Peace Officers Are a Cut Above the Rest

Recently a Hollywood filmmaker joined protesters and marched in an antipolice rally in New York City.

He referred to peace officers as murderers. His hateful rhetoric called for violence against law enforcement, saying: "I have to call a murderer a murderer, and I have to call a murder a murder," adding that he is on the side of the ones who confront and are confronted by police. His comments encourage mischief and crimes against peace officers .

For the haters to justify lawlessness in response to perceived lawless acts by the police is idiotic. Bad cops, like bad citizens, should face a judge in a court of law. However, communities cannot be burned, looted, or destroyed by cop haters because some police officer allegedly committed a crime. Nor can crimes against police be encouraged, tolerated, or justified because some other officer is accused of doing something improper. Otherwise, there is mob rule.

The filmmaker, whose occupation is dedicated to the fake, the false, and to fiction, made comments one week after New York City lost one of its finest. Officer Randolph Holder was gunned down--really, he was assassinated by a ruthless outlaw--and he was recently buried. The filmmaker's self-righteous indignation toward law enforcement only fuels the fire and the war on police. It promotes anarchy, chaos, and lawlessness.

The war on police has resulted in the death of 31 police officers killed in the line of duty this year, 31 officers who gave their life and their blood to protect and serve the rest of us. Cop haters ought to be ashamed.

The New York police union has called for a boycott of the Hollywood filmmaker's films which, interestingly enough, are riddled with extreme violence, racist remarks, and more hate toward police.

It is ironic that society expects police officers to protect them, but they will be the first to criticize officers for doing their job.

Officers defend the thin blue line between law and the lawless. Their job is dangerous. Every day peace officers run toward chaos that everyone else is running away from.

In my past life I was a criminal court judge and a prosecutor in Houston, Texas. For 30 years I met peace officers from all over the country. Some of those officers I met were later killed. I know peace officers from New York City, and after we get through the communication barrier--as Churchill said, we are separated by a common language--I have found them generally to be remarkable people who do society's dirty work.

Those peace officers in New York are constantly on the job, rooting out the evil in New York City, while protecting and serving New Yorkers. They go into the dark dens where crime dwells and arrest those who would do harm to others. They have a thankless job that most people in America would never do.

This isn't Hollywood. This is real life, where situations can turn violent in an instant. There is no fake blood, makeup, or actors. These lives are real.

Anti-police comments, like these from Hollywood, should be looked at for really what they are. It is a commercial by the Hollywood film crowd to make money off of films that preach hate and violence by pandering to police haters.

Peace officers wear the badge or shield or star over their heart. It is symbolic by where it is placed. As a protector from the evils that are committed in our society by protecting the rest of us, they stand between us and those who would do us harm.

When I was a kid back in Texas, my dad and I went to a parade in a small town called Temple. As the parade was going by, my dad noticed that I was looking at a person who was standing on the corner. He wasn't in the parade. He was just watching what was taking place. It was a local Temple police officer. Back in those days they didn't really have uniforms. They wore a white shirt, a star, and a cowboy hat, and jeans.

My dad commented at that time, he said: "If you are ever in trouble, if you ever need help, go to the man or woman who wears the badge because they are a cut above the rest of us."

That statement was true then, and it is still true today. Peace officers are a cut above the rest of us.

And that is just the way it is.