notsomuchlove: Policemen Scare Me

by deb roth

They're supposed to reassure me. And you, too. But the power they wield, when abused, can be terrifying. Of course the vast majority of policeman are good men and women who entered into their field of work to serve and protect, and they do. But as anyone who has ever been pulled over speeding, the uniform and the officialese is frightening and even more so when it is genuinely uncalled for.

I have been following the story of African American Harvard Professor Henry Gates being arrested by white police officer, Sgt. James Crowley for suspicion of breaking into his own home and have been appalled. As both the esteemed Professor and the policeman in question (and the police chief and the mayor and Bill Cosby and even our President!) have said, no one other than the people who were there know exactly what happened and anger has probably infused their memories with different versions of the truth.

The truth is that I will never know the humiliation and anger the Professor experienced when he was demanded to show proof of his right to enter his own home. The truth is that we rarely have people with power without abuse of power and situations like this one really drive it home - if the men and women we pay to protect and serve and uphold all that is RIGHT in our country - what reassurance and hope do we have when they do very very wrong?

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Policemen Scare Me

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