- Ibrahim J. Awad, Esq.
Who Are Our Brothers in Blue?
Blue lives matter because they protect and serve us. Blue lives risk their lives for our safety and our security. Blue lives take an oath so that they are entrusted with this responsibility. But, if someone wears that uniform, looking forward to the chance of roughing someone up, then he’s not our brother in blue. If he gets aroused at the opportunity to physically put his hand on his holster and mentally salivate with his “make my day” appetite, he is not our brother in blue. If he looks for a reason to pull the trigger and dismisses the hundred reasons why he shouldn't, he is not our brother in blue. He should be stripped of his blue uniform, and he should be put in an orange one. Society must be protected from him and not by him. The uniform doesn't automatically make him worthy. His actions are what make him worthy.
The officers that murdered Alton Sperling and Philando Castile have put all officers lives in danger. They are not our brothers in blue. Don't tell me they had to kill those Black men. And though they were Black, this is not just a Black problem. Though White men are getting killed by the police as well, it cannot be compared to the way it happens to our Black brothers, our Latino brothers, and our brothers of various ethnic minorities. Don't tell me “Well you weren't there; you don't know what happened; you don't know how it's like.” It’s precisely why I'm not a police officer. They are trained to handle dangerous situations. They are not to be judged by a reasonable person standard. They are to be judged as public servants trained to protect us.
Let's call out the problem for what it is: an over-militarized and under-trained police force. We are supposed to have preservation of life in this country. We have more scrutiny on our soldiers who are trained on de-escalation tactics and rules of engagement when they are in enemy territory than we do on our own police force that are entrusted with our wellbeing. Enemy combatants are not paying our soldiers to protect them. We are paying our police force, with our hard-earned money, their salaries. Our kids are growing up believing that police are going to be taking their daddies away. No matter what we tell them, the obligation and burden is on our police force to form a relationship with us. People are criticizing how the #BlackLivesMatter movement are displaying their justified anger when there is blood on the streets. People want to discuss high etiquette when people are being shot to death. Let's focus on the real problem and not the imperfect way it's being highlighted.
The real problem is incompetent officers that are putting all of our lives in danger. Our brothers in blue, God bless them, should do their duty by locking up these trigger-happy buffoons. No one is above the law and no one is above accountability. #BlueLivesMatter because they have explicitly vowed to protect us and implicitly expressed that our lives matter more than theirs by putting themselves in harm’s way for us. They have made the cognizant decision that our society should be a safe one, and to ensure that, they are willing to put themselves in dangerous situations to remove the criminal elements from our society. Our brothers in blue are selfless heroes and not those who fabricate reasons to pull the trigger. Our brothers in blue are held in that high regard and standard. May God protect our brothers in blue, and may God protect us all.
