This article is going to be different than most ones you'll read. It's a scenario and I'd like you all to just follow along. I promise, it has a purpose!
You're a mother of three kids. Your oldest is a daughter just turned 17. She and a couple of her friend have decided to cruise around in her new car she just bought herself. You don't think much of it and tell her to go and have fun.
She and her friends are jamming out to a new Justin Bieber song. They're at a red light and have full vocals going. As the light turns green, the car accelerates. It's second nature and no thought is given to the act. Another driver who thought they were just close enough to beat the red light speeds through the intersection too fast to slam on his breaks. The car T-bones your daughter and her friends. They begin to roll. The other driver and his car are beat up, but not enough to be incapacitated. The car drives away as another vehicle is beginning to approach the light. This new car finally reaches the light and begins to call 911 as the dash to your daughters car realizing they came up on a hit and run. None of the three girls are responsive, but a heartbeat is found for each. Once the ambulance arrives 20 minutes later, each girl is transported. Everyone is so busy trying to stabilize each girl that you are not called until the girls are identified at the hospital. It has now been just over an hour since the accident.
One you arrive at the hospital, you come to find out that it was the driver's side that got hit. Your daughter is in emergency surgery due to internal bleeding. They also mention the possibility that she may never walk again, but right now it is all speculation until they have a look once the bleeding is stopped. Days later, their assumptions are confirmed; her two friends come out with broken ribs, cuts and bruises, but your daughter is now wheelchair bound.
The girls all survived, but that's the end of it. The driver of the other car will never be found to face what he has done. Everyone's lives will continue on.
Now, I'm sure you're asking me, how is that the end? Let's take a second. Did you notice how never once did I mention an officer or police of some sort during the entire story? Maybe you didn't. Let's do a quick recap, but now an officer or two will be added.
Originally, it took 20 minutes for help (the ambulance) to arrive on scene, but an officer who patrols the neighborhood arrives in only five minutes. Upon arrival, they have secured the scene, called for backup, and been authorized to get the girls out of the car that is capable of catching fire at any moment. You are now notified of the accident as the ambulance arrives on scene, so 20 minutes after instead of over an hour. The officers talk to the 911 caller about what they witnessed and begin to examine the remains of the car.
Due to officers being on scene they find that half of the licenses plate of the hit and run car is mangled into the side of your daughters car. The witness was able to see that the car was an older silver Ford Escape. Though it took about two days, the detectives were able to locate the man who had hit your daughter and her friends. It was found that he was also wanted for domestic battery in another state and had most likely been under the influence of drugs during the accident. Justice is found for your family and the woman he had previously beaten. Though nothing can ever make up for the lose your daughter will endure for the rest of her life and the fear the woman faced. But the knowledge that other lives won't have to endure what you are is a powerful thing.
We continually seem to forget about the role officers play, not just in emergencies, but in justice. In other accidents like this, they are the ones who help discover if or what crime was committed. They are the ones who want to give victims a piece of mind. They are not perfect, but it doesn't take perfection to place your life on the line for people you don't even know.
In case you couldn't tell this about what the world may look like if we did not have a police force in our nation. Members of BLM and other organizations are expressing that they do not want a police force. Did you ever really think about how much violence they prevent? Without them the U.S. would resemble the movie "The Purge." Yes, innocent lives have been lost and there is no excuse for it. But even more innocent lives would be lost if you so choose to believe and endorse in a false hope that not having police will do more good than harm in this shattered nation.
