Forming Thoughts

Looking at current events, I cannot stop contemplating how one gets to the point of shooting someone in the street, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, being shot in the street. Honestly, I can understand and even empathize with both sides.

On the side of the shooting, working in law enforcement, especially within a three-letter agency, you are placed into a geopolitical climate you might not have signed up for, but definitely trained for. With expert training and idle hands, the soul begins to crave the opportunity to execute and test it. Otherwise, resentment and complacency take hold.

I believe wholeheartedly that many deployed officers have experience, but not the kind required for mass confrontation at this scale. They are placed into situations of frustration and hostility that they have never faced. From their perspective, unpredictable bystanders no longer feel like bystanders, but potential agitators or aggressors. Fear and panic set in, and decisions are made under pressure, sometimes relying on training that has never been tested, instead settling into bitterness and resentment.

Now imagine someone who joined believing they would defend their nation, only to be met with hatred and disgust for the very role they occupy. Consider the inner turmoil that follows, paired with the very real thought of “I am not willing to die for this cause.” That mindset can lead to quicker, harsher, and deeply unsatisfactory responses to perceived aggression. At the end of the day, officers just want to go home.

Could an officer act out of negligence? Most definitely. But to assume spite or hate as the primary motivator feels disingenuous and ignores the totality of the situation.

On the other side of the coin, I do not believe the people who were killed were evil or seeking martyrdom. From what I’ve seen and read, many believed they were standing up for civil rights or for fellow human beings. Some argue they attempted to flee or showed resistance. But have you ever been in trouble as a child and lied to avoid punishment?

Those instincts feel similar. They are physical responses to threatening stimuli, attempts to avoid discomfort or harm in the moment. Most people have never been in truly life-threatening situations. Proof of this can be seen daily in road rage. I’ve been brake-checked more times than I can count because of a simple mistake that made someone else feel threatened.

Both sides make sense rationally, even if we agree that either side acted irrationally. I doubt either woke up that morning intending for the worst outcome to occur. It wouldn’t surprise me if either side woke up expecting confrontation with a perceived enemy, an enemy carefully shaped and reinforced over time.

We are trained to hate the “other side.” In this situation, both parties believed they were standing for truth and justice. But is that really the case for either?

What is the officer’s objective, realistically? Is it to hurt people, or to complete a task assigned by someone higher up the chain? This dynamic exists in every line of work. If a food service worker gets your order wrong during a lunch rush, do you assume it was done out of spite, or because they were overwhelmed and made a mistake?

Most logical people would assume the latter, even if the mistake was avoidable. We understand this when we are working ourselves. We are trying to provide a service, avoid getting fired, and go home to support whatever life we are living.

So the resentment, I think, is being aimed at the wrong place. We can be angry at the individual officer, or we can shift that anger toward the real enemy, not the people involved, but the forces that benefit from controlling and dividing us.

There are many entities, foreign and domestic, that profit from infighting. It is profitable, and that cannot be ignored. “We the people” does not just mean Americans. It means everyone. We may differ, but most of us share the same priorities: protecting the people, places, and things we care about.

We forget that we are all occupying the same moment in time and space, with a responsibility to pass on something better. We look around at global unrest and realize that our futures are being siphoned away because we traded freedom for governance disguised as comfort and safety.

We have been bloated with toxic beliefs of individuality, poisoning our ability to see duality, empathy, and understanding. And just because you believe you are aligned against evil does not mean you are pursuing what is good or just. You may simply be shouting from your own sideline.