Violence against police has many parents

It was inevitable that eventually, attacks on police officers would happen.

For more than a year, our television news has been filled with pictures after picture of police officers shooting and killing black men – – many of them unarmed.   Demonstrations against the police actions were often emotional, and it seemed that nothing was being done to stop what many consider an act of war on black men by law enforcement.

The causes for these recent actions on both sides are many and varied.

After 9-11, police forces around the country began acting as military units occupying a foreign country.   While those of us in predominately white communities often accept such action, it isn’t true in minority and black communities.

Our common culture is filled with images of angry black men, particularly in rap music videos.   Our mass media, television and movies, show black men as members of gangs, dealing drugs, carrying weapons and threatening community values.

Combine those images, with a militarized police force, video cameras everywhere, a twinge of racism, a desire to stop the violence  and you have all the elements of a black vs police confrontation.

Violence against police officers is never right – period.   We rely on the thin blue line to protect us from the worst of our society.    But the thin blue line no longer exists.  It’s now a thick black line with military weapons holding us hostage to the worse fears the mind can comprehend.

Police officers need to look into their own minds and determine why they find black men threatening – and why they feel they need to draw their weapon.   I was taught that when you draw your gun – you should do so only when you plan to fire.  There must be another way for police to respond to a situation without drawing their weapon.

But, violence against police officers is never right.   We depend too much on them for our own protection.

I don’t have the answers.   I know the first step is to remain calm and talk.  I know that police officers need to have more compassion and less fear.   I know the media needs to stop inciting violence by continuing to show confrontation videos time, after time, after endless time – just to fill the time.

Other than that, I don’t have the answers.

I hope somebody does.