Some know this and some don’t so I will say this up front. My wife is a police officer and it undoubtedly influences how I feel about the police.
Officer Richard Francis is, as many have said, an unsung hero. Everyday there are hundreds of thousands of men and women who put on a badge, leave their home and head to a roll call somewhere not knowing for sure that everything will be okay in eight or nine hours. They go out into places that most people would be reluctant to go. They deal with people many cross the street to avoid. They are called upon to play so many roles in a day it makes you wonder what is wrong with society. If only a legislator could live the problem rather than hear about it.
The first line of care many poor mentally ill folks encounter is the beat cop simply responding to a disturbance call. They get there, if they are lucky enough to be with a partner, and have to immediately become a psychologist working the person down from some inappropriate heightened state of behavior to a place where they can hopefully get them home, wherever home may be. They respond to the calls of parents who have called the police because they just can’t handle their kids anymore. All they want the police to do is take them, as if they were giving away the keys to an old beat up Chevy that needs some work to run right. There are the husbands and wives, parents and children and so many others who just can’t seem to get along tonight so one of them has to go, to jail if it has gotten out of control. This is the life of a patrolman. Simple situations that seem like nothing, that will not turn into anything, and then someone is hurt. Or worse.
That’s what it sounds like happened to Officer Francis. It was a woman he knew. She was someone he reportedly had dealt with before. Someone he didn’t believe to be a threat and now he is dead. His family and friends have lost someone they loved. The families of police officers all across Chicago, and I suspect the world, know the feeling of hearing the tease on the news flash about an officer being killed while you know your officer is at work. It is impossible for it not to cross your mind about where your loved one is. Different people get past it in different ways, but I know that it always makes me stop for a moment and hope she is okay.
People get upset when the police follow procedure. They assume that somehow it is just obvious to police officers who is dangerous and who isn’t. Police Officers should know who is a good person and who isn’t. But it isn’t that easy. It is at best a dangerous guess. Does it seem like forcing an employee to make a life determining gamble on a guess several times a shift is a reasonable expectation of an employee? One can only assume that Officer Francis made the assumption that he was safe. And as we all know now he wasn’t.
It is easy to be upset when you are getting that ticket. It is easy to be excited when the traffic safety check catches you on a cell phone without an ear piece. Most cops are decent human beings out there doing a job and trying to protect us. A little understanding would make their day a whole lot better and it just might help with the ticket as well.
