So Confused......

 Okay, I saw this video online this morning. It shows some motorcycle cops apparently trying to get a group of protesters to move along, to where I'm not sure. This protest was in response to the shooting of a man in Hoyt Arboretum the other day, which I talked about a couple of posts back. Watch the video, and then let me express some thoughts.






So I see several motorcycle cops trying to move a crowd of people in a specific direction. And they are being very intimidating. This is how police are typically trained to behave in non-violent crowd control situations. Have you ever seen mounted police clearing the streets after Mardi Gras? Now that's intimidation, and that's how they are trained.

What really disturbed me most was not the video itself but some of the comments left by viewers. Some of them confuse me, some of them downright scare me, and I have to talk about this because I think it demonstrates some pretty serious problems with our society. I will post some of the comments, names excluded of course, and then my responses. No one has to agree with me. I don't see myself as some mighty fountain of wisdom or truth. It's just how I think and feel.

"the cop clearly felt like he had to instigate the situation, he drove his motorcycle into the protestors to harrass them, not serve and protect, these cops are ignorant dirty cops."

Okay, this person seems to believe that the cop deliberately hit the pedestrian's bicycle. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Ignorant and dirty? I don't really understand what this is supposed to mean. "These cops", which I guess means every cops who was involved in crowd control that evening? They are ignorant and dirty. I'm guessing that whoever left this comment doesn't know any of these officers personally and does not have firsthand knowledge of their personal hygiene habits, so that part makes no sense. As far as ignorant.....ignorant about what? If people are going to stand up and say what they believe, I wish they would make more of an effort to speak concisely and accurately.

"They are probably breaking laws everyday themselves, which is so common, and the fact that we have a cop instigating violence into the crowd, there should be a criminal investigation into the total outstanding conduct of the police of that district.. Any good lawyer would stand up to these cops and screw them"

If you are aware of, and have evidence of, specific acts of criminal behavior by law enforcement officers, this needs to be presented to the proper authorities. I'm going to guess that this person doesn't have said evidence. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows? This kind of reminds me of some biopic I saw a few years back about the guys from the band Oasis. There was some video clip of Noel Gallagher talking about and defending drug use during a radio interview and one of his comments was "There's people in the Houses of Parliament, man, who are bigger heroin addicts and cocaine addicts than anyone in this room right now. And it's all about honesty at the end of the day.". The Prime Minister made a statement soon after saying that if any member of Parliament were to be found to be using drugs he wanted to know about it and they would be prosecuted and removed from their positions immediately. Gallagher later made a statement that he was just trying to make a point, and actually had no personal knowledge of drug use by any member of Parliament. So I look at the comment about cops "probably breaking laws every day" and I think, are you speaking from personal knowledge here, or are you just talking out your ass because throwing a fit and being self-righteous is more fun than researching facts?

"um, i think...who would ever side with the freaking police who spend all their time pulling people over and giving them tickets for parking on the wrong side of the road, when freaking kids are killing each other on the streets., its just fd up..cops suck sometimes."

Wait, that's all cops ever do? Pull people over and hand out tickets? They don't investigate anything? They don't arrest husbands who just beat their wives to death? They don't have to look at murdered babies and women who have been raped? They don't respond when someone breaks into your home? They don't go home at night and cry with frustration, and drink to block out the horrors they've seen? Well, who's doing all that stuff then? And which kids are we talking about here? The ones killing each other on the streets.......police don't investigate that? I could have sworn they did. Or maybe they're supposed to use their psychic powers to predict the exact time and location of every gang shooting and get there in time to stop it? Maybe that's the problem....the cops are refusing to look into the future and prevent crimes that haven't happened yet. I don't see what this person is trying to say. Are they just mad because they got a ticket and now the whole police force deserves condemnation?

"It further showcases the mentality of the Portland Police Bureau - these people were protesting the police shooting of a homeless man (who the PPB originally said was brandishing a knife, and now say it was a "razor blade"), and what do the police do? Try to run them over."

Sigh. Okay, first of all, I can assure you that if the cop intended to run him over, dude would have been fully run over.  At :11 you see the front wheel of the motorcycle hit the rear wheel of the bicycle. At :12 I see the officer hit his brakes. As in, he stops. I'm not understanding how Stopping = Running over. So the cop fully stops his motorcycle, and as far as I can see the pedestrian whose bike was hit was not knocked down, there was no contact with anyone's body, and I hear in the background "Look what you did! Look what you did!". Um, I think he bumped into someone's bicycle. I honestly cannot see anything here that's worth freaking out about, but maybe I missed something. Just so we're clear: Applying the breaks equals a deliberate attempt to run someone over. Everyone got that? And by the way, how many of you would not be in any way frightened by someone threatening you with a razor blade? It would scare the living shit out of me. Just saying. Razor blades can kill people. Fact. Did the cops have any other way to handle the situation? I have no freakin' clue! I wasn't there!

" Should of used a brick. Fuck power hungry crooked cops."

This comment referring to one of the protesters who lobbed a bicycle at the cop's head after he bumped the other dude. Okay........soooooo, if a cop hurts someone (or just bumps into them) it's bad. But if someone hurts a cop, it's really good. Because cops aren't human. Bet you didn't know that. Yeah, they're kind of like Jews in that respect: they pretend to be human, but they're really an evil sub-race trying to control the world. Yes, I also think that's a completely stupid, horrible, and wrong thing to say, and it was actually very difficult for me to type it, but an unfortunate number of people seem to think this way. Oh, how easy it can be to see a group of people not as individuals but as some nameless faceless mass who can be seen as having the same thoughts, the same ethics, the same morals. And all deserving of the same punishment when a few commit wrongs. 

I will admit freely that there are absolutely police officers who are very dangerous, screwed up people. They are violent, racist, aggressive, sexually deviant, maybe psychotic or sociopathic, and these people absolutely should not be cops and there need to be better means of preventing these people from working in law enforcement. However, there are also police officers who are honest, honorable, sensitive, dedicated.....everything a cop should be. Why doesn't anyone stage a march when a police officer does something wonderful? When a cop drags someone out of a burning car or saves someone from being raped or beaten to death? We get all up in arms, grab our balaklavas and bongos and head to the streets when a cop does something wrong, or possibly wrong. But when they do something right, when they save another human being's freakin' life? Eh, who cares? Why bother showing appreciation, it's not like they have feelings. It's not like anyone should feel appreciated for risking their lives every damn day.

It's so damn easy to judge. I do it, we all do it to some degree. But I think many people just don't think about stepping back and looking at an issue from different angles. They don't think to investigate, to look for facts, to look for different perspectives. I'm not just talking about police behavior, I mean any sensitive issue. There are some people, I think, who really don't want to look at facts. I think perhaps some people enjoy being angry and indignant. They like feeling morally superior and self-righteous. And hey, that's just fine, as long as you know what you're talking about. If someone says "I know that man was unarmed and could easily have been apprehended without use of force", okay!!! I'm all for that!! But "Um, cops suck".....yeah, not so much.  used to think along the same lines, though not in a violent way. Then I married a cop and I understood more than I can ever say.

And I have to say something else: Nothing I could ever do would enable me to understand what it's like to be a black person, or Hispanic person, or Arabic person, or any other non-white person living in the city of Portland. Yes, I have seen firsthand that, at least sometimes, non-white people are treated differently by police officers than white people. Does every single cop in the city behave this way? I have no idea, I have never had the opportunity to watch every single cop in the city in action. Yes, people treat different kinds of people in different ways. It's how this behavior manifests itself that matters. Yes, there are police officers who will pull over a nice car because a black person is driving it. My last ex was half Japanese and he had black hair and fairly dark brown skin. During the 6 or so months he drove my old Mazda he was pulled over at least 3 times in town for "random checks". During the 8 years I, a white female, drove that car I was not pulled over once. That definitely says something, I cannot and will not deny it.

So how 'bout it? Is there anyone who would be interested in organizing a thank-you march for all the law enforcement officers who do a good job and sacrifice their safety and family lives for us? Or should we just take them for granted and only acknowledge their existence when they do something wrong? It's a serious question, though it is tinged with some bitterness. I've seen the toll the job can take on a person and their loved ones. They're not all bad. Some are, but many are not. They're just people, they're just like us.