Is it that Bad, Really?
Elizabeth Warren Answers a Cop Safety Question.
By Kimboak Benham
Recently, while traveling the information super highway, my eyes came across a link to a Think Progress story. It was one of those campaign trail stories where the assigned reporter goes on the road, like a hound on the candidates tail, hoping to score a hot take and send it out to the world as breaking news.
The breaking news in this particular story, as written by Stephanie Griffith on the tail of Elizabeth Warren, was of Elizabeth’s response to a question about police safety. What would she do to improve working conditions of the men and women in blue, the public servants behind the badge of authority. The Democratic candidate, running to be her party’s nominee for President in the upcoming 2020 general elections, did not respond in kind. She did not say — not in a direct manner — what she would do to improve police safety. Instead she spoke of the unfair and unequal treatment under the law — at the hands of the criminal justice system —faced by black Americans. It is her apparent belief that if you fix what is wrong with the system, threats against the police will (in accordance with justice) lessen. Consequently to that the work environs and safety of police will also improve.
But something other came to this reader’s mind, more so than what was said about the candidates ideas — or not — about improving police safety, a thought asking; “Why do people ask such questions?” Questions implying that a major concern should be made of a matter that isn’t nearly as bad as implied. This particular one implying that those who serve and protect us do so under a constant burden of threats and fears of peril.
Are cops injured on the job? Sure. Car crashes involving cops frequently happened. They often have to deal with the mentally ill. But, cops are rarely ever the victims of gun play, especially not as seen on dramatized TV shows. Being a police officer is a taxing job, a very uncomfortable job, (as of 2017) there were nearly 700,000 law enforcement officers serving the public throughout the land, but their’s is not the most dangerous of jobs in the land. Being a cop doesn’t make the top-ten of any listing of the most dangerous jobs of which I know. According to USA Today there are thirteen levels of more dangerous jobs, including agricultural workers and construction laborers. And according to another USA Today story, using 2017 stats, that year was the second safest year for cops in the last 50. What’s the complaint really about?
I wonder, are such questions as posed to candidate Warren, sincerely asked or asked in ignorance? Are they a trap? Only asked with hopes the candidate will in return say something foolish or questionable? If left up to me, I would make it the law of the land that when a question about a pressing need is asked, that the need indeed must be as pressing as the question.
