Disarm the Police
Our society considers it necessary - even laudable - for a person to die for their country: to sacrifice their lives for the Constitution, the judicial system, the rule of law, necessary enough to draft a citizen to go into battle under the belief that it is for the greater good. Soldiers, draftees and volunteers, die by thousands and it is a cost we choose bear. We actually do so with pride.
Standing with soldiers on the front lines of freedom are cops; protecting us from those who would violate the rights we hold sacred: life, liberty and the rule of law. Soldiers die en masse for that principle. Cops are a different story.
Over 400 American civilians a year are killed by cops.
Around 40 cops a year are killed by civilians.
If, as a society, we are willing to send untold thousands of (sometimes unwilling) people to their deaths to defend our freedom, why is a single cop intolerable? Every one of those deaths is a tragedy, of course, but the question is the willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. Soldiers make that sacrifice for civilians. Cops have civilians do it for them.
To believe in freedom you must believe in the people who wish to be free.
If cops want the same respect I show to someone who has died for their country, cops must be willing to do the same.
Scary? You mean like landing on Iwo Jima?
Tragic? You mean like the soldiers who died in POW camps?
Unfair? You mean like the disproportionate number of black soldiers who died in Viet Nam?
What could be a more existential threat to our security and safety as the notion that the police are in business to protect the police and that law enforcement is more important than justice?
Keep a gun in the squad car if you must. Keep an armory at the station. Keep your swat team, your tanks and your firepower somewhere safe until you are sure your are confronted with armed people. We will have to accept a few casualties but unlike most soldiers, you will get a good salary, get to live at home and get a nice pension. The admiration of your neighbors comes at additional cost.
Cops will never earn as much admiration - nor do so much for our country - as the soldiers who sacrifice at their own expense and not at the expense of those they purport to defend.
