Body count

A couple of weeks ago, my family attended our local yearly Christmas parade.  While not even close to the scale of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, it does attract quite a few of the townfolk here, and as such, the local police officers help out by directing traffic around the event.  As we walked past them, it was hard not to think, in light of the recent incidents involving Michael Brown and Eric Garner, that any one of the men and women we passed could shoot and kill me or my wife or our son because they've been pissed off all day that their Raisin Bran got too soggy at that morning's breakfast, and thanks to local prosecutors gaming the system, walk away scot-free.

Now I know the odds of any one of us being killed by a police officer are roughly akin to being struck by a bolt of lightning, but what does it say about the state of our trust of the police when a white American male such as myself, living in Podunk, Michigan, looks askance every time he walks past one of the men and women in blue?

I'm not really sure who the hundreds of police officers that turned their backs on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio--a man who is dealing with the reality of police relations--while he spoke last week at a memorial for the two slain officers were trying to convince (maybe the Tea Party fringe approves, but frankly they all think police officers should be paid minimum wage and pay for their own damn life and medical insurance),  but it certainly wasn't their local African-American community.  If anything, it made them trust the police less.

And one can go from police officer to pariah in a heartbeat.

Peace,
emaycee