In a nation as big as America its pretty easy to find examples that seem to back up a position. For example there is a video from Gettysburg showing a bunch of motorcycle Trump supporters who went there to engage a non existent protest badgering a minister wearing a BLM shirt.
You can see it here.
Clearly not the best representatives of anything but they certainly don't represent every Trump supporter. Similarly there are plenty of examples of Black on Black violence to be had, here's a nasty one from the Bronx. You can see that here. It shows a murder so fair warning.
Neither of these show people at their best but what do the represent? Incidents that in the overall scheme of things show us that we have a lot of people doing a lot of things some of which are pretty bad.
Its pretty obvious that the increase in surveillance cameras, cell phone videos and police body cams are showing a lot more visual images than we had years ago. Are things worse today or just more on view?
There is no way to justify a crowd trying to instigate an incident with a pastor for wearing a shirt they didn't like, shooting people dead in the street or the images of a police officer kneeling on the neck of a restrained person.
I knew a lot of police over the years and they, after a few drinks, would talk about things they did or people they knew did to protect each other. It generally elicited a laugh or grin since we were all being friendly and no one thought about the people they were doing these things to.
I can't really know if the stories were even true but I would certainly react differently today.
They weren't bad people, in fact they were friends, but based on their stories some of them might have done bad things.
I also knew people in the Bronx when I was young who weren't angels on the other side. It does seem like violence on the streets is much worse than it used to be. I tend to think its because guns are more widely available but I don't really know.
America has a lot of people, most of whom are fairly law abiding and peaceful. Some do bad things but they don't represent the rest. This is true of the police as well as everyone else.
The police however have a higher standard to live up to. They are supposed to maintain order and protect the people. Not just the ones they like. They need to enforce high standards and they need to be supported while they do.
Hiding behind the blue wall is just not acceptable anymore. With all the camera its probably not possible.
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