Hey, aside from saying that Zero is a Zero, I only had a few things to add. I am a cop in New York City, and I went to a good 4-year college, and I do my job to the best of my abilities and with the utmost respect. Are there evil cops, sure. But not many. Are there dumb cops, thousands. But they are usually not the ones you see in the paper. They’re the guys who never get to go out on patrol because no one wants to work with them. The point is that regardless of the pillar we put cops on, it’s a job. And in NYC, it’s a very low paying job. So people aren’t doing it for money.
If a cop commits a crime, they are and should be held to a higher standard because of what they are. But to be honest, until you are a cop, you can never really understand. You can read books like I used to do and you can have friends that are cops, but it’s not the same. Imagine going to work, and people passing you and spitting near you or yelling “Murderer” when you walk by, and doing nothing. Imagine talking to people on the streets and having kids come up in your face and want to start trouble. You can imagine it, but many people live it, and that changes everything. You bond together and you watch out for each other, because no one will.
The day I stood watch at an anti-police rally was one of the more bizarre days in my life. Here I had kids calling me a pig and a killer and they could’nt have been more than 18 and still had no idea what the world was about. Meanwhile I’m getting paid to be insulted and to make sure that nothing happens to the people insulting me. I wondered what my friends in consulting and publishing were doing at that moment, and realized how special my job is. I love what I do, and I respect the 500 officers of the New York Police Department who gave their lives for this city. So many people just don’t…