Exactly Whose Lives Matter? By Rick London

Rick London is the founder of Google & MSN’s #1 Ranked Offbeat Cartoons and Funny Gifts. His Webcomics site has 5000+ cartoons and 250,000+ cartoon gifts & has lured 8.7 million+ visitors.

The topic has come up more than once both on and off social media of police and young African American men.  Friends see that I often post on social media regarding my grief of the loss of these young officers.

I’ve been called every name from bigot to racist and that’s fine.  If someone wishes to think that that is their business.  Actually they should look way back in my facebook stream to see that I was one of the first, if not the first to demand that George Zimmerman be brought to justice regarding the Trayvon Martin case, and I still don’t believe justice was served.

But Zimmerman was not a cop. He only thought he was, and he took the law into his own hands.  And those kinds of tragedies often occur when people do take the law into their own hands.  I lost numerous real life and facebook friends over that debate.  I continue to “stand my ground” (no pun intended) on how I feel and felt about that case.

Yes, to me black lives matter and matter a lot.  Of course so do white lives, Asian lives, Hispanic lives and you name it. Lives matter. I’m autistic and people with autism are much more likely to be a victim of a crime than a perpetrator of one.  However we are more likely to get arrested due to misunderstandings, given that in many ways “we speak a different language”.   But for the most part (and there’s a few bad apples) we are a docile bunch.

So my friends ask, “How can you not say ‘Black Lives Matter’”.  I do say that and think that.  So do police lives.

There’s a much bigger story here than police (often white) vs. black male teen kids.

That story is called scapegoating.  And yes, police are being scapegoated.  African Americans should clearly understand what that is all about.  They were scapegoated in the 50s and 60s and often still are.

But I’m talking about career scapegoating.  “What?”, you ask.  That’s just what I said.

Every career path, including law enforcement have about 5% that should not be there.  This includes, doctors, lawyers, commercial airline pilots, plumbers, dog catchers, janitors, nuclear physicists, and the list goes on and on.

So why are police being scapegoated. Of course they, like every other profession, have approximately 5% of comrades who do not belong there.  And like most professions, the only way to discover this is to monitor their activity and behavior.   There is no fool-proof screening in any profession.  If there was, there would be very little medical malpractice, lawyers losing licenses, airline crashes (pilot error) etc.

But you say Rick, policing is different.  People get killed.  I say, “See above paragraph”.  We don’t live in a utopia where everyone applying for a job is going to be an ideal candidate.  Sometimes they don’t even know that, and don’t find out until it is too late.

So my answer to those who have decided to scapegoat police over ministers, park rangers, hotel managers, pharmacists, etc. is, aren’t you glad 95% of police do the right thing and would even take a bullet for us?  Think about that.  5% of every single profession are “bad apples” and they usually eventually get weeded out, yes even in law enforcement.  We need the police and we need them often when we are least expected.  Odds are very much in our favor that we’re going to get one of the excellent 95%.   My wife and I know this from experience and there is great comfort in knowing they can be here in less than 3 minutes if we need them.

Before scapegoating anybody or any person, group, profession, etc., please learn the facts.  They are more often than not in your favor, yes even  if you are a young  African-American male.

————————————————————————————————————Rick London is a songwriter, cartoonist, author and gift designer.    He is best known for his Google #1 ranked Londons Times Offbeat Cartoons And Funny Gifts which he launched in 1997.  He is active in autism/Asperger’s, animal, environmental, childrens, and veteran causes.

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