Brutality, the police, and our position.

I've seen a lot of cop bashing lately for what is happening in Ferguson. Civil unrest, civil liberties, and racial profiling is a huge topic to undertake so I won't even begin. But what I would like to talk about is the police. In my experience, there are two types of people that become cops. On one side, there are those people who were bullied, or like to bully, and have this insatiable need to carry a gun in order to assert their dominance upon the world. Give them a reason, and they will shoot you down just for the opportunity to do so.

Then there are those who get into law enforcement to make a change. These types of people almost never get news coverage. They're trying to make America a safer place, trying to incite change at a positive level, and trying to bring communities together. You don't see them on the news because the viewers are more inclined to watch violence than some bleeding heart, feel good story.

A few months ago, I was heading to work in the middle of the night. I have a flexing work schedule where I sometimes need to be on the road at two in the morning. I was about to get on the freeway when I saw flashing lights behind me. I pulled over to the side of the road and heard the loudspeaker kick on, "Turn off the engine and put your hands on the top of the steering wheel." I promptly did so and saw an officer with his weapon drawn, approaching my car. When he saw my wide eyed stare, he lowered, and holstered his weapon. He asked me the normal questions, what was I doing out so late, where was I going, was this vehicle registered to me? Turns out that he thought I was someone else, but I wondered if this was the way all traffic stops happen in the middle of the night.

He kept asking me when he had pulled me over before. I replied that he had never pulled me over, that this was the first time I had ever seen him. He argued with me until I finally said, "Listen, Officer, I have lived in California for fourteen years and I've only been pulled over three times. One time was down the street from work when a cop thought my window tint was too dark (turns out it wasn't). The second time was when I was in my pickup for having a trailer hitch obstructing my license plate. And this is the third time. So I'm pretty sure I've never seen you before."

The strange part was that he refused to look at my driver's license or insurance card. I figured the traffic stop was just some alpha male bullshit he needed to pull off because of obvious endowment issues.

So my experience with the police in southern California hasn't been all that positive, but when I lived in the Midwest, I never had an issue with law enforcement. In fact, an average traffic stop in the country would end up in a conversation about the best fishing spots, or what kind of engine I had under the hood of my 1971 Jeepster.

Now I totally understand that in higher populated areas there is a greater chance for a cop to pull over a complete asshole who wants nothing more than to assert his alpha male dominance. I'm aware that there are criminals everywhere, so I am also prone to letting go of an adverse encounter with a cop.

So when there are a couple dozen incidents involving police brutality in a country with over three hundred million civilians, I'm prone to believe that not all police officers are bad. I'm prone to believe that a couple dozen police officers should be removed from the force. I'm prone to believe that the average American is turned on by violence and upheaval so they tend to center on the few incidents that are actually reported. That's not to say that there isn't a problem in law enforcement. Every organization has the ability to become corrupted when ego and greed become involved. So I believe what we're doing is the appropriate approach to the situation. When cops break the law, civilians must stand up and protest the injustice. Officers need to be removed from their positions, and peace can then be restored. Speak up against the injustice, but be aware that not every case of police brutality is a case of an officer being brutal.

Now for the cops who decide it is necessary to beat the shit out of someone who has their hands behind their back while face down on the ground ...

                                                                       cameras are everywhere, and we're not afraid to record your                                                                        impression of a monkey.