When bad things happen, who do you call? When a person's life is in danger, who is the first to respond? When a law is broken, who is there to keep the order? When a domestic dispute erupts, who is there to keep the peace? The police officer.
In today's world of high profile and instant scrutiny, the police officer has one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Where else can you find a job that every time you respond to a call, your life is put in danger? Every car that is pulled over could be a life-ending in counter. Every door that is knocked on could be answered with the fire of a gun. How many of us would gladly take that task on and accept the scrutiny when people don't like how we hold them accountable?
#NotMany
If you synthesize the work a police officer does, the job of a police officer is one of the most underpaid, over-demanding, under-appreciated, over-scrutinized jobs in America. From the moment that the blue and red lights come on, the camera is rolling. Every word and every action during the most difficult and often life-threatening parts of the job are being recorded. High-pressure, split-second decisions are recorded for the world to see. How many of us have jobs like that?
"What is a Policeman?" by Paul Harvey
On 10-8, Let's Publicly Show our Respect.
Every time one police officer makes a mistake, the entire profession is negatively generalized by that one mistake. When a police officer responds, his decision is automatically scrutinized. We have to educate our community that we shouldn't always do that.
When I was growing up, every police officer was respected with a "Yes sir", and we always followed his direction. That is not always the case today. Many times there are people that police encounter that have absolutely no respect for police officers and blatantly refused to follow any directions. Some go as far as to fight the officer when being corrected.
Let's share our appreciation of law enforcement officers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Let's share our appreciation of law enforcement officers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
So why does this matter?
The future of our nation is dependent on whether or not it's people will follow and obey laws. We are a nation of laws; therefore, we must have brave men and women to enforce those laws. No one will be willing to enforce laws on people who blatantly refuse to follow them and even worse fight against them.
That's why we need you on 10/8.
Throughout the week of October 8, let's unleash social media to show our appreciation of law enforcement officials. Let's teach our children and our students the important role that police officers play to preserve our free and democratic society. Teach them not to give in to hasty generalizations about the profession. After all do you like it when your professionalism is judged by the mistakes of one person in your profession?
After all, we need someone to respond the one time that we call 911 because our lives are in danger. That person won't be you or me. It'll be the police officer.
After all, we need someone to respond the one time that we call 911 because our lives are in danger. That person won't be you or me. It'll be the police officer.
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