Chatham B.

October, 26 2016

Dear Mr. President

First responders (police) have been targeted on social media by many people who do not know the work that they have to do. People have been mistreating police officers verbally and physically and it has gone out of control. All the shootings and social media posts have only shown the horrible part of their job. I believe that people are entitled to their own opinion, but what are we gonna do when it gets to a point where they just won’t respond to a calls. Although people may think that they are just killing people for fun, i believe they are doing it to protect others.

August 17, 2016 a man was shot and killed by an officer. The man was stopped by an officer in a traffic stop (which is the most dangerous and scariest stop an officer can make). The officer was armed but didn’t pull a gun until the man in the car had pulled his out. Police officers are trained to protect themselves, others, and the suspect that they are dealing with. The officer was protecting himself and shot the man driving the car, but at the same time the passenger (a lady) was videoing the whole thing. She bashed the police and made a big deal out of something that she thought was wrong.

The shooting and riots in dallas is another example of treating police officers unfairly. July 7, 2016 Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed police officers in dallas. He was upset about police officers shooting black men and fired on a group of officers. His purpose in doing this was to get back at police for the killings of other black males. DPD had police officers from GPD and FWPD helping track down Johnson. Once again social media took part in this and the comments towards officers were brutal.

I feel people are not appreciating is done for them by police officers. Police officers take on a very challenging job that most people don’t want to do and shooting people because of their actions just happens to be a part of that difficult job. Attacking officers on social media is childlike and the people who are doing it are doing it for attention and fame.

Sincerely,

Chatham B.