My dear friend is not only a brilliant writer, he is not just a good cop, he's a great cop. He wrote this brilliant piece. He will remain anonymous for obvious reasons, but I wanted to share it for as many to see as possible:
Ferguson, Missouri is about 2,000 miles away. Yesterday, my wife overheard someone on the sidewalk near her office tell his friend "Kill a cop, save a life."
I've never abused or mistreated anyone in my life. If I saw that happen, I would do everything in my power to stop it.
I've been filmed doing my job countless times. I don't care. I usually laugh and say go for it. Make sure you get my good side, and send me the link so I can see if I look cool on YouTube. Hell, it just happened Tuesday morning. Didn't bother me a bit, because I know what I'm doing is right and proper.
My job is to stand for others who are unable to stand for themselves. To stop evil and protect the innocent. I don't want to hurt anybody. Force is applied only to protect myself or others, in response to force that is used against me, or in the minimum amount necessary to lawfully arrest someone.
I can't think of a quicker way to destroy a good case or my career than to improperly use force on someone, and I would no sooner unnecessarily hurt a person than I would lead the Macy's parade in the nude.
I've been doing this for a long time. If you think killing me or one of my friends will save someone's life, you're very wrong, but if we bump into each other during the course of my duties, I won't abuse or mistreat you, and if you've committed no crimes, you'll be on your way.
But don't try to kill me. You'll find that difficult, and you won't like how it ends.
Good. My brother was a cop in Buloxi - a hard and often thankless job. And back then it sure didn't pay well either to put your life on the line! But he loved it and he did it for the same reason.
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