Today I got up and checked the news and weather, the news said 6 cops had been shot in the City I grew up in and worked in. One had died, the rest were seriously injured. I could feel the rage starting to build inside. I found out who the officers were. I knew some of them....worked with them, bled with them. We had our differences true.
Jumped on Face book and started to read the hatred spewing forth... People saying kill the fucking cops, and hating on the cops.... other people saying the same shit about the guy who shot the cops.... every one hating angry and hurt. Then I jumped to a friends page by this time I was near blowing up. Anger boiling over... My friend is an old adversary from the street. Yes, we were adversaries, a definite line drawn between us. Me a cop, gang cop no less on one side......him a Crip, banger, street reputation as a soldier on the other. Between us is respect... Hard to imagine for an outsider how two adversaries can have that respect. But there it is
Guess who is teaching his FB. friends about respect... respect of another human being. The Crip, take a look at the post I cut and pasted from his page:
"The police have nothing to do with your choices....nor do they sentence any of us that choose to violate others....when called they are called by many around you...either to protect you or others around you...encounters with the police are choices we choose....good or bad....death is a spiritual fight amongst good. and evil..."
and then..........."In order to understand ....you must first experience loss...not loss of life...nor loss of freedom...but loss of ones own hate..."
I was stunned. To be painfully honest this brought tears to my eyes. No one will ever know how these street soldiers tried to make others realize we are all in this together.... we all make mistakes, some really big damn mistakes, take lives in anger, hate others we don't know. Fire weapons in rage.... people on both sides of the law have done that, myself included.
To me this is the difference in the world today. The old school, be they cops, gang bangers, criminals or what ever had a code... Respect. No matter what, respect was present. You may be adversaries, you may end up in life and death battles with each other... but you respected each other as human beings. The new up and coming on the street on both sides.... have forgot the code. Today a soldier died....he has the respect of both sides of the old school. These are my thoughts... had to put them out there in the Web... cant let this go unnoticed. Z
We are all in this together.
ReplyDeleteWell said Zach.
Well said. Brought tears to my eyes. I've never experienced that life, I'm thankful for that, but I understand respect among adversaries. The attitudes of some are hard to take, even harder to work past.
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