As children, most of us are told to trust the men and women
in uniform with badges and as we grow up we soon learn to both fear and respect
them, this authority that is both our protectors and our teachers placed within
our society to make it a better place.
But as the years have gone by it seems this ‘authority’ has
lost its true meaning over time. As a result we have the young of today looking
at them with suspicious eyes and harsh judgement and to be honest, can we blame
them?
Looking back at this year, 2013, we see a staggering amount
of police cases involving their own people in charges that have them acting
against their call of duty. According to an eNCA article, about 13 000
criminal cases are said to have cop involvement and I’m guessing those are just
the ones reported.
Now I don’t know about you, but if I saw this on the news
just before I was about to go out with friends after exams I sure as hell would
feel the same as those PandaTeens*.
Any female driving
alone at night would already [should already…O_O] be on their guard as they
travel those dark pothole-riddle roads. They shouldn’t, however, have to worry
about having to protect themselves from their protectors.
I’d rather get a high speed fine than stop in that situation,
granted I wouldn't want to end up like the dearly departed Paul Walker [R.I.P]
and his friend, Roger Rodas, but I’d honestly still choose that over the fate
of having the ‘authority’ that I was raised to respect, fear and honour be
sullied by some moron along with any sense of actual safety in the world being destroyed.
What about all the
males driving home from a long day at the office, stopped over by the
police at that good old festive road block […you know just helping out their
traffic comrades in these busy times when pickings just so happen to be ripe…]
to do the mandatory yet seemingly random checks, that just so happens to
involve every sun-tanned, young, wealthy-looking or even all of the above
individual for any misbehaviour.
Should these guys really be shoved to the ground like
criminals? Simply because they refused to grease some dirty palms after they
just spent a whole day working so that a percentage of their hard-earnings could
be taken into the country’s wallet, that’s already meant to be paying for their
services and dedication not some ‘fire pool’ that’s only ever going to
extinguish bruised ego.
All this happening and we should question our youth’s
distrust in the police? I'm still surprised they listen to any elders at all,
at this rate, though it would seem they are learning quickly to abandon that
trust too, but again, can we blame them?
Personally, I don’t think we’re giving them much to look up
to. We’re allowing this crap to happen, so of course they’ll rebel and reject
it, before conforming into it –only then just to survive.
The youth are constantly exposed to the unfortunate failings
of our justice system and that can’t be changed without the justice system
being, itself, changed for the better.
Older generations can argue out their hair follicles about how the
children should just accept it as it is, but we so often forget who the
labourers are that push things forward.
The youth don’t trust what they can’t see. The same goes for
everyone else. The only difference is that anyone older has probably had the
lucky chance of seeing the good the police has done in the past and knowing the
good such an authority has on a society and a country.
The young people just need to be taught that and the police
that aren't attacking women in the night or harassing men on the roads should
start stepping into the light and showing the youth ‘WE EXIST!’
*Panda Research
survey done on teenagers*
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