Republican National Convention - Day One

                It’s the Republican’s convention this week. Time to make the parties presidential pick (the pee, pee and pee, which is odd since it’s all a load of excrement) official. Since it looks like it will be Trump/Pence, the TP’s covered like the house of a teacher no one likes. It’s also time to see which party elites will get on board with “The Donald”. So far, the unifying theme: anyone but Hillary. The Never Trump movement did try to get some traction on day one and force a rules vote. However, behind the scenes political maneuvering killed that dead in its tracks. (Ok, enough with mixing and torturing metaphors. Bad writer!)

                What can I say about the Republican convention? Snore comes to mind. Like many, I was hoping for some drama. Fistfights on the floor and Preacher Cruz (I mean, doesn’t Senator Ted Cruz sound like a southern televangelist?) trying to pull a rope-a-dope and steal the nomination through political favors. At this point I’d settle for a little mayhem and malarkey. (I just wanted to use malarkey in a sentence.) I do think we haven’t heard the last from Preacher Cruz. Regrettably, whatever he pulls out his ass will amount to nothing more than political theater, and not very entertaining.

There are plenty of protests outside the venue and the Never Trump movement tried to make a scene on day one. Unfortunately, conservatives just don’t have the same level of passion as liberals. Not to mention the violence. Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliana did do a reasonable impression of Howard Dean and screamed his speech. Not sure why he chose to deliver it that way. His speech was all about respecting law enforcement. I guess speeches about that subject need to be screamed at us like a swat team yelling commands as they execute a raid. Who knew?

After day one of the convention, the best the opposition could say was that Melania’s speech was similar to First Lady Michelle Obamas’ 2008 speech and hint at plagiarism. Mountains out of mole hills, people. On a side note: I will now refer to “The Donald’s” wife and Melanoma. I’m a busy person with shit to do. I’m not stopping to try and remember how to pronounce her name correctly. That seems to be the big news, speech plagiarism that is, not my nickname for “The Donald’s” wife.

It doesn’t matter that the theme for day one was “Make America Safe Again”. All the speeches revolved around this theme. Although, I think, given the recent violence against police, they meant “Make Police Feel Safe Again”. If they want that to happen, it’s probably best the police stop murdering, on camera, (not that I’m saying they should do it off camera) black people. It does look like the new normal is retaliation. Simple math here, police murder black people and some of the less savory among the black population murder police. I’m not condoning violence on either side, but really, what do we expect to happen?

Check back tomorrow for a recap on day two. The nomination of “The Donald”? Maybe we’ll get a little drama out of that process. Preacher Cruz is scheduled to preach; I mean, deliver a speech. And where is former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner when we need a crier? I’m just saying!

As always, that’s just my opinion. You could be wrong!

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!