I can honestly say that I don't enjoy how my country is being hit by cries and protests to defund the police. But, I can't blaim them. Today I neither trust or respect law enforcement in my state. It didn't use to be that way. I remember when I was growing up, most of our city and county officers were like Andy Griffith and Barney Fife. They helped us when we were lost. When I drove alone for the first time and wrecked my mothers car they helped me and the car get home, granted I still got a ticket for driving with out a license. When there was a bad break up, the police were there to help and make sure a person got all there stuff and no one got out of line. My first time changing a car tire, was actually an officer on duty checking to make sure there wasn't an accident. She took the time to show me what to do and how to do it right. 

Today's law enforcement is different. If you have a blown out tire and no spare, they will sit in their car with the lights flashing and not lift a finger to help you. They seem to love the tactics of ensnaring and entrapment. If there is no evidence they will fabricate and plant what they need. There is corruption that has grown like a horrid cancer of society. They now have a stalking culture to them. Once they have you for a fine for something small, they follow you for days and weeks and nail you for every citation they can find. I can't help but think about the decepticon police car Barricade from transformers, with the phrase "To Punish and Enslave" in bold letters across his side. It's a sad reality that our law enforcement has turned into that. 

That leaves me with the wonder of what do we do about that now? Sadly all I can think is comparing to movies like V for Vendetta. Our society is not that far from that type of dystopia at all. Is there even a way to bring back what use to be? Now I do understand there is actually quite a few good officers that do everything thing they can, to serve and protect. But alas, their hands are often tied by regulations and insurance issues. I started looking into that side of the issue after my best friend showed up at my work still in tears after an eight mile walk. To shorten the story, there was a domestic dispute that escalated to the boys in blue being called. As the conflict had not turned physical there could be no arrest. She was told she had to leave the premise immediately and could not go inside to retrieve her things. The closest place she had to go was my house, a fourteen mile walk. The cops refused to give her a ride, or even call her a cab, or call me at work or anything. She was on her own and hoofing it. Long story short, being this was my "sister" and I am offen defined as a "mama bear" I went to the precinct to simply raise hell, speak my mind, and brow beat every officer I saw. Thankfully for the department the first officer I encountered was my cousin. I screamed, I ranted, I cried injustice, I hit him more then once, he hit me more then once. I found out a couple months later that several other officers were making bets on who would be left standing. But I'm digressing again. At any rate, after everything was said and done, a few officers showed me the paperwork and requirements for why they did what they did. I was surrounded by heart broken faces as I realized they were not allowed to help because of the insurance company and fear. If they had called me or the cab, and one of us had picked her up, and then there was a car wreck involving her, then the precinct would be responsible for paying 100% of the damages, insurance processing and all other manners of fees, and the officer deemed responsible for the interaction would be suspended with out pay, and eventually terminated. 

That insurance clause applies to so many of the aspects of an officers job. It brought me back to my clinicals in college, and my choice to drop out of the medical field. So many choices of what could be done came down to insurance companies and not what the situation demanded to make sure people were ok and going to survive. The worst clause in my opinion, was the one I read about using firearms and deadly force. Basically to sum it up and paraphrase how I understood it, if an officer was in a situation against an armed individual the insurance company would only cover damages if the officer fired first. If the armed individual fired first, and then the officer returned fire, the officer could be held responsible for medical bills and damages to the armed individual. 

As you can see, there is corruption and there is faulty policy and procedures. And I can understand why several European countries have law enforcement that is unarmed. But the bottom line is there has to be a better solution then defunding the police. There has to be a way to fix things so that we have more Barney Fifes, and not so many Boss Hogs.