You Sleep in the Bed You Make

The misuse of police authority is a hot topic in the gunblogosphere these days. It seems every single day we hear about a new outrageous act by law enforcement. Angry cops making death threats against legal CCW holders. Against other suspects too. Gunpoint disarms of legally open carrying citizens. Illegal confiscation of private property in a public forum. The war against civilians who record those misdeeds. Do I even need to link the ATF/FBI/DOJ/DEA idiocy allowing guns to be walked to Mexican drug cartels? It gets your dander up, doesn't it?

I think that the police need to get their shit together. So I will give them a warning. Police go home like everyone else. They go to sleep in the same communities that they have authority over. Its not hard to figure out where they are. We see patrol cars parked in drive ways. We see them handing out tickets at the side of the round. Our children see them doing drug awareness programs at the schools. We know these guys and gals. They're part of our communities. They do not live in barracks or castles. Just ranch styles, apartments, and split levels like the rest of us. It is a police officers best interest to have a community that trusts them and supports them. Because in the blink of an eye they can become targets. To criminals looking for revenge, terrorists, or even mobs of a community felt wronged. Push comes to shove and disasters happen. When the world is filled with chaos, you want people that will come to your aid. Not ones that will aid only in destroying you. You want people that will take care of your family while you have to go out fight the good fight. You do not want them to be alone against a hostile world.

You have to sleep in the bed you make, police officers. If you spend your career looking down on your fellow citizens as serfs and peasants to be lorded over, kicked aside, and used for your own goals or petty whims. You're only hurting yourself. Alone, without your blue brothers and sisters, you're very vulnerable. As are the ones you love. Endeavor to be polite and professional, and remember that even if they're suspects, they're still your community. I think you'll find more people willing to jump to your aid. More people willing to make sure your family and home is safe, too. Its easy for me to say these things, I'm not a cop. But I am part of your community and that community has entrusted authority to you to do your job. Before you look for excuses to jail us or take our property or even hurt us or when you see your fellow officers do ill, remember that you sleep next door to us.