As a musician, for years I’ve been accustomed to being that one, crappy car coming down the road at 2:00 a.m. after a gig or recording session and the blue lights go off behind me. I ask myself, “What did I do?” Inevitably, the heart starts racing and in my mind, I run through the last few minutes to find the reason I am being pulled over. Sometimes I know, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes it’s justified, sometimes I feel it’s not. But I don’t have all of the facts. What I do know is that my own Utopian view of the world would include police officers because we need them. I know history. I know reality and I’ve encountered my share of criminals and police are needed to counter them.
As usual, I choose to exercise my Civil Rights with a concealed firearm on my person. I understand that nature and man put situations in our paths where we suddenly find ourselves prey. This has always been the case and will always be no matter how much we wish it weren’t so and it usually happens when we least expect it. As a man of reason, I am not going to put my life, and those I love, in the hands of hope, against all statistics. I am prepared. Fortunately, I live in a time and place when the right to defend oneself with a firearm is the law.
Individuals who demonstrate anger in encounters with the police are playing a sort of negative lottery. The odds are stacked against them. Chances are they will lose right then and there.
Those who act aggressively, especially when it comes to police encounters, are asking for trouble. Claims of discrimination for simple police encounters demonstrate ignorance of the law. Are Black Americans more likely to have police encounters? Yes, which is all the more reason to act with civility and courtesy to help diffuse possible tension. If anyone has a gripe with government, they have the right to change it peacefully through any number of legal tools at their disposal. Voting out the political party that has dominated a troubled community for decades would be a good start. After all, the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. Encounters with the police are no exception.
©2016, Matt Fitzgibbons: PatriotMusic.com
Send this to a friend