The Police.
It is common practice by many of the general public today to attack the Police on social media when a Police person does something wrong or they get some bad publicity.
It is probably American TV and movies that give Police such a bad name, but this is New Zealand, not America.
People judge quickly, attack verbally or are keyboard warriors, and cause harm to the reputation of our Police force.
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Years back I talked to a younger man who was always saying “F%%&^& Pigs!” and running down the Police in front of his small children. And I said to him, “Who are you going to call when your house gets robbed, or who do you want your daughter to call if someone is trying to stalk her to rape her?” He looked at me and it was clear that he had never thought about it. It is so easy to mouth off an appear the big hero saying bad things about the Police, but if we were not there to see what happened, and we didn’t see what really happened, and if the news is second hand, on social media etc then it is a part of the truth, not the total truth. And it is easy to see a situation and assume that we know what happened.
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There are always good and bad in any group of people. so there will always be dishonest cops, just like dishonest politicians, dishonest lawyers etc. Some years back a Policeman was very abusive towards me, he got his facts wrong, assumed my guilt, didn’t ask me any questions etc. After the ordeal with him I felt furious, but I also knew that it was “a Policeman” I was mistreated by, not the whole Police force, just because we find a bad apple does not mean that the whole bunch of them is bad. The Police are humans, and they are not perfect, they make mistakes, they stuff up just like we do. We need to be grownups, mature and understand where they are coming from as well.
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I heard a Policeman talking on the radio and he said that very morning there was a accident with a car and motorcycle. A Policeman arrived on the scene and saw a motorcycle helmet on the side of the road, and picked it up to take over to the accident scene and he looked into it and the motorcyclists head was still in it. Imagine having a job that dealt with such a situation as that. The Police are at the accident scenes, burglaries, domestic violence, drug busts, and they are there for you, “to protect you!”. Police work is hard, tiring, emotionally disturbing at times, and can be a strain on their marriages. We need to encourage and thank them.
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When there is a report of someone hanging around schools, to protect “your children”, the Police check it out, they deal with child molesters, stalkers and suspicious people etc.
Who do we call when one of our children doesn’t get home in the evening, the Police. We call them if we have violence in the home, if we are afraid for our own life or the lives of family members. We call them if there has been a rape, child abuse, domestic violence. and when we call the Police we are asking them to put their own lives on the firing line for us, we are asking them to protect us from the front line while we take a back seat, we are asking them to make (sometimes dangerous) sacrifices for us.
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When we really think about what the Police really do we should show them more respect., the people that they have to deal with on a regular basis (the criminal element), putting their lives on the line for the general public, dealing with violent situations not knowing how they will get out of it, and not even knowing if they will live past the next 8 hours.
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We need the community to be respectful to the Police and be honestly very helpful, because when one of our own goes missing we want everyone to help the Police out, and people won’t help out those who they hate. So clearly it is wise for the whole community to back up and support the Police so that the Police get a lot of help when they need to find our missing youngsters or in investigations etc. We only win when we support and help the Police. And it is a good thing to have a good relationship with the Police. Like you, they don;’t agree with all the laws they are asked to obey, but the Police do the very best that they can and they need the community there behind them all the way to keep local crime down and our town and surrounding areas safe.
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Please be supportive of the local Police, welcome new Police officers, wave to the Police, and be willing to answer questions when asked, you could be helping an important investigation. The Police are not enemies, they are our friends.
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All the best from
James M Sandbrook.