I Support the Police

But that might look different than you think

Policing in America is a big issue right now. We see almost daily reports of negative interactions between police and their communities. Some involve police overstepping their authority. Some involve civilians overstepping their bounds. Some involve people being humiliated unduly, some escalate to the point of violence and death. Some are clear cases of unwarranted force used by police, others are warranted use of force that civilians simply don’t understand. Regardless of the circumstance, it leads to two divergent responses.

Back the Blue

One extreme refuses to see any wrong done by police. “They should’ve complied” is a common refrain. These folks have “Back the Blue” stickers and flags and say they support the police. This side gives universal benefit of the doubt to almost all police officers in almost all situations without question. If they do see something that feels inappropriate, they make a blanket assumptions that there was something before the video started that would give proper context and excuse the officer’s actions, or they vilify the victim based on their history. They know that there are bad cops out there, but they know that the vast majority are good people with good intentions and they don’t think it’s fair for the whole profession to be vilified for…