Recently, America has been flooded with the stigma that law enforcement officers are the enemy of the greater good and of the common people. Due to the thousands of people around the country that have risen up in protest, it's come to my attention that there's a huge misunderstanding between cops and the people they vow to protect. What people don't understand is that cops not only have a duty to serve the people, but they also have a duty and a right to survive. Their right to survive is not only theirs, but their families', as well as their communities'.

All cops undergo similar, if not the same, training before they're released to the workforce, but a cop's background and the community from which they stem can weigh heavily on the individual perceptions of threats and certain situations. Society needs to stop looking at cops as machines and understand that they're humans, too, and that their innate concern for life preservation and safety of themselves comes first. No cop wants to kill, but they must always be prepared to do just that, and yes, heat of the moment decisions for cops always have the potential to have life-altering consequences. For cops, their priority is always to protect, and because of that, the possibility for wrong is always present. Whether a cop is protecting someone involved in the situation, an innocent bystander, themselves or another cop, there's little in this world that is possible without the potential for some form of physical violence. Because of that, force is not an "if" decision for cops, it's "when."

Lately, it seems that society cares more about growing hate for police in children than they do about teaching their children to obey the law. Police officers don't get to choose who they protect and serve. Bravery isn't "country bred" or "city deep." It's simply the way cops are wired. Compassion and empathy aren't options. It's the breed of people who chooseto put their lives on the line every day to protect people who turn their backs on them. Suggesting that police officers' lives matter just as much as the average citizen isn't what some people would call the "conservative response," it's the human response. Understanding that cops are people, too, people with lives, people with families, people who matter, shouldn't be hard and if it is, America has deeper rooted issues that need to be seriously addressed.

In regards to the federal government, lack of resources in the form of expanding on training operations, as well as funding, is leading the public to believe that they're helping by suggesting things that are entirely unachievable. Things like adequate "shoot or don't shoot" training is a very unrealistic expense for a lot of police departments around the nation, yet the public believes that they're helping by suggesting things like body cameras. Personally, I think body cameras are a great idea. However, most of the time, they're suggested as a form of "protection of the people from the police" when actually, it would heavily benefit police officers from false allegations of brutality and misconduct in general. However, it's entirely unrealistic to assume that every police department in America can afford to endow every officer with their own personal camera when some can't even find the funding for basic training practices.

Twenty-four. A number that rings in the head of every American police officer. In 2015, there were twenty-four police officer deaths caused by violence alone. Every day when a cop goes to work, they fear becoming another statistic and can only hope that if they are to die on the job, maybe their death will mean something and make society wake up and understand that the subjection we place cops under is no longer OK. Assuming that police brutality is alive and well is costing us more lives than it's saving. Rioting for things like "a world without police and prisons" is detrimental to society, and should be an entirely unwelcome thought in the minds of Americans.

Certain instances like the deaths of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Akiel Denkins and Eric Garner lead the public to think that this is a matter of race. It's not. In fact, unarmed black men only account for 4 percent of lives taken by fatal police shootings. In December of 2015, a study was conducted to find that 965 people were killed by police that year, and 875 of those people were armed in some way. Ninety were not. So, in 2015, over three quarters of deaths at the hands of police were caused by their duty and vow to protect someone else or themselves, a vow that the public is made very aware of.

Have you ever noticed how more men are killed by cops, but no one ever makes the argument that law enforcement officers are sexist? This is due to the overwhelming, unwelcome and overly-involved media. The media wants people to believe that this is an issue of race when it's not. In 2014, after the death of Eric Garner, his mother in an interview with local news called her son a "thrill-kill" for the New York Police Department. After that, the media (both local and national) clung to that phrase and used it to generate hate for and fear of the people who put their lives on the line for them every day.

So, I personally want to say thank you. Thank you to the cops who are now more unappreciated than ever. Thank you choosing to protect people who choose to not care about your lives. Thank you to your families for supporting you every day, knowing you might not get to come home to them because of someone selfish who values their life more than yours. Thank you for existing and doing what most of the people who criticize you wouldn't do themselves, because it truly it so easy to hate someone who does what you're not brave enough to do yourself. I hope that you know that not everyone in the world feels that way, and that there are still people in this country who appreciate you and all you do for us. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart, I promise to one day raise my children to appreciate you, and stand up for you, and protect you just like I know you will continue to risk your lives to protect them.