The "Law Enforcement....", edition.

Good Saturday morning!  Ok. I know the first question is how does the title if this edition gave anything to do with dialysis?  Well. I'll get to that. First of all, you should know, if you don't already know, that Brian is a retired member of the Detroit Police Department. He served over 25 years. In addition to that, I worked with the technology arm of the Detroit Police Department for about 10 years until I retired. I did special projects for DPD. Eventually I was responsible for technology for all public safety entities, including Fire, EMS and a touch of Homeland Security. The fun part was getting them all to play well together. That's a story for another day. This story is about being entrenched the culture of the police department. It's safe to say that DPD took up a majority of my time. 

 I'm going to start off with the great majority of police officers I encountered or worked with were nice, normal regular people. Folks just doing their jobs. Men and women who were invested in keeping all of the citizens of the City safe. And understand from my perspective as a technology manager, I was working with them to find technology solutions to assist with policing.  The list of projects included crime reporting, mobile crime reporting, computer aided dispatching, cameras in cars, body cameras, gunshot tracking software, GIS for vehicles, training, software to track use of force, project management, process review...the list goes on. Heck. At one point, an assistant chief had me sit in on a presentation for new badges (??? Lol. I have no idea why). I guess my point is, I knew and worked with members of DPD from the rank police officer up through the chief. 

When I first started working with DPD, I was informed of an "old boys network" within the department. In spite of the diversity of the department, an "old white boys network" did, in fact exist. I butted heads with it immediately.  Lol. My "problem" was I was a Black female burning heads into a male culture. Never mind the fact that the chief was also a Black female at the time. 

Now don't get me wrong, the great majority of the members of DPD, Black or White, were exemplary...but there were those bad apples. And they weren't overt in their bigotry, but it just oozed out of them. You could see they didn't respect their chain of command, let alone the citizens they were sworn to serve and protect. Fighting for their respect was a waste of time for me and I only worked with them if I had too.  I think they felt the same way. 

So where am I going with this?  Right now I'm so torn about the events for. The past few days. I'm outraged at the 2 Black men who were murdered by the police officers. I'm horrified by the actions of the man who hunted the white officers of the Dallas Police Department.  But I get it. How long must Black people be killed by white law enforcement before something is done?  And if nothing is done officially or the appearance of nothing, then this is only the beginning. Of course I don't condone this. My husband was a police officer. As a wife of a police officer, I didn't dwell on his job, but it always..ALWAYS was in the back of my mind. But this will escalate. Even I look at cops sideways now. At least I knew the good old boys in Detroit. But no where else. Remember how I told you how a cop car followed us in South Carolina?  The good news was that Brian, as a retired cop, knew how to handle it. 

My husband notes that these incidents usually occur in smaller jurisdictions where training is not as intense as it is in larger cities and that these smaller towns make stops primarily as revenue generators.  Seriously. When was the last time anyone in a large city was stopped for a defective taillight?  So random non life threatening stops plus bare minimum training can equal (and has resulted in) fatalities. So many unnecessary fatalities.  The other piece of the puzzle is open carry. Let's be frank. Open carry only applies to white people. A Black person with a gun is a threat. Heck. That's  why open carry has flourished. Anyway. I've digressed. 

So.  To tie this in with dialysis. My husband was a police officer. He was a good police officer. He is also,one of those people who don't panic. Which is a great skill for a law enforcement officer. Want the wrong approach?  Think about the officer pointing his gun at the mortally injured Mr Castile in Minnesota still screaming at the unresponsive man. So...last night my blood pressure dropped and it dropped fast. And I knew it. I wish I could accurately explain what that feels like, other than I feel my life slipping away. And I can't do a damn thing about it. Except let Brian know. 

Brian knows exactly what to do. He gets up, goes to the dialysis machine and immediately starts pushing saline through my blood. I need fluid and I need it now. As its being administered he continually  asks me how I'm doing. I'm flinging my blanket off, I'm tossing my blood pressure machine off. I feel my life slipping away. But Brian continues. Eventually I grasp onto that lifeline that he's offering and pull myself back to life. Brian never flinches. He's saved my life yet again.  This. This is how a police officer should respond. I know. Not everyone can do this, but remaining calm under pressure sure would ease a lot of issues. 

Well that's it for today. I get to live another day.  I hate that after working with so many good members of the Detroit Police Department, that I am now looking sideways at members of the many different law enforcement departments out here. But I don't know. And here we are.  I'm scared of them and they are scared of me. :-(.