DOWN THE BARREL

​"So, you're being treated poorly by Police? Have you tried not breaking the law to see if that helps?"  I’ve read or heard this sarcastic more than a few times recently.
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The year was 1994 and I recently moved to Baltimore.  I walked out of the row house I just moved into and walked down the street to the corner store.  As I entered the store I heard someone yelling and turned to see what was going on.  I turned around and found myself looking into the barrel of a gun.  I saw someone quickly move around behind me and started patting on my clothing.  The person aiming the gun at my face began to rattle off questions, "Do you have any weapons, do you have any drugs, what are you doing here, where do you live?"  I committed no crime, I was not selling or buying drugs, I possessed no weapon and I was wearing a jacket similar to the one pictured.  The only difference with the jacket I was wearing was mine had my last name sewn on the outside of it, because I had recently been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.  Turns out these were policemen who were not in uniform and after they were decided they were finished I watched as they entered a car waiting for them and drove away.    
At the time, I thought well they are only doing their job. WRONG! I would learn later, after attending a police academy that these men violated the law they took oaths to uphold.  What warranted a firearm being removed from the holster and aimed at my face?  Its practices and tactics such as I what I described that people are fed up with experiencing.  Everyone is not breaking the law, or committing acts that even require police engagement.  I’m tired of hearing about good or bad police because if the good ones actually did their job they would be just as vigilante to rid agencies and departments of the bad ones.  There are actually some people who really just want to live their life as best they can and not be treated any differently than those that choose to throw around your self-righteous slogans.

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