By: Sgt. Larry Weathers, Minneapolis PD
In the wake of the unfortunate passing of George Floyd, protests have started around the country demanding justice for Mr. Floyd, and accusing police officers like myself of being “racists” and “murderers” and “racist murderers.”
Now look, I’m not saying there are no racists wearing the blue. And there have certainly been instances in the past where officers crossed a line and, as a result, people got hurt or died. But you have to understand these are only a tiny fraction of the thousands of police officers working in the world today. The rest of us are good, tolerant men and women whose only crime is loving our communities and using any means necessary to defend the racists by violently breaking up the demonstrations that arise after they murder someone.
Personally I can say with total certainty that, no matter your skin colour, orientation or background, I enjoy pepper spraying all people equally. Especially when they are not moving back as quickly as I demand or if they say something about how they are only demonstrating because my colleague murdered their friend. Let me tell you; black, white or purple, everyone hates being pepper sprayed.
It’s like if you worked in an office. There may be some people in the office who said or did things you didn’t agree with. And you would not be responsible for their actions. However if they were accused of doing something wrong you would of course immediately side with them against everyone and claim that the accusations are false, even if a video showed them doing that exact thing. That’s what work buddies do!
And just because some police officers made the mistake of murdering someone in public rather than in custody where there are no video cameras around, that doesn’t give protestors the right to loot and destroy buildings. And it certainly doesn’t give them the right to peacefully march when me and my friends got all decked out in our best riot gear and came looking to fight. We spent so long psyching ourselves up! Fortunately it turns out you can just start hitting people and claim they started it.
So next time you want to paint with a broad brush just remember that not all cops are monsters. Some of us simply protect monsters because it’s easier than trying to create change from within. And because they’re the best hitter on the police softball team, and we really want to win the league this year!
