Asshole on Patrol
There are basically two kinds of customers who visit my local Target: those who belong there, and those that got lost on the way to the filthy and disordered ghetto Walmart on the river. My tale is about one of the latter of these persons.
There was I, minding my own business, with my newly purchased goods. As I exited the store I noticed a man wrestling his items into his car. He was wearing a black t-shirt. It read, "Cowards on Patrol." "That's a funny shirt," I thought, until I realized with a sinking feeling what it really meant. The initial capitals had been picked out in blue, so that the word "COP" was spelled out from top to bottom. In other words, cops - policemen - were the "cowards on patrol" this asshole was referring to.
Here in Philadelphia, and in other major cities, there was been a hue and cry over a best-selling (really!) t-shirt that bears the legend, "Don't Snitch" or some variant thereof. Every shirt is a veiled threat to anyone who has witnessed a crime and has information helpful to the police. The COP shirt appears to be a new entry in this new practice of creating $20 casual wear that threatens the fabric of society and its foundation on justly-administered law.
I must mention for the sake of disclosure that this "gentleman" was African-American. This is not a judgement of him in and of itself, but it helps set the stage for why me might choose to wear a shirt with such a message. African-Americans serve with honor and distinction in our police forces across the country, and the majority (like the majority of folks of all backgrounds) are good, upstanding citizens.
Here, in Philadelphia, a substantial number of our officers are African-American, just like this fellow. So his shirt is disrespectful not only of police officers at large, but of those he would call "brother" and "sister" if he met them while they were out of uniform.
And let's just tackle the issue of "cowards", shall we? Policemen and women have some of the toughest public sector jobs there are to be had. They work long and odd hours for pay that isn't the best by any stretch. Late at night, while you and I are snug in our beds and in our little dreamlands, there are cops out there making traffic stops, patrolling the streets, and bringing to heel disorderly customers. Each time, the policeman is taking his life into his hands - there are too many people out there with guns. But it is, in fact, only the presence of men and women in blue uniforms that keep us from having to revert to a state of civil disorder such as that of Elizabethan England, where no man dared leave his home without a knife or a sword at his side for his defense on the streets in broad daylight.
Further, the acts of bravery and heroism by officers of the law are countless. You can begin with an obvious one: I would hesitate to call any of the responding officers who ran into the burning World Trade Center towers to be cowards in any possible sense of the word. If they feared for anything, it was that they might have been too late to save more people - even while the building fell down about their heads.
On Saturday, an officer braved the whizzing cars of the Schuylkill Expressway (almost tantamount to attempted suicide) to help deliver a baby. That's not a cowardly act, either; that's an officer protecting the life of a new person.
Did that man in the t-shirt ever save a life, deliver a baby, steel himself to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of others? Unlikely. He's just a stupid asshole who wears a shirt, and I spit on him and all his stupid kind like the dogs they are.
People of Philadelphia, keep snitching and appreciate our cops! They're Champions on Patrol.
There was I, minding my own business, with my newly purchased goods. As I exited the store I noticed a man wrestling his items into his car. He was wearing a black t-shirt. It read, "Cowards on Patrol." "That's a funny shirt," I thought, until I realized with a sinking feeling what it really meant. The initial capitals had been picked out in blue, so that the word "COP" was spelled out from top to bottom. In other words, cops - policemen - were the "cowards on patrol" this asshole was referring to.
Here in Philadelphia, and in other major cities, there was been a hue and cry over a best-selling (really!) t-shirt that bears the legend, "Don't Snitch" or some variant thereof. Every shirt is a veiled threat to anyone who has witnessed a crime and has information helpful to the police. The COP shirt appears to be a new entry in this new practice of creating $20 casual wear that threatens the fabric of society and its foundation on justly-administered law.
I must mention for the sake of disclosure that this "gentleman" was African-American. This is not a judgement of him in and of itself, but it helps set the stage for why me might choose to wear a shirt with such a message. African-Americans serve with honor and distinction in our police forces across the country, and the majority (like the majority of folks of all backgrounds) are good, upstanding citizens.
Here, in Philadelphia, a substantial number of our officers are African-American, just like this fellow. So his shirt is disrespectful not only of police officers at large, but of those he would call "brother" and "sister" if he met them while they were out of uniform.
And let's just tackle the issue of "cowards", shall we? Policemen and women have some of the toughest public sector jobs there are to be had. They work long and odd hours for pay that isn't the best by any stretch. Late at night, while you and I are snug in our beds and in our little dreamlands, there are cops out there making traffic stops, patrolling the streets, and bringing to heel disorderly customers. Each time, the policeman is taking his life into his hands - there are too many people out there with guns. But it is, in fact, only the presence of men and women in blue uniforms that keep us from having to revert to a state of civil disorder such as that of Elizabethan England, where no man dared leave his home without a knife or a sword at his side for his defense on the streets in broad daylight.
Further, the acts of bravery and heroism by officers of the law are countless. You can begin with an obvious one: I would hesitate to call any of the responding officers who ran into the burning World Trade Center towers to be cowards in any possible sense of the word. If they feared for anything, it was that they might have been too late to save more people - even while the building fell down about their heads.
On Saturday, an officer braved the whizzing cars of the Schuylkill Expressway (almost tantamount to attempted suicide) to help deliver a baby. That's not a cowardly act, either; that's an officer protecting the life of a new person.
Did that man in the t-shirt ever save a life, deliver a baby, steel himself to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of others? Unlikely. He's just a stupid asshole who wears a shirt, and I spit on him and all his stupid kind like the dogs they are.
People of Philadelphia, keep snitching and appreciate our cops! They're Champions on Patrol.