This is going to be long.
I find it just slightly ironic that, as the events in Dallas, Texas, were happening, I was with members of the Ontario, Oregon, Police Department undergoing training as members of Citizens on Patrol, an auxiliary organization of the OPD.
We were discussing traffic stops, what happens during a traffic stop, and the fact that there are no "routine traffic stops." In a traffic stop simulation held at a rural fire department, I was one of the volunteers that got to step out of a police car, approach another car, talk to the "driver," and in the middle of greeting the driver, another COPer (that I did not see because I was focused on the "driver") rolls down the window, and asks me, impersonating a drunk person, "hey, officer, want a beer?"
The officer conducting the training then went into some scenarios that he had personally been involved in here in Ontario, including what happened one evening when a stolen vehicle report had come from Boise had been sent out over dispatch. This officer happened to see the vehicle that matched the description and license plate number. He had to act. Once he and another officer arrived on the scene, they learned that there was a young family in the car, but it was still a potential "high risk" stop because of what had been reported. Turns out that the car that had been stolen was the same make and model of the one the young family was driving, and that the license plate number that was reported was one digit off of the real stolen vehicle. It doesn't take away from the fact that an OPD officer had to act on the information given him, and as a result, caused a great deal of stress to a young family, and disrupted their plans.
Following that, the training officer and another officer proceeded to demonstrate what a "high risk traffic stop" looks like. The final event of the evening was for us to learn how a "line search" is conducted. That was a tedious, but necessary, part of law enforcement.
During the course of the training, the officer, dressed in civilian clothes, related his personal philosophy on law enforcement, and how he doesn't hand out many tickets, except for reckless or life-threatening situations, but does his job with a mind toward educating the public. He also talked about the different approaches to law enforcement, and how certain practices in the East and South portions of the US would actually get officers terminated here in the Western US. He also reminded us that there are bad actors in law enforcement, just as there are bad teachers, construction workers, politicians, and the list goes on.
And little did I know, that as I was undergoing training from my local Police Department, another Law Enforcement Agency came under direct assault.
Some people, mistakenly, want to blame the NRA, guns or the availability thereof, or even the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights for the violence. Others want to blame Islam. Still others want to blame political candidates for the violence. Others still want to blame various and sundry organizations of all political persuasions. I am certainly guilty of playing the blame game. As I have pointed the finger of accusation, I failed to realize that I have three fingers pointed back at myself. Where does all that blame lead to? A gun does not pull its own trigger. My copy of the Qur'an did not incite anyone to violence. The NRA did not tell people to shoot up groups of people.
The answer is found in something I have told my students, and my own kids, for quite a while, now. We each have two ears and one mouth. We should, therefore, listen twice as much as we speak. And then, there is this advice from the New Testament Book of James, Chapter 3: " 5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Sadly, as we're following the cycle of history that has seen civilizations arise and then fall, there are so many people who choose to listen to the voices promoting violence on all sides. History continues to repeat itself, and there is no legislation that can change that from happening. We can change history is will simply listen to each other.
In saying all this, I still maintain the call for people to learn armed and unarmed defensive techniques, and also to support your local law enforcement agencies. Their job is not easy, and the training officer related, and I paraphrase, "we're almost always there after the fact--after the crime has happened"
Peace.
