Due to recent events, people at Pacific University are negatively talking about police officers.
Specifically about how they are crooked, brutal, power crazy and racist people who do not care about the law.
Most people who do not have officers within their family will most likely agree with the opinion about police brutality being an issue.
Half of my teachers have asked the question, “Who has a close family member who is an officer?” I am usually tempted to avoid raising my hand, not because I am ashamed of who my family is, but because normally my teacher’s perceptions are revealed while mine are brushed off.
I raise my hand anyways because I am proud of my family for enforcing laws and protecting the citizens that walk freely today.
When classmates see me raise my hand, I start to hear the “lives matter” activist and anti police authority opinions. They state what they think about the officers and crush any positive thoughts other students have.
This outspoken opinion from activists and anti police authority is more of a verbal attack rather than an actual opinion.
By raising my hand for having an officer as a family member, shows that I too acknowledge corruption and ignorance towards the world.
I want to state my opinion today on the issue not because I want to join the police versus people war on who or what matters, but rather to show a different side without any biases. But wait, I have an officer within my family, isn’t that bias?
After doing research and reading articles on the recent issue of police brutality and murder, I can exclude my biases showed toward the issue. Keeping both sides in mind (police versuss people), I looked at what’s been going on and how it pertains to my society.
I want to point out something bothering me the most about this police brutality issue.
People assume just because a couple of police officers were trialed or found guilty for police brutality that suddenly every officer in the country is in question for the crime.
How is this fair? How is this unbiased?
I am not stating that police brutality does not exist nor that we should not be worried about the issue but rather that we should look at the individual police officer rather than the whole community of officers populating this country.
Saying all officers are brutal and commit the crime of police brutality because of an individual is saying the entire class should get an F on the test because one student did not follow the rules and failed the test. It does not make sense.
Why should we turn our backs on one community when in return it was only one individual who gave a bad name to the community?
Think about it, if a man named Todd murders a person and is found guilty, should we just assume that all men named Todd are murderers? No.
Then why should we assume that all police are corrupt and ignorant when only a few have showed to be just that. Not all, but a few.
Finally, in my opinion I believe the subject on police brutality is grayer than black and white.
Not all police officers are bad and not all are good. The same goes with people as well. Not everyone is good and not everyone is bad.
So before commenting, before ranting and even before questioning what I have said, think about both sides of the equation. Think about both factors and then discuss your opinion with factual information and daunting questions for not just one side of the issue, but for both.
Saying you are only for one side without hearing the other is the most ignorant thing a person can do.
Like the old saying goes, “there is always two sides to a story.”
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