It’s one of the hottest topics in America today: Our law enforcement officers, and the job that they do. It seems that every person in America wants to criticize and judge every action a cop makes without having done the job themselves or having any experience or working knowledge of it. It’s like a middle schooler telling a college professor how to do their job or that they’re doing it wrong. Sure, they’ve been through some school, they have general knowledge of what professors do and what they have to do to become professors, but they are in no place to criticize or judge the job. The point of that metaphor is this: a person who has never experienced an officer’s line of duty can never criticize or judge the work that they do, not even if they’ve watched a 10 second video on the internet.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I support blacks and cops.To be specific, I support all races, and cops. Yes, it’s possible. I support the advancement of the African Americans, because there is definitely still racism in America—it’s undeniable. However, I also support cops, the job that they do, and the decisions they make. The fact is, until you’ve been in the situation, you don’t know what you’d do. You can’t say, “If I were the cop, I’d…”, because you don’t know. You’ll never know. So yes, I support the blacks and their attempts against the racism that so obviously exists today. I also support our law enforcement, and what they do every day for our safety.

Now, as I just said: yes, of course racism in America is alive and well. It’s a disgusting fact that we all need to start paying more attention to. So it would only make sense that there are some racist cops. Someracist cops. Not every cop is racist; to say so would be ignorant. Not every cop is racist, but every cop is a human being. Every cop has a family, friends, goals, a life. There are racists in every profession, in every job, in every neighborhood. But we don’t condemn every doctor, every scientist, every teacher.

The thing about racism is, though, that it exists for every race. There are three groups in America that experience racism to its fullest, most terrible extent: Blacks, Hispanics, and Middle Easterners. However, it exists for Asian Americans. Native Americans, and yes, white Americans. Every race can, and does, experience racism. Every time the people in Dallas yell, “Kill all whites, kill white cops," that’s white racism. When people stereotype whites, it's racism (think of black stereotypes; those are racist—why aren’t white stereotypes?). When people generalize that all whites are racist, well, that’s racist. Hating all whites for the actions of a few is racist, just like hating all blacks for the actions of a few is racist. White racism, whether people believe it or not, absolutely exists. So isn’t it racist to assume all white cops are horrible, corrupt racists? Of course it is.

As far as the Alton Sterling case goes, we will never know the exact details of this case. So nobody will ever be able to say, “The cop should have done X-Y-Z.” That being said, I personally support the cop in this case. I support the cops, who could have been fearing for the lives of everyone around them, including their own. We, as people who did not personally witness the case, will never be able to make specific judgments or criticisms of police officer’s work. We can, however, say if we support it or not; in this case, I do.

What happened in Dallas is absolutely horrific. Cops injured and dead, lives lost while trying to contain riots and protests, for the sake of the community. Anyone who supports or is OK with the fact that this happened is not only a terrible citizen, but a horrible person. The cops in America risk their lives for us every single day, for the sole purpose of protecting us. This is the largest single attack on cops since 9/11. The war between cops and citizens needs to end for the sake of the entire country.

Police officers have one of the toughest jobs in America. They are on the “bad side” of a good portion of Americans, the very citizens they risk their lives to protect. The people they are protecting (and may die while doing so) hate them, and it's wrong.

Demonize the bad cops—do not demonize every cop.