Letter: Police are here to help

I am a retired police officer and I have never known an officer, who came to work every day, hoping that today he will be able to have a physical confrontation with someone and maybe even get to shoot them. No police officer looks forward to that.

Most of the people who chastise the police have never, in their whole life, even seen a violent confrontation, let alone have had to control it. Think about it; you are the first person on the scene of a violent situation. Those first few seconds are very, very important. Are there weapons? Has a felony been committed? Are they mentally unstable, high on drugs or alcohol? You don’t know but here you are, face to face with the combatants. You have to control it without any further injury and without being injured yourself. You can’t call the police; you are the police. If there is no respect for law enforcement and authority it can get real ugly real fast.

If a person shows respect and complies with the officers’ requests, no one is going to get shot. Once a person puts his hands on an officer, everything changes. The officer is now trying to protect himself. A suspect who is so out of control that he tries to get physical with an officer will also try to take the officer’s weapon and then someone is going to get hurt, maybe even shot. Most officers want to control a suspect’s hands for the purpose of everyone’s safety. Resistance to an officer’s requests will almost always turn out badly for the suspect. A little respect and common sense can save your life. If it takes several officers to control a suspect’s hands the situation is even more dangerous because each officer has a weapon and that suspect absolutely cannot be allowed to get possession of anyone’s weapon.

Use your head and stay alive. The officer really is there to help and protect you, whoever you are.

Ron Edwards

Lancaster