I hate to read story after story about bad cops who act with brutality.
I hate to read stories about bad people in any organization--people whose lack of respect, professional skill, and ability harm and hurt others.
What can we do?
No matter what organization you belong to, you have to work with others for betterment. No public employee is perfect--no matter what organization you work for, you will find that people sometimes use poor judgement, lose their cool, and make mistakes. This happens and this is wrong, but what is worse is when organizations don't work to remedy situations like this right away before they become patterns of abuse, destruction, and even death.
If you knowingly work in situations where abuse occurs and you don't speak up and act against this abuse, you too are part of the problem.
Educators who work with those who may abuse their power or hurt others, and don't speak up and act for better, are part of the problem.
Police officers who work with those who abuse their power or hurt others, and don't speak up and act for better, are part of the problem.
Political leaders who work with those who abuse their power and hurt others, and don't speak up and act for better, are part of the problem.
Most problems with regard to hate and hurt start small with single words, acts, mindets, and decisions--when these errant ways begin there is an immediate chance to thwart this abuse and danger right away.
I remember a time when I made an error at school, and a colleague spoke up to me right away. I was wrong and that colleague's words righted me before any grave harm happened or a troubling pattern began. My colleague had the courage to speak up to me. There have been many other times in my life when I've used poor judgement, and every time, there was someone there who helped me to see the error of my ways by speaking up. These people were valuable teachers to me--they helped me to right my path time and again.
We need to be both listeners and actors when it comes to doing the right thing. We can't sit passively by and let poor decisions, disrespect, hate, and harm persist--we have to speak up and act, and we have to do this while issues are small as this ends the threat for worse, more disrespectful, and dangerous actions to develop.
I do believe that we have to re-imagine the police. I believe we have to dissect what we know as the police organization and remake it in ways that uplift society rather than bring society down. I believe we have to re-imagine all public organizations in ways that prepare those organizations to forward the best of who we can be as a people, country, and world--this process of revision needs to regularly occur everywhere with an eye on betterment. This is critical.
Sadly, we know have leadership in the White House that looks backwards for any solution. Their "Make American Great Again" is a rally call for a world that doesn't exist anymore. Instead we need intelligent, forward thinking leadership that recognizes the fact that we've ignored the potential for betterment that exists and we've forgotten the importance of letting the most experienced and intelligent public servants lead. We can do better. We must.