What people see in this ONE picture:
Aggression, Abuse, Power-Trip, and Un-Necessary Actions. A cop spraying innocent protesters.
I will be the first to admit that I get a chuckle from all of the photoshopped images of this cop spraying mace in random pictures.
But when it comes to the actual story, I am really upset that a lot of people saw that initial picture and instantly created a judgement against the officer, or cops in general. I'm not saying all cops are good cops, sure... there are cops who abuse their power and break the law. However, it seems that when ONE cop does something wrong, suddenly ALL cops are bad.
But this isn't even an instance where this is a bad cop or a cop abusing his power. People think this cop just walked up and maced some demonstrators just for the heck of it. Watch the video below to make your own judgement, and even then... still keep an open mind, because this is not 'un-cut' footage. How would you handle a crowd like that? What if that many people were on your lawn chanting, and ignoring you? What if the minute you cleared them off of your property, they kept coming back in full force... huge crowds, not listening to any of your warnings? What would you do? Walk back into your house and pretend no one was there? Use critical thinking people! Think for yourself. Get the facts, THEN form an opinion. But to judge an action and/or a GROUP by one photo alone, or one snip-it of video and calling something EXTREME or ABUSIVE without all of the facts... well, that is just ignorance at its finest. Here is a video of events that led up to the macing of those demonstrators.
What if you saw a picture of a mother with an angry look on her face, slapping her child or beating his butt, and the small child's face is stained in tears... with the caption "Abusive mother, hurts small child for no reason".
Instantly, everyone is riled up and picking sides and protesting. But what people maybe didn't see, is the transgression from the child. Maybe you missed the snide comments or back-talk from the child to his mother, maybe you missed seeing the child cut all of the hair off his baby sister's head or play with a hot stove. You can never get the full story from one picture, one source... one ANYTHING.
The funny thing is, it doesn't stop there. After the picture of the macing was posted, people who I know, and respect, posted the macing picture side-by-side with a picture of a cop from Canada having a water fight with civillians. The caption said something along the lines of "Cops from America - Cops from Canada", and then a side note was added, "I wish I lived in Canada".
Now, I won't name-names, because I'm going to give my friends the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to assume they got caught up in the hype, and made a snap-judgement. Because if we are going to compair pictures of Canadian Cops to American Cops... well then, let us compare.
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| Shop-With-A -Cop: underprivileged kids getting to shop for their families for Christmas with an AMERICAN cop. The money comes from donations and the cops themselves. |
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| AMERICAN cops visiting children with cancer |
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| AMERICAN cops wearing Santa hats at Christmas, spending time on their day off to help families with little to no money |
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| AMERICAN cop carrying someone who was injured in the 9-11 attacks |
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| Officer Alonso, an AMERICAN cop, carries a child to safety after a person opened fire on the Empire State Building deck on February 24, 1997 -- a day he described as his most traumatic on the police force until September 11. |
I could yammer on more and more about what police offers do, even what I have seen them do first-hand to help their communities and the families that live in them. But I think Glenn Beck and Paul Harvey summed it up the best... and I'm not even a fan of Glenn Beck and Paul Harvey.
"You can call them PIGS, you can hate them, you can call them animals, but they will still show up when you call them because you need them"
"They are willing to stand between you and someone holding a gun."
"Cops run towards danger, while everyone else is running away. It is their job to save you, even if you hate them."
"They leave their families to save yours."
GLENN BECK - Leave The Cops Alone
PAUL HARVEY - What Are Cops
In closing... keep those funny photshopped pictures coming. But next time you want to judge, get the whole story. Just my two cents.
