Editor,
I was sickened this last week… not with Covid-19 but with a longer lasting plague. As a “white” man I was raised with the idealistic notion that police officers were there to protect me. As white child, that may have been the case.
I was also taught that the diminutive term “cop” failed to give them the respect they deserved. Then in the early ‘80s I was thrown and spread eagled on the hood of an Arkansas highway patrol car with no other offense than riding in a VW van loaded with women on our way to a meditation class. That taught me a lesson or two.
There are those folks among police officers who are power hungry, sadistic and racist. I still refuse to call them “cops.” But they must first police their own if they hope to earn our trust and respect. The brotherhood in blue must remove all racists and sadists from their ranks if we are to live in a just, peaceful and prosperous nation.
Doug Stowe