Things That Are Wrong

We have protesters marching in the streets in some cities in this country urging people to kill policemen. Is there any sane person in this country that thinks killing policemen is a good idea? I am not surprised that this sentiment comes from Black neighborhoods. I have been hearing this from Oakland, California for thirty years. They seem to honor cop killers in Oakland.

My friend Darryl at work used to tell me about “Cowboys and Indians”. Indians massacre people in a wagon train and all the cowboys that hear the news form gangs to go out and kill every Indian they find, no consideration if they were the perpetrators of the massacre or not. Is this not insane?

This kind of hatred is stupid. If others in the country start thirsting for the blood of whole groups of people when only one out of the group harmed them, we would have another civil war, where nothing is civil. I do not want to live in that kind of country.

People ordinarily get killed by police officers because they do stupid things. This is true no matter what color you are. I was going north one night on Highway 59 in east Texas and driving the speed limit, when a car passed me and pulled over in front of me. I changed lanes, because I do not like riding on people’s bumper, especially at night. A few seconds later, I was stopped by a highway patrolman with a radar gun and the car in the right lane continued speeding down the road. I tried to explain to the patrolman that it was not me that was speeding. About the third time I tried to explain his error, his voice got gruff and he reached behind his back for something, and at that point I said, “Okay, I’ll take the ticket and take my chances in court.” Immediately, his voice went back to normal and we departed the scene amicably. He was wrong in the beginning and I was an idiot for arguing and I could have helped it escalate until I was dead. It probably would not result in my death, because I am easy to beat up -- I have had a soft midsection for many years.

If the grand jury system is flawed and my opinion is that it is a bad system, we need to fix the grand jury system. If a policeman uses unlawful tactics to subdue a person, that policeman should be punished, not his buddy at the police station. If protesters have legitimate grievances, they can attract followers. If protester go way overboard and jump past justice to vengeance, then they should expect a lot of opposition. The consequences could lead to catastrophe.