{"id":3873,"date":"2020-06-18T17:52:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T17:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kevinflint.net\/?p=3873"},"modified":"2020-06-18T18:36:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T18:36:03","slug":"love-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/love-one-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Love one another"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2020 has been a crazy year. Just when you thought 2016 was polarizing and could not be topped, 2020 said, \u201chold my beer!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>We are living with a pandemic during a polarizing election year, tensions are high, unarmed black men are being murdered in public with complete disregard while with phone cameras were rolling, and people are frustrated with the status quo. <\/p>\n<p>A lot of questions are being asked and demands are being made. Why do things have to stay the same? Why can\u2019t a bad law be changed to make it right? People are standing up and saying just because it\u2019s been done one way in the past doesn\u2019t make it right to do now. <\/p>\n<p>Somewhere along the way, we forgot to love one another and not be so complacent in our own lives. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s time to work on fixing the problems like racism in policing, but also rejoice in the victories like how companies can no longer fire someone based on sexual orientation. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Medium Rectangle 300 x 250 --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3000050854101472\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"2650832857\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s talk policing. Police reform is more about government reform. I\u2019ve worked as a journalist in newspaper and broadcast radio and have witnessed the best of the best and worst of the worst in law enforcement. I\u2019ve witnessed first hand horrible officers remaining on the job because of red tape, government bureaucracy\ufffc, and horribly written laws. <\/p>\n<p>I know what one officer did and he knows I know about it, but there isn\u2019t more than circumstantial evidence against him and witnesses won\u2019t talk about it except off the record. One time I was set to do a police ride along. When I got there and the officers were deciding which one of them I would ride with, I looked at that horrible officer and asked, \u201cwhat about you? Where is your post tonight?\u201d because I knew it would make him uncomfortable. He immediately\ufffc looked the ground and said he \u201cmostly had paperwork to compete in the office\u201d that night and couldn\u2019t do it, even though he was on patrol all night. <\/p>\n<p>As soon as I said that, a Sargent poked me in my side and said, \u201cNot him!!! Never him!!!\u201d Then the head of the department (think Chief\/Sheriff) pulled me to the side and told me not to ride with that officer because he is a horrible officer, he will one day get the department in trouble, and he can\u2019t fire this officer because he only has the authority to fire officers for major offenses. The department head told me that officer does something different everyday that he should get fired for, but he can\u2019t do anything about it. Even on things he has the authority to fire an officer for, that officer has to go before an internal affairs or policing board outside the department for an actual official firing. That is a broken system! Horrible officers like this one are the ones looking for opportunities to take advantage of people, use their power to do harm, sexually assault, abuse, and sometimes even murder unarmed black citizens at will. <\/p>\n<p>Our government is so overrun with bureaucracy and protection of its own government workforce, it allows horrible officers to remain on the job to the dismay of his\/her fellow officers. These other officers were embarrassed to work in a department with the officer I am referring to, but there was nothing they, or the commanding officer, could do about it. This one officer made the entire department look bad despite having a lot of great officers. <\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure most, if not all, of the officers involved in murdering unarmed black citizens were just like the officer I mentioned. They were all protected by poorly written laws on the books, a weak law defining \u201cnecessary force\u201d\ufffc, lack of laws requiring officers to relinquishing\ufffc \u201cnecessary \ufffcforce\u201d down to \u201cequal force\u201d once a suspect has been subdued, lack of laws requiring good officers at any level of training or rank to step in and protect a citizen, and other laws that need to be changed. We have a system that allows evil and racist officers to walk the streets with more power than you or I have with no consequences. <\/p>\n<p>Officers like the one I mentioned, and those whom have murdered citizens, have been allowed to get away with anything for far too long. Reform starts with new laws to <strong>allow commanding officers to clean house and relieve these \ufffchorrible officers of their duties<\/strong>. Then continue with <strong>new laws and new policies designed to protect the citizens<\/strong>. It might not be easy to write a new law, but it isn\u2019t hard either. New laws need to be implemented to <strong>take the power out of the hands of bureaucrats and ending tenure practices that allow officers to not be punished<\/strong>. If you are bad at your job, you will get fired. Shouldn\u2019t <strong>officers be held to the same, but even higher, standards<\/strong>?! I promise, most officers I know are great. They work for far less money than most of us make and proudly volunteer to stand between you and a bullet no matter your race, religion, sexual orientation, or believes. It\u2019s time we stop protecting those who are not in this category. Those are the officers doing harm and the racist ones will end up taking advantage of this antiquated system and protections. If you are going to put your knee on someone&#8217;s neck for almost 9-minutes, this isn&#8217;t the first time you have done something wrong and others know about it. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Medium Rectangle 300 x 250 --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3000050854101472\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"2650832857\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Everything isn\u2019t bad though. For the first time, laws are being reviewed and action is starting! <\/p>\n<p>Just this week, the United States Supreme Court handed down a bi-partisan decision to ban companies from firing someone based on sexual orientation. Things are looking up. Just remember this message and make it clear in your head: Love one another. <\/p>\n<p>Pictured is Devin Williams of Arizona climbing in the Obed Wild &#038; Scenic Area in East Tennessee on Monday. He is proudly supporting Pride Month and the court\u2019s decision. This was a major victory in protecting individuals and a community from discrimination. <\/p>\n<p>Keep fighting against what is wrong, but don&#8217;t overlook the victories along the way. Despite what you read and see from news outlets, there is more good than bad. <\/p>\n<p><strong>This world is filled with too much hate and you shouldn\u2019t waste your energy on it. If you receive hate, keep your head high and stand strong. If you give hate, learn, listen, and stop hating. Even if you don\u2019t agree with someone, love one another! <\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/kevinflint.net\/aboutkevinflintfooter888.html\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#top\">Back to the top of this page<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async defer data-pin-hover=\"true\" data-pin-tall=\"true\" src=\"\/\/assets.pinterest.com\/js\/pinit.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2020 has been a crazy year. Just when you thought 2016 was polarizing and could not be topped, 2020 said,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3891,"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions\/3891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluekeyhost.com\/kevinflint2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}