"Have you ever shot anybody?"

This is my least favorite question for someone to ask my dad. I mean, how does someone automatically assume peace officer = gunman? Because they carry guns? Why don't they ask just about every man here in Texas the same thing?

I don't remember asking my dad that except for once. I was somewhere between 11 and 13 I think. Maybe I was older. He told me that one time he arrived on scene just in time to witness a man get stabbed fatally. The wounded man ran over to my dad's squad car and died holding on to the driver's door. The murderer was standing in front of an interstate full of drivers. Dad pointed his gun but didn't shoot for fear of hitting an innocent bystander.

I know that here in the States we all seem to have this huge authority problem. I think it started with the Revolution, maybe even with colonization. People came here because they didn't want to be told what to do or not to do (or for enterprise, that happened, too). We still don't want to be told what to do, and a lot of people take it out on our peace officers.

My dad joined the force because he wanted to help people. "Fighting crime, surpressing evil, and protecting widows and orphans" is something he jokingly says quite often. But that's what he does. He hates writing traffic tickets and is pretty good to the people who recognize that this is his job and not a personal vendetta.



I guess what I want to say is, you have not gone through what a police officer sees. Don't think you know what they do.