Paul Kengor: It's time to thank the cops

We’ve been in the grip of a pandemic that has prompted many people to view our health care professionals as heroes. Unfortunately, we’ve also been in the grip of another sickness since the George Floyd tragedy that has prompted too many people to view our police officers as villains.

“As a police officer I see firsthand the damage that BLM (Black Lives Matter) is causing,” writes Joe, a former student of mine, class of 2003, who emailed me last week. He was writing specifically about calls to defund the police, which would only beget more chaos and violence.

“We call for a national defunding of police,” candidly states Black Lives Matter at its website, under its hashtag #DefundThePolice. “If you’re with us, add your name to the petition right now and help us spread the word.”

Under the tab “What Defunding the Police Really Means,” BLM leads with this terrible stereotype: “We know that police don’t keep us safe.”

Really? How do you think police feel about that? How about Black police? How about Black residents in communities who feel the police do keep them safe?

For police like Joe, this isn’t helpful.

“For the first time in my 15-plus year career,” writes Joe, “I feel I can understand what the soldiers returning from Vietnam experienced upon returning to a thankless country.”

All Joe ever wanted to be was a policeman. While other Grove City College students went to law school or medical school or took glamorous jobs in New York or Washington or California, Joe went to police school. He learned how to chase down people who hurt people. He viewed police heroically, but now he sees the job as too often thankless.

His words reminded me of another former student I reconnected with a few years back in Indianapolis. Likewise a police officer, we got together for a beer and bite to eat amid the Ferguson, Mo., fracas. He told me it was a tough time. He suddenly faced suspicion and even hostility from a Black community he worked hard to establish friendships with. His fellow police officers (many if not mostly Black) jokingly call him “the philosopher” because he engages in philosophical-theological conversations with street guys (Black and white) ruminating with them about culture, society and race relations.

“I talk to them,” he told me with a smile. “I treat them with dignity. I tell them that I want to go home tonight and see my family. We talk about race. We talk about religion.”

He forms a bond. He’s a good cop. But suddenly, he was treated like a bad cop.

For the record, both myself and friends have had experiences with bad cops. I know guys who were abused by cops (white cops abusing white men). I had a moment with a police officer in Sacramento a few years back that was shocking and scary. And what bad cops did to George Floyd was especially bad.

But as the saying goes, you don’t let a few bad apples spoil the bunch. Most people don’t go to work every day fearing a bullet in the head and never seeing their kids again.

We’ve spent a lot of time lately expressing gratitude to health care workers for their service. It’s time to thank some cops as well.