Tuesday, June 18, 2019

The law and our children




Policemen need to be perfect; this is a simple truth. Imperfection in a job that can cost people their lives, has no place. Sorry but that is absolute the truth, so if you are not hiring the best educated, the most honest people, you are doing society a disservice. If you are not instilling the “civil service” part and the “public safety” part, you are being criminal.

An airline pilot that accidentally crashes planes will not be a pilot for long, a doctor or nurse that accidentally kills patients will probably be prosecuted and certainly sued. Heck, teaching is a profession where we acknowledge and embrace mistakes, teachers get vilified, hounded, sued, and prosecuted for things that would not make the news if they were not teachers. Bus drivers that crash, taxi drivers that drive drunk, train conductors that derail trains; all these people would lose their jobs and probably be in jail. How come a police officer that kills people is exempt?

Police get exonerated because they ‘followed procedure”, we know the procedure is wrong, but so be it. However, when police are hurting, maiming, and killing kids; how can they be following any kind of procedure? When we lock away a teenager for 65 years for a teenage mistake, when we treat them as an adult when they are no where near being one, what does that say about the value a society places on our kids?

For a supposedly ‘civilized and developed” society, we have some very barbaric views and practices when it comes to children, because even the most primitive cultures for the most part have a simple and sacred rule about children. CHILDREN ARE TO BE PROTECTED!

How does a society allow police officers to hurt and kill our children and not only face no legal consequence but keep their jobs?

Am I missing something here? What changed? Or have we always allowed this, and we are just noticing?

Law enforcement is a job, it is not a profession, because a profession means you have truly certified professionals doing the job. Maybe it is time we required professionals?

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

PS, there is no justification possible for what is happening, so please do not troll and give the usual arguments.