By Mark McCool – San Diego Resident
It dismays and disgusts me to learn that the Fraternal Order of Police has, for reasons I will probably never comprehend, endorsed a woefully unqualified racist fear-monger to lead our nation.
Any doubt I may have ever had about the validity of movements like Black Lives Matter is now fully dispelled. You condone it, you own it, police officers of America! I’m a college-educated 66- year-old white man so my experiences with police have almost always been benign, even when I’ve been in the wrong.
This does not mean, as a thinking and feeling person, that I don’t have empathy with those in our society whose own interactions with law enforcement are usually fraught with annoyance, dread, and fear because of their race, color, or English-speaking skills. If anything, I now feel more strongly about this.
I really used to have a lot of respect for police officers . In most ways I still do. But now I wonder more and more if I came to this mindset through reality and objectivity, or because of the safe cocoon of being given the benefit of the doubt solely because I am WHITE.
If, God help us, Trump becomes president, I hope the police in America are prepared for new and unprecedented roles that will probably be unconstitutional. Unfortunately I fear, by this endorsement, that a lot of you will welcome this.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
