From Andy Griffith to Papers Please

                This one’s going to be a bit controversial in much the same way a hurricane is a bit destructive. Ok? Here it goes. Let’s talk about the current state of law enforcement in the United States. In one generation, we’ve gone from “Andy Griffith to Papers Please”. As the title suggests, the state of law enforcement has shifted from serving and protecting to ENFORCEMENT! The title makes reference to the Andy Griffith Show and Nazi Germany’s Gestapo. See, told you it was going to be a “bit” controversial.

In this beloved TV show (that’s the Andy Griffith Show, not Nazi Germany) the main character Andy Taylor, played by Andy Griffith, is a small town sheriff. Maybe Andy Griffith couldn’t remember any other name but his own for the main character. Don’t know, just a thought. Anyway, like most small towns, everyone knows everybody’s business and all know the sheriff. However, unlike much of what’s portrayed by Hollywood, the town sheriff wasn’t the badass, gun fighting, get results while not following the rules, aka pretty much any Clint Eastwood character, you might expect.

Instead, he solved community problems and yes sometimes crimes with his faithful sidekick, deputy Barney Fife, played by the always hilarious Don Knotts. The Sheriff did this without a gun and while deputy Barney Fife did carry a gun he only had one bullet and he kept that in his shirt pocket! They cared more about their community and keeping the peace then just enforcing the law.

This is where law enforcement has taken a wrong turn. Let me be clear here, I don’t blame the individual officers who are out front every day, often putting their lives on the line. I blame their training. I blame the current law enforcement culture adopted after 9/11. That is to say, law enforcement as enforcers of the law and NOT public servants dedicated to protecting and serving the communities they live in.

So, instead of having community oriented public servants patrolling the streets in an effort to keep the citizens safe from the “bad guys”, that’s the serve and protect part, we now have professionals dedicated to enforcing the law, that’s the “papers please” bit. The cops demand obedience and immediate compliance with them, period. This attitude may, but I kind of doubt it, keep us safe from the “bad guys”. Either way, it does encourage the average person on the street see the police as threatening.

If you think not, watch what happens on the highway when drivers see a cop sitting on the side of the road. They all hit the brakes. It doesn’t matter if anyone was speeding. Why hit the brakes like Charlee Sheen hitting the smack? They’re afraid of any confrontation with the cops, of course. And why should they think there’d be any confrontation, let alone be afraid? Because “we the people” have lost faith in law enforcement.

We no longer see cops as the public servants they’re supposed to be, but as enforcers of the law watching and waiting for us, the average Joe, to screw up so they can crack heads like Judge Dread on an adrenaline rush. This may not be fair to them and most certainly isn’t true, but I’m not sure that matters. Perception is important. What we “see” isn’t what’s actually happening, but what we perceive it to be.

This creates fear! Unfortunately, when we’re afraid, we react one of two ways. The “fight or flight” instinct. We flee, as seen in Dallas as the protesters ran from the gunfire like gazelles from tigers stalking the heard in the tall grass. Or, when cornered and with no other option, we fight. I don’t condone climbing tall buildings and ambushing cops from sniper nests, but I think we can look at this incident as “a canary in the coal mine” test. Sure, these killers don’t represent you or I. However, I do think they show how wide the gulf is between us, the average citizen, and the police; how big the distrust is between us and them. There shouldn’t be an “us vs. them”. After all, they are us, just in uniform.

And on the cop’s side, the problem with this attitude towards the job? It makes the police see all of us as suspect if not downright criminals who just haven’t been caught, yet. The cops are killing people who aren’t doing anything that warrants death. Maybe the suspect resists arrest. So what? Fight back and take them down. Yes, you might get banged up a bit, but that’s part of the job. You’re there to take the abuse so that we don’t have too. Instead, cops are shooting citizen. True, we hear about the black citizens, but citizens of every color are being killed by cops. Let’s not forget that important bit of information.

If we let this trend continue, eventually we’ll have all out warfare between us and the cops. As the horrific attacks on the police in Dallas show, the worst of us are already armed and willing to kill. Even if this was only in response to the police shootings in Louisiana and Montana, and I doubt that most vehemently, it’s still the beginning. It shows just how frustrated the average citizen has become with law enforcement and where, if we don’t change course, we are headed.

Both sides, the cops and “we the people” need to dial back the rhetoric and step outside the current situation. Yes, cops appear (and it is only the perception, not the truth) to be hunting down and killing black people with little to no provocation. However, this perception (re-read paragraph 7 about how important perception is) can be changed. Cops must adopt an “Andy Griffith Show” attitude toward their job and drop the “papers please” part that encourages the us vs. them mentality we currently operate in. If not, the “slippery slope” we’re racing down will destroy us all, cops and citizens alike.

The U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, said earlier today, “Don’t let violence be the new normal”. If she wants that, she needs to change law enforcements attitude from “enforcement” to “serve and protect”. Maybe she could arm cops with Tasers in addition to guns and train the cops to use less than lethal weapons first. Whatever it is, it has to start with her, but we must do our part as well. As the “average” citizen, we have to trust that the cops are here to help. That they are not a threat. We can cooperate with them, even if they make us feel violated. And, maybe most importantly, we must not let their attitude toward us define how we interact with them.

As always, this is just my opinion, you could be wrong!

[Insert Clever Title Here]

I’ll post these “lunatic rants” on a variety of subjects with varying degrees of competence and research. However, I wouldn’t expect any ground-breaking ideas or even coherence, if I were you. Though I will try to use proper grammar and keep the cursing to a minimum, (yep, that’s going to happen). And I’ll use spellcheck.

Where to start. Update the apps on my tablet. Ok, done. Spend an hour reading up on what are the best places to post my blog, check. Go smoke cigarettes, check. Pace around mumbling to myself, check. Watch Fox News blather on for a bit, check. Listen to the FBI news conference regarding the terror attack at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL....

Oh god, my brain hurts. I swear the Feds just said they edited the 911 calls received from that nut job, Mateen, during his bullet ridden rampage at Pulse nightclub because, and I’m paraphrasing now, they didn’t want to give the murderous bastard any free publicity. He’s dead dumbass. He doesn’t need any publicity. Also, I pretty sure dead people aren’t concerned with their public image. There’s no que, at the end of it all, for updating your earthly profile. There’s just not!

If the Fed’s don’t want to use words and phrases like: terrorism, Radical Islamic terrorist, Allah, ISIS and many more I’m not going to bother to type, wouldn’t want to upset the NSA and all, fine, I’ll accept that. We all know the federal government edits what they tell us. After all, the federal government admitted they think the biggest threat to them is we the American people. And what’s with the us versus them mentality anyway? I thought it was “government for the people, by the people”. Better not let us come to any conclusions for ourselves, right?

Personally, when it comes to the federal government, I just want better lies from them. It’s like they think we’re ten years old or something. It’s insulting. This wasn’t a case of gun violence. The terrorist attack on the Pulse Night club was motivated by religion, Islam to be more specific. Mateen chose that place because it catered to the LBGT community. He murdered those people because they were gay or at the very least, associated themselves with the LBGT community and lifestyle. He was (thank God for him being a "was") a radical Islamic terrorist and not a homophobic psychopath. Mateen killed innocent people because their behavior didn’t follow the tenants of his religion. It’s as simple as that.

Why we cannot just admit this, is beyond me. Maybe we’re just afraid that if we identify these evil, blood thirsty, murderous bastards with Islam, we in the West will start to wonder if every Muslin we meet is a potential threat to us. Maybe we would, but at least for the moment, the active terrorists are Muslim and the Muslim world community doesn’t seem interested in stopping them. Can you imagine the outcry from the Christian community if these kind of terrorist attacks were committed in the name of Jesus?

Yes, President Obama can remind us again and again of atrocities committed in the name of Christianity. And yes, there were plenty. But what that useless wet fish he’s become fails to tell the world; those atrocities were committed hundreds of years ago. Medieval even, as in it happened during the middle ages. Not last week! Christians are mostly peaceful. Jews are mostly peaceful. Are Muslims? Yes, I think they are, but not because the Muslim leadership preaches such, but because, it’s who they are as individuals.

But where’s the outcry from the everyday Muslim? Why aren’t the moderate Muslims crying out the way the Christian community would? Because, and this is just my opinion, you could be wrong, they feel the radicals among them have a point. I think they feel slightly guilty that they’re not doing more to curb the perceived immoral behaviors they see around them. And it’s this Islamic teaching that’s the problem. Marking those who believe and act differently than you as evil and in need of punishment is the very definition of intolerant. And promising the Islamic terrorist rewards for taking action, all I can say to that is: WTF!!!

Now, my heart goes out to the LBGT community as it would with any group targeted because they are different, with the exception of the hate groups, they can all fuck off! But that’s what happened here. A group, in this case ISIS, holds as immoral and condemned, another group, in this case the LBGT community. So ISIS puts out propaganda inciting those with weak minds to kill in gods name. I think they offer virgins and such if you die killing non-believers! Not sure what the virgins think about being offered up as a reward, but the Muslim world doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to women, so the average Muslim probably wouldn’t care what she thought. Apparently, there are also training manuals and even videos on line to help the crazies (radical Islamic terrorists) act out. And by act out, I mean KILL YOU!

This next bit is for the hacker group Anonymous, CAN’T YOU SHUT THESE ASSHOLES DOWN? (I put this bit here in case they’re watching.) Paranoid much?

Let’s continue. Here’s an interesting thought to throw in at this point. Isn’t the god of Islam the same as the god of both the Jewish and Christian religions? And in many (most?) countries with Islam as the state religion, they stone to death or otherwise execute members of the LGBT community, right? And they do it because their god told them to kill these people. Well then, I guess we should all be happy that Christianity and Judaism don’t go about evangelizing the same way. Or maybe god just tells them to do other things with their time. Perhaps a bake sale or possibly a fish fry?

And why do we in the West continuously act surprised that someone from the Muslim religion might harbor evil, yes I said EVIL, thoughts towards us? And act on them! Modern terrorism started with that bastard Yassar Arafat as far back as the late 1950’s. He killed innocent women and children to affect change. And he was a Muslim right? Although, to be fair, I think his motivation was more political than religious. He hated the Jews and wanted a country for the Palestinian people. He just used Islam to justify his actions and unite the Palestinian people.

Another interesting fact: Abraham, you remember him from the bible, he’s acknowledged as the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Think not? You know that tomb in Mecca all Muslims need to pilgrimage to at least once? Well, who do you think is buried in that tomb? Abraham, that’s who. Now, repeat after me, “sibling rivalry”?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bashing the Islamic religion, at least not any more than I’ll bash the other two religions which think their way is the only WAY. That’s to say, I’ll beat them like a redheaded stepchild. Sorry to all the redheaded stepchildren out there. I obviously don’t condone child abuse. And don’t bother to email me or comment on that last bit, I know it’s offensive. It’s just an expression. Let it go. Besides, if you’ve read this far, you know there’s plenty more to troll over. I’ll leave you with this thought. The former president of Iran, Mahmoud Im-a-nut-job (it’s actually Ahmadinejad) said, in an address to the United Nations that Islam is a tolerant religion and they will kill anyone who says otherwise. While I paraphrased that, it is what he said.