\u201cSometimes I wish I could read this blog and there would be something positive spoken about our Law Enforcement Officers who protect this great Country.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nI responded then by saying that I\u2019ve written about \u201cyou guys\u201d being the \u201cfirst ones in\u201d during a school shooting, and about how he, a School Resource Officer, in particular was \u201cthe right man in the right job\u201d. I\u2019ve said it in \u201cFacebook debate\u201d and I actually did write that in my blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Friends<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
But he did hit a nerve. I have friends, good friends, best friends, who are police officers. They are people I know well. I\u2019ve taught them, coached them, been to their weddings, and worked beside them. I\u2019ve been to the funeral of a policeman killed in the line of duty. His son, a former part of our track team, is on that same police force today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I know those guys. They all have their good points and their flaws, but they all care about people. I\u2019ve seen many of them in action, some as police officers, some in other roles, working with folks of all races and backgrounds. The idea that \u201call police officers are racist\u201d is simply not true. These guys aren\u2019t. And most have never even fired a gun in the line of duty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my eight years as the Dean of Students of a 1200 kid high school in charge of student discipline, I got to know the police as supporting my job. We were on the \u201csame side\u201d. We didn\u2019t want violence in the school, or drugs, or theft or bullying. And, should the worst happen and the school was attacked, I knew they would be the first in line to try to stop it, even at the cost of their own lives. The strategy was as a result of the carnage at Columbine \u2013 the first man on scene goes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compassion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I also saw them care about kids and adults, about the plight of folks that \u201cthe system\u201d failed. I\u2019ve had long talks with them about what we could do to make kids\u2019 lives better. It didn\u2019t have anything to do with \u201cthe law\u201d, nor with the race, gender, sexual orientation, or the rest of the list. It was about helping individuals, even those who broke the law, even taken into custody, hands cuffed behind their back in my office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are some of the finest people I know.\u00a0\u00a0They \u201chave your back\u201d, and are unswervingly loyal to their friends.\u00a0\u00a0In a crisis those officers are cool, and decisive, and don\u2019t \u201close it\u201d the way we are seeing some cops do in videos today.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I think, to be honest, their strength and judgment represent most police officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Culture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I am a retired track coach.\u00a0\u00a0I spent forty years, most of them as a head coach (I was twenty-five, a \u201ckid coach\u201d really, when I got the job). As the \u201cperson in charge\u201d I learned a lot about how \u201cthe culture\u201d of an organization can impact the success of that group.\u00a0\u00a0On our team, we tried to develop a culture where your teammates always knew you supported them.\u00a0\u00a0The saying was, \u201c\u2026you don\u2019t have to love your teammate, but you do need to back him\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It was track and field; there usually weren\u2019t huge crowds at the meets, nor a lot of pressure from parents and peers to be successful.\u00a0\u00a0But to know that forty other guys on the team had your back, and you had theirs, meant that you\u2019d go \u201cbeyond yourself\u201d to perform, if for no other reason, just not to let them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What’s Right<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
That culture was generally a \u201cgood\u201d thing, and it certainly generated a lot of success over the years. But, as I matured as a Coach and as a Teacher, I also found the danger in that culture. We all got so focused on backing each other and succeeding, on going \u201ccitius, altius, fortius,\u201d (higher, faster, stronger) that sometimes it was easy to overlook personal mistakes. Was someone breaking team rules, were they stealing or using drugs? But they were your teammate, your \u201cstar\u201d, how could you \u201clet down the team\u201d by calling them out on their behavior? A legendary basketball coach once said; \u201cI don’t have rules, the best players always break them\u201d. So what did our team culture say about it when they did?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It took a while, but our team came down on the side of \u201cdoing what\u2019s right\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It turned out, our team \u201cfamily\u201d was more important than \u201cthe wins\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0What our family was about was each other.\u00a0\u00a0So we took our losses when a good athlete was removed from the team, and could still look each other in the eye and know that we did the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Survival<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
But what if the culture isn\u2019t about wins, losses, or a \u201cteam\u201d. What if it\u2019s about literal survival? In that one flashing moment when a police officer\u2019s life is threatened; \u201chaving your back\u201d means saving that life. When that becomes so ingrained, it\u2019s hard to imagine that much else can break through. It\u2019s easy to just \u201chave their back\u201d on everything else, right or wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How did that culture happen? How did policing become so much a \u201cblue against everyone\u201d world? I don’t have an answer to that, but I know what it\u2019s done. It\u2019s enforced a culture of insulation, of protecting \u201cbrother officers\u201d from even their own unacceptable actions. Why? Because, someday they may have to physically protect you. There can\u2019t be hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love my friends who are policemen.\u00a0\u00a0I know they are decent, caring, compassionate people.\u00a0\u00a0And I expect most policemen are. That’s why they wanted the job in the first place. I trust them to police our society, and trust them to do the right thing. In fact, I would trust them with my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I also know that the culture of the institution they work in is broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope they can see that, and I hope they can see that I still stand with them, even as I stand with Black Lives Matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Called Out I was called out on social media the other night. After weeks of discussion about the police, and Black Lives Matter, and what to do about America: one of my friends, a law enforcement officer, wearily said about my posts: \u201cSometimes I wish I could read this blog and there would be something positive spoken … Continue reading “My Friends are Cops”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Friends are Cops : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you know policemen, you know that most of them aren't what we are seeing in the videos from Minneapolis and Atlanta. 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