To Serve and Protect....

...Today I'd like to touch on a subject that I think a lot of people are not aware of, but should be. The subject is police brutality. It happens all the time everywhere, most of which never reaches the public eye and is not documented. Some cops have a complex that makes them feel superior to civilians. It makes them feel a power over us that they become addicted to like a drug that gets into your body and takes control of your mind. It is an adrenaline rush for them when they make an arrest and when the danger of the situation escalates, it is just a bigger dose. They assume everyone that they come in contact with is a potential criminal and must be guilty of something. They use their power to try to provoke a person into saying or doing something that will lead to their arrest. The guilt or innocence of a person is not their concern and they abuse their badge to exert their power. They are supposed to be there to protect us, not to beat, abuse, or kill us. Yet every day cops abuse their power and use excessive force against civilians, bruising them, making them bleed, unnecessarily tazering them, manhandling them, shooting them, and killing them. They are supported in their actions by other officers and it is covered up or "dealt with accordingly within the ranks of their department." This usually means a paid suspension and reprimand from the captain. Why should they be allowed to treat civilians like that and get away with it just because they have a badge? Yes, some cops do risk their lives for the safety of the public, but the majority of them just hang out in gas stations or doughnut shops drinking coffee, reading the paper, and gossiping about the newest female rookie on the force. Our tax dollars pay for them to have leisure time with their cop buddies for the most part. I am not anti-police... I just feel that they should spend more time doing their job the right way than they spend abusing their power and standing around. I think there needs to be harsher punishments for officers that abuse their power or use excessive force on a civilian. This might help to discourage other cops from exhibiting the same behavior. Not all cops are bad, but the ones that are stain the image of all cops in the eyes of the people. It makes people not want to call the cops which defeats the purpose of having police in the first place, to serve and protect...