Good Cops and Bad Cops and Military Hardware.

In several instances these past two weeks Black young men were killed by White police officers.  Now people are really looking into if this is endemic, stats are coming out showing that it is.  That too many police officers are out of control, from killing unarmed Black, Native Americans, and Hispanics to even family dogs.

Armed raids by police were about 3,000 per year prior to 9/11.  They are now over 50,000 a year.

The police now have and are buying military grade weapons, armored vehicles, and other materials that are surplus from Iraqi Freedom.  The same equipment used to attack and put down terrorists are now not in the hands of trained military, but in the hands of our civilian police forces.

Now, are law enforcement personnel all bad?  Absolutely NOT. The vast majority are good people, putting their lives on the line to help the public, to truly serve and protect. They put up with some horrible situations, from finding child molesters to breaking up domestic disputes to stopping armed criminals. Thank goodness for their work and dedication!

However, there is a cancer among those good police officers. The bad cops.  The ones who abuse their authority.  The ones who feel because they wear a badge they are better than anyone and above the law.  The ones who because they have a gun feel they are immune to the law and use it to frighten and intimidate.

These officers are a cancer because they are being allowed to get away with their crimes.  They are not being called to account, they are not being put on trial, they are not facing the same penalties any regular person would get, and they should actually face worse because they break the public trust.

These officers are a cancer because, and this is the more saddening situation, the good officers and their superiors say and do nothing. They do not stand against these "fellow officers" who act like this, they keep quiet. Their superiors defend these actions and try to cover it up or deflect.  This then taints all the law enforcement personnel. And this makes people wonder about ALL cops and not just bad ones.

When the system of justice ignores those who are supposed to support that system, the system then is completely and utterly broken.  Until good cops stand up to and against bad cops, this distrust will grow and become worse. Racism is there, it's clear and evident, but good cops are doing little or nothing to expose those among them.  And their superiors are even more culpable in trying to save face and even cover it all up.

Things MUST change, for the sake of the public and more so for the sake of our good law enforcement personnel.  Our police are not and have never been a military force, yet now have that hardware, and combine that with allowing bad cops to get away with what they do, the racism pervading too much of our now militarized police, and you have a recipe for disaster.