For the past several years, there has been increased scrutiny on police officers and their usage of force. As incidents of force being employed by police and other law enforcement agencies continue to be scrutinized at microscopic levels, police officers have often found themselves in a disadvantageous position – damned if they do use force, damned, and possibly dead, if they don’t.

It is important to note that it is true that police officers are given a lot of power, with the authority to detain people against their will and to use force when they deem it necessary. Such powers should be monitored carefully, and comprehensive investigations be made into incidents which involve those special powers that police officers are privilege to.

But at the same time, it is equally imperative to allow law enforcement personnel, the men and women who offer to lay their lives on the line for others safety day in and day out, to operate in a manner which provides them the greatest level of safety possible when performing their duties in hostile environments. Due to the extreme danger inherent in the job of a police officer, the individual circumstances of each and every incident must be clear before categorizing an officer as a racist, bully, or murderer.

Although this is probably obvious to most everyone reading this, it apparently was not very obvious to a New Jersey publication who ran what they called an “exhaustive” report into the use of force by every police force in the state. In an article accompanying the report, they specifically singled out Lakewood as having an unusually high disparity of police utilizing force against minorities versus usage of force against non-minorities. Nowhere in their “exhaustive” report did they attempt to dig into the details of force usage. That glaring hole in the report underscores the inaccuracy of the “exhaustive” nature of said report, as well as the lack of journalistic integrity on the part of the reports compilers.

I can’t speak to the specifics of the incidents in which force was used by Lakewood police officers. I can only share my own experiences and cast the benefit of doubt upon them. Lakewood’s finest are known to be just that – fine. Polished, professional, and compassionate, they are there to keep us safe. When a publication comes at them with accusations, they are not coming at an anonymous, faceless bureaucracy. They are attacking the glue that keeps the fabric of our democracy strong and provides us shelter from a society which would otherwise devolve into a lawless state of anarchy. When they come at the cops, they’re coming at us.

Again, it is important that their power be used correctly and investigations be conducted as necessary. But let us not forget what these men and women stand for – OUR liberty, OUR freedom, OUR safety. The next time you see a police officer, lend a smile, a wave, a thank you for all they do for us. Their jobs are intense and stressful as it is, they don’t need the general population eyeing them with hatred and disdain.

They are there for us when we need them, we must be there for them when they need us too.