Where Do Cops Come From?

There seems to be some very different schools of thought on where police officers actually come from.  As it turns out, they come from just about everywhere.

Society would like to tell us that they were the kids bullied in school.  The short, cocky guys with no friends that had a universal grudge match to settle.  Or the bullies that need to be in control of everything to feel important.  Or people that are just plain a-holes.  I’m certain that there are actually a full set of these people wearing badges and carrying guns.  But they are definitely the exception, not the rule.

I can tell you that from what I see from the inside of a police home – they are much different than what society would like everyone to believe.  They are the fixers, the helpers, the ones that raise their hand first in a crisis.  And suit up when everyone else is still looking around the room for someone to step up.

I’ve heard many police wives say that their husbands were “called” to serve.  Much like our military.  It’s in them and they go.  It takes a very specific kind of person with a gentle soul to be able to navigate what gets thrown at them in a single day.

Police officers are all very different from each other, as well.  There are the big, angry looking officers that bark instead of speak.  There are the average-sized, pleasant faced officers that you wonder if they’re actually officers.  And everything in between.  As it turns out, police officers are just regular people and they come in an infinite variety of personalities.  But one thing they all have in common – they run in when everyone else is running out.

Police officers don’t all come from two-parent households with formal college educations and letterman’s jackets.  Some do.  They don’t all come from the ghettos of the city where they were raised by single mothers and avoided getting in trouble.  Some do.  They aren’t all brothers or sisters or aunts or uncles or parents.  Some are.  They aren’t all military veterans or kids of military veterans.  Some are.  They aren’t all kids of first responders.  Some definitely are.

Society would have us also believe they are all seeping in hatred and racism. They’re not all white bread, white privileged, racist cops.  Some are.  But those are typically dealt with swiftly.  The thin blue line can be quite intolerant of smudges and dings on its integrity.