Policing and the Cracked Skull of a 75 Year Old Protester

The truth is, policing is a really hard profession, and it seems like we lose sight of that. It seems like we label every bad outcome as proof of bad intentions on the part of the police, and that’s just not true. It’s just not true.

What happened a week ago in Buffalo is a reminder of just how hard it is to be a police officer.  An officer made a judgement call on how to handle a protester, a 75 year old white man.  The officer’s judgement call resulted in the man suffering a traumatic head injury. 

The social justice protests of the last five years have undoubtedly made policing better, but have also made it far more complex. The officer was immediately accused of purposely harming the old protester, of being a terrible human being.  Who knows, maybe he is.  But maybe he’s not a monster.  Maybe he became a cop because he wanted to help make things better, to serve and protect.  Maybe he is a good human being doing the best he can at a really hard job – a job that most of us don’t want to do.  

We should give police officers our thanks for stepping up to serve our society.  And when an officer makes a judgement call that results in harm, we need to remember that they are human beings doing the best they can in a very hard situation.