A couple of days ago, I commented on Married to the Law's post about police giving each other breaks when being pulled over, and an anonymous commenter laid into me pretty good, accusing me of saying that I'm better than other people because I'm a cop's wife (which was not what I said at all).
However, it got me and quite a few other LEO spouses to thinking. And here's the thing: We ARE different.
There are plenty of careers out there with specific dangers: electricians, window washers, construction, farming. But the difference for us (and military spouses—which many of you also are) is intent. Our husbands go to work with the knowledge that they will be antagonized, they will be endangered, they will be targeted, they will be engaged by people who mean them harm. Confronting intentional danger is at the very heart of what they do.
I'm a professional editor for a travel industry newspaper, but I used to be an editor at a regular paper. When one of our sergeants was shot and killed a few years ago, reporters who never paid attention to me suddenly became interested in how I thought and felt, and more importantly, how my husband (then a trainee) felt. It was the only time that I could recall the news media showing concern and not suspicion for our police department. (The sergeant's death followed closely on the heels of a highly publicized reversal of a life sentence of a man who had spent 20 years in prison, which he claimed was a wrongful conviction.)
We have all felt misunderstood. We are all misunderstood. The very few officers who make grievous errors and choose to use their authority inappropriately are a point of fixation for the media and the community, while our husbands serve every single day heroically, ethically, selflessly. And we make sacrifices so that they can.
We ARE different. Let's celebrate our courage, our selflessness, and our dedication. We deserve it.
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3 comments:
Very Very Good Post Erin, You are right the media puts a negative spin on Police all the time. I see it everyday when dealing the my DHs dept and the media around us. They are always looking for a way to spin the Police in a negative light when they are merely doing their job like anyone else. Yes there are bad cops out there; yes they give the good ones a bad name but you cant lump people together; well you can but its not right.
When Dh and I first got together I really hated his job. When you come from a family that has most of its members on the other side of the law its really hard to adjust to now being the girlfriend/wife of a cop. I was embarrassed to tell family he was a cop and scared to death to let anyone in our neighborhood know.
Now i show my pride; Im proud to be a Deputy's wife, Im proud my husand protects our comminuty,and I am devoted to helping other PWs that are struggling with the "tag" that society places on us.
Brilliantly worded, Erin. Touche!
Cops should give each other "breaks" with traffic violations - I mean after all, if you work in a bakery you get to take home a loaf of bread don;t you? Tell me an occupation that has no perks and i'll show you an Angel! What reader says he get nada because of his "gig"? I'm a retired cop and i have received two tickets from the same traffic cop - I went to court, beat one and lost the other because the cop lied on me - but hey, I'm batting 500 right? I dislike this cop so much as yes, for violations of "signs" to give a fellow officer not one but two tickets on two different dates, makes him the big A.H. - not me. I never gave another cop or his family a ticket in my 35 years on the job - and i'm proud of it! Sarge70
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