Confessions of a Cop Lover

So, you’ve all seen the media lately.  Officers shooting “innocent” victims: You know, all of those “upstanding citizens” that are being picked off one by one by the cops.  Oh, and NEWS FLASH: All white cops are racist.  And incase you live under a bush, you know that the police are corrupt, dirty, law-breaking jerks who are arrogant and cocky and will shoot anyone when presented the opportunity.  You did see all that too, right?

I’m married to one of those dirt bags and I just can’t believe what an asshole he is.  I mean, what gives him the right to arrest the guy armed with two knives that threw a lit gasoline filled bottle at him?  And how could he possibly have the nerve to shoot at someone trying to run over one of his fellow officers?  And WHY THE HELL did he get a Silver Medal of Valor for carrying victims out of a house engulfed in flames?  Oh, and when he was out with a buddy of his for dinner and a drink, he TOTALLY deserved to get blind-sided attacked by some chicken-shits while PEEING by a group of guys that recognized him as a police officer.  He was black and blue and completely swollen.  And while he does everything wrong because all people are OBVIOUSLY law-abiding citizens, he has to come home and be a husband and father and son-in-law too.

We cannot afford a home; not one that would pass inspection at least.  And say it did pass inspection; we wouldn’t have much of a yard because land is very expensive here.  Renting is the unknown, but it is less scary the smaller your family is.  My Dad lives with us and a three bedroom is way beyond our means to buy.  We might have the mind to give our daughter a sibling, but if we can’t afford a home that is safe and has a yard for them to play in, to chase butterflies, grow a garden, play catch, plant a tree, then we will forever remain renters with one child.  My husband is the only full-time worker and I work part-time from home doing marketing.  Our fortunes are many: we have our health, food in the fridge, a roof over our heads, and our daughter does not have to be put into a daycare.  Yet what gets me is this:

The hardest working man I’ve ever met is stereotyped, criticized, harassed, and hated every single day of his life.  Why is this amazing husband, incredible father, wonderful son-in-law, exceptional employee slandered on a daily basis?  Why because he wears a blue uniform and a badge of course!  It turns out that this good guy is perceived as a bad guy thanks to all of the media outlets that focus on the mistakes of a couple of officers or the few bad eggs in departments NATION-WIDE. 

I try really hard not to let the media outlets get to me.  In fact, I don’t even watch the news and I’ve began blocking the bigamists on Facebook.  Still, information seeps through somehow, (probably mainly through my Dad who likes relaying every police related news story to me… Still love you Dad).  When I hear it, I just want to shout and scream these words:

“YOU IDIOTS!  You always hold the military in such high regard… Those people that are keeping you safe by fighting a war overseas that doesn’t make a lot of sense, while you bash the officers protecting you from some of the craziest people of all… your neighbors!  The amount of corrupt people in this nations police force is no greater than the amount of corrupt firefighters, corrupt service members, corrupt teachers, corrupt office officials, corrupt priests and parish members!!!  So please… take away the 1 out of 10,000 negative stories you can dig up and create mass controversy with and put up the easy millions of life-saving stories that are going to paint the more accurate picture of what police work entails.  Why do I ask this of you?  Why do I BEG this of you?  Because officers are second-guessing themselves now and losing their lives for it.  Officers are being shot rather than shooting because it “might not” be a gun the person is pulling on them and they could be the next “trigger happy” cop all over the news.    

Kids always pretended to be cops and robbers… but why would they pretend to be cops and robbers?  Because cops ARE the good guys who are out protecting complete strangers and getting the “robbers”, (like the heroes in a story, except this is a real story).  I fear that with all the negative media coverage, our children will perceive police officers to be villains while robbers will become the “victims”.  This is already creating riots against officers; what will it do to future generation’s perception?  

All I know is that we will have many talks with our daughter about what it is Daddy does and how hard he works for our family so that there is no confusion if she catches a glimpse of the daily news.  When he's working obscenely long and unpredictable hours on a case, or he's filling out the endless paperwork that's attached to his job, or he's arresting someone who was drinking and driving and killed a family and can't make her dance recital, I will hug her and tell her again and again that he wishes more than anything that he could be there.  I know it might not make sense to her why he's spending his time with others and not with her, but when he gets home after seeing a child her age who has died and he hugs her until she won't let him hug her anymore, I hope she knows that her Daddy is NOT the bad guy, but instead a selfless man who will do anything for his family... and for complete strangers.

I took this picture almost two years ago.
It's CRAZY how time flies.

PLEASE SHARE THIS IF YOU AGREE!  Let's start spreading the message about what police life is REALLY like and show our support to officers.

Disclosure:  These are all my own opinions.  I also am very grateful to our military service members and appreciate every single one of them who keeps us safe.