Letter to the Next President - Marni M.
I strongly feel that the police don't deserve the treatment they've been receiving lately, because they're just about as close to a super hero as we'll ever have! Of course, all humans make mistakes, but officers spend almost their entire lives working to achieve our safety, so I'd like to ask you, future president, if you would take special care of this issue!
Dear future president,
I'd like to personally congratulate you on your great accomplishment, and I wish you the best of luck, as I'm sure you'll need it later on. Now that the power of the entire country lies in your hopefully capable hands, I'd like to ask you to take care of a specific problem that faces us today. I feel very strongly about the current negative attitude towards police, mostly because my father is one.
From very early on, I was raised to follow rules and show respect towards those who dedicate their lives to protect both others around me and myself, the police. It greatly irritates me to think that every day, officers all around the world put their own lives in danger to protect us from harm, and get criticized when the time comes that they have to protect themselves. That sometimes means taking another's life, which the officers don't enjoy doing, nor look forward to doing whatsoever.
A large part of this issue is the way the media portrays the police. People listen to the media and tend to believe what they say, so ultimately, the image of the press is in their hands. Lately, the media has enjoyed sharing stories involving a person of black race being shot and killed by a white officer. This has labeled the police as "racist," turning many against them, and bringing light to the Black Lives Matter organization. It would seem as if there's more than just race involved though, because even when a black officer shot and killed a black criminal, it was still called racist. A rather interesting fact that the media fails to share is that in 2015, fifty percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, and twenty-six percent were black.
Overall, police officers are our heroes, and they don't deserve the treatment they are receiving. They too are human and make mistakes, but they spend almost their entire lives working to guarentee our safety. I am ashamed of society for treating people that care for us so greatly in this manner, and I can only hope that this will one day be put to an end.
Sincerely, Marni Matuska