Cops and Robbers was such a simple game when we were little. My cousins and I took turns being the good guys and the bad guys, then the chase was on. The good guys always won in the end. Was it because whoever got to play the good cop possessed some super power of speed and strength or was it that whoever played the bad guy knew he deserved to be caught? Wouldn’t it be great if life was so simple and straight forward as an adult?

Anyone who has turned on the radio or the television in the last couple of weeks has realized that knowing who the good guys and the bad guys are, is no easy task. Police are being killed by people who the news reports state “are doing it for payback”. What a scary thought that someone actually rationalizes killing as being a justified “payback” for what may be perceived as an unjustified act. Is our America getting so far off track that this is actually a belief that some people hold?

Police are the people we call when we are in trouble. We call them when there is something suspicious happening or a person of questionable character is around and making us nervous. Your elderly neighbor hasn’t been seen in 3 days and isn’t answering the door? Call the Police. Your door is ajar when you come home and you know you left it closed and locked? Call the Police. The couple down the street who have domestic problems and the woman always has bruises? It’s the Police that helps her. You are speeding because you left home late and now you are trying to make it up on the road? You know the Police will be there. The Police go where we don’t want to, they are first on the scene too dangerous situations and they protect us.

Occasionally there are people on the job who don’t belong there, and who make the wrong decisions. There are people in the wrong jobs no matter what the profession, but that does not mean it is justifiable to kill them. The old saying “two wrongs don’t make a right” is true. If we lose our integrity and allow such treatment of others, taking a life (or more than one) for another, then we become like the underdeveloped countries that America has historically been a refuge for its citizens.