you means getting lectured by your boss for not getting your TPS reports in on time. A bad day for him involves being bitten by a mentally ill homeless man with god knows what diseases. Instead of telling your officer that he has better things to do than pull you over, say "sorry sir; I'll pay better attention next time." When you see an officer in a restaurant, take the time to go by and say, "thank you." And when a rich man with a home on Martha's Vineyard calls a good officer a racist, respond with a resounding and public, "shut up."