"I, do
solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and maintain the Constitution
and laws of the United States, and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina
not inconsistent herewith; that I will be alert and vigilant to enforce the
criminal laws of this State; that I will not be influenced in any manner on
account of personal bias or prejudice; that I will faithfully and impartially
execute the duties of my office as a law enforcement officer according to the
best of my skill, abilities, and judgment; so help me, God."
That, my friends, is the Oath of Office for a Law
Enforcement Officer in the state of North Carolina. Prior to being able to execute your duties of
enforcing the law, you are required to take the oath.
Technically, we are referred to in a position title as
Peace officers. As such, we are a
entrusted with, “Keeping the peace”, on a daily basis, and it has actually
become a personal favorite phrase of mine, although I can’t take credit for it,
that phrase belongs to Sgt. Greg Parker from the TV show Flashpoint (Which, if
you want to watch a police show, it is honestly one of if not the best I’ve
ever seen).
Before I go any further, I feel the need to clarify. I am not a police officer. I am a college student with the hopes and
admirations of one day wearing the badge, and honoring those who came before me
by upholding that oath and protecting and serving the public on a daily
basis. My father is a Chief of Police
and has been for 21 years now, while being a police officer for more than 39. My Uncle was a police officer for 30
(Retiring as a lieutenant) years, and my Aunt served as well (That’s actually
how they came to meet). I will be damn
proud of the day I become the first
second generation member of my family to be a LEO (Law Enforcement Officer).
If there is another profession in America that gets more
heat and doesn’t get enough recognition for the things that they do, I would love
to see it. For simply doing their job,
they are constantly threatened with taunts such as ‘I’ll have your badge for
this!’, ‘Don’t you have real criminals you should be dealing with?’, ‘Gotta
meet your ---ing quota, huh, ---hole’, and many others. Driving around on patrol you see more middle
fingers than Kanye West would get at a Taylor Swift concert, and at any event
with alcohol you get more poured on you than your average college student could
drink in a given night.
You work
long hours for very little pay comparatively, dealing with the scum of society
and with the threat that you might not make it home at the end of the day. Each encounter you must be on your guard, for
you never know who may try and pull a gun on you, who may try and drive away
with you hanging on the car during a traffic stop, or who may be luring you
into an ambush. If you go on a domestic
violence call (by far the most dangerous aside from the obvious of a man with a
gun), one minute the spouse is screaming at you to arrest her husband as he
just beat the ---t out of her, the next she’s clawing at your neck as you cuff
him because you’re taking away the love of her life.
Everyone feels the need to videotape
you, regardless of whether you’re in a fight for your life or if you are just
having a simple conversation with a passer-by.
They trust you about as far as they can throw you, but when you take
down an armed criminal or the local drug dealer then suddenly you are their
best friend, at least for for about 5 minutes, then it’s back to normal.
Tis the life of a Police
Officer.
Whenever one gets pulled
over for a traffic infraction, they always tend to blame the officer for
profiling or some kind of misconduct, whether it be a quota or an alleged
fabrication of the event. When you work
enough high-speed fatality accidents, suddenly controlling speed seems pretty
important to you. When you work enough
accidents where simply wearing a seat belt would’ve saved the person’s life,
you see how important they can be. When
you are there to comfort a man in the final moments of his life as he sits in
his mangled mess of what used to be a car, you’ll see why we write citations
and attempt to get you to slow down.
When you have to go tell a family that their baby, their pride and joy,
or their father, husband, mother, whatever, won’t ever be coming back because
they were in a car accident, it changes your perspective on things.
I have never been to a law
enforcement funeral. I hope that’s a
statement that I can take with me to the grave, but given the way the world
works I have a feeling I won’t be so lucky.
Each year, more than 100 officers are killed in the line of duty. These men, these heroes, who made the
ultimate sacrifice to protect and serve the citizens of their town, city,
state, and nation, will never be forgotten.
For each time the uniform is put on, each time we strap on the vest and
snap our holster into place, they are remembered in our hearts.
The poet Walt Whitman once
wrote, “I dream’d in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the
whole of the rest of the earth.” This is
the vision that we all share. Reality
forces us to come to the conclusion that that day is not yet upon us, so as it
is, police officers toe that thin blue line that separates society from order
and chaos. They protect those that
cannot protect themselves, and at the end of the day, the reward is often
nothing more than going home satisfied that you did the right thing.
Someday in the near future,
I will join this illustrious and time-honored fraternity, and become the first
second generation member of my family to wear the badge. The goal I have for my life is to make a
difference in the world, and to make a difference in the lives of those around
me, and I can only hope that I get the opportunity and the privilege to do
so. Whether it’s something as simple as
writing a speeding ticket that gets a man to slow down and saves his life, or
getting the drunk driver off the road so the family of four coming home from a
movie actually gets home, removing an abusive husband and father from a
household so that his family can live in peace, or putting a murder suspect
behind bars forever so that the victim’s family can finally get some closure,
law enforcement is blessed with the incredible power to right the wrongs of
society, and change things for the better.
However,
they are also blessed with an eternal curse.
You see, in law enforcement, much like any other profession, things are
measured in wins and losses. However, in
this line of work, it’s not measured in statistics. You can’t find it in a profit/loss report and
excel won’t be much help either. The
wins help you sleep easier at night, while the losses haunt you forever. There are a trusted few that can handle the
job, and all that comes with it.
In closing, I just ask that
the next time you see a police officer, thank him for everything he does for
you. The next time you get pulled over,
recognize why that officer has pulled you over.
The next time you get asked by the police if you can help out a case,
and you can actually help, please, do it.
One of the most beautiful things we as humans have the power to do is
make a difference in the world. If you
ever get that opportunity, please do so.
And
if it happens to be while you’re the one wearing a badge, keep the peace
brother.
