Right now, here in America, I think that if you shoved a firefighter while he was fighting a fire, and then he beat you to death with a pipe wrench, he wouldn’t be indicted.
After all, like all members of the military and all police officers, firefighters are heroes and have been since 9/11.
There have always been cops in my family and, as a working reporter for the last 31 years, I’ve known (and know) a lot of cops.
Some of them are excellent people and good cops. Some of them are bad people and good cops. Some of them are bad people and bad cops. Some of them are lazy, and some of them are stupid. Some of them are dedicated, and some of them are extremely intelligent.
In short, they are like transmission mechanics and commercial fishermen and lawyers. Almost all cops will, if necessary, die in the performance of their duty. Even bad cops.
I have known commercial fishermen and construction workers and a guy who worked on a garbage truck, all of whom died in the performance of their various duties.
The trouble with the “hero” designation for ALL police officers is that, not only is it untrue, but also it gives a great deal of protection to bad cops, to cops who are not heroes.
In addition, the “hero” designation is a tremendous burden for a man or woman who is, at bottom, either someone who has family already on the department or is a military veteran who knows how to keep a uniform clean and knows veterans get hired first or, very often, a working-class man/woman who sees the salary, the benefits and the early retirement age as very real reasons to become a police officer.
Every police officer I’ve ever known said he/she wanted to be an officer “to help people.” I’m not calling anyone a liar, but you’d have to be a pretty oblivious cop not to know that’s EXACTLY what you should say about the job.
Every police officer I’ve ever known was someone who went on the job with a very thin layer of training. And what we expect of police officers is that, when things get very, very bad, the training will react, not the person.
And that is not natural, even if it is necessary.
An officer who is shellacked with a thick coat of “hero” talk has less and less reason to take his/her humanity in for the next shift, and we, the people he/she is sworn to protect, are more likely to let the “hero” off when he or she shoots the wrong person.
Cops aren’t comic book heroes. They’re not invincible, and sometimes they are wrong. To say anything else strips them of their humanity and encourages the worst among them to believe they can act with impunity. Even the best of them are isolated and burdened by the term.
The most important tool any police officer carries is not the gun but rather the knowledge that we are all human. The gun is supposed to be the last of all last resorts.
Marc Munroe Dion is a nationally syndicated columnist. His book of Pulitzer Prize-nominated columns, “Between Wealth and Welfare: A Liberal Curmudgeon in America,” and his book of short stories, “Mill River Smoke” are both available for Kindle and Nook.