A police officer from Seattle, Washington just penned a viral letter in which he lamented that he has been “broken” by the fact that residents of his city have turned their back on cops.
The video went viral after it was shared to social media by conservative radio host Jason Rantz of KTTH-AM.
“A Seattle police officer shared with me a heartbreaking letter explaining why they are ‘broken’ after so many years protecting the public,” Rantz wrote as he shared the letter. “This is an officer who has committed much of their adult life to serving a community that, right now, is doing little to support police. This officer is ‘broken’ due to recent experiences as activists demonize cops and the Seattle City Council pushes to defund the department by 50%.”
“This is an officer you don’t want to lose,” he added.
The cop began his letter by saying, “I am a police officer in your city. I say your city because I don’t live in the geographic boundaries that make up ‘Seattle.’ My kids were fully entrenched in school in a neighboring city when I decided to become an officer and I didn’t want to uproot them.”
“My experiences are my own, but I believe other officers will have had similar experiences and may be nodding their heads when they read portions of this letter,” he added. He went on to explain that he tries to build a bond with everyone in his community, even criminals.
“The criminals who I have interacted with trust me because I always treated them as human beings first, while still holding them accountable for their illegal behavior,” the cop explained. “Police officers are very mission oriented problem solvers by nature and I am definitely that type of person.”
The letter takes a sad turn when the officer explained that he has now found himself in a thankless career despite going above and beyond to help the very people in his community who have now abandoned him.
“Along the way my spouse and children suffered,” he continued. “They didn’t understand why I would choose to experience all this for strangers. Over the years I have tried to explain it to my family. I think my spouse understands but I am not sure my children have had enough life experience to fully grasp what I have been teaching them.”
Things have only gotten worse for him since the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis back in May.
“Then came the George Floyd protests. It was not a new experience to have protesters screaming in my face. Telling me ‘go kill yourself, pull out your Glock, put it in your mouth, and pull the trigger and make the world better,'” the cop wrote. “‘They hired you because you have an IQ below 80 and will do whatever they tell you to do’ and ‘I know you beat your wife because…'”
He added that he has since been assaulted by rioters with “glass bottles, rocks, pieces of steel, chunks of concrete,” adding that some have even tried to kill him with “improvised explosive devices.” The police officer then accused the media of hiding footage of these devices, despite being well aware of them.
“Then came the politicians standing right in front of me, on the front lines, calling me a racist killer cop,” he added. “Standing next [to] people who were telling us to kill ourselves, with people around them handing out rocks and bottles which were thrown at me shortly thereafter. That, didn’t break me either.”
What did break this officer, however, was that he no longer believes in “the mission.” He explained this in the conclusion of his letter:
“At this point in time you have not earned my duty and dedication to ‘THE MISSION.’ You don’t deserve me. That may sound harsh. You may recoil at that line. But go back to my experiences before the part where the politicians sold me and you out. I made it through all of that unbroken… When a mob can control city streets, those who do not agree with the mob are not free. Who is responsible for this breakdown? You. You are allowing it.
Whether you are afraid to speak up to your political leaders. Whether you feel like ‘I pay the police to deal with that stuff.’ Or maybe you just try to ignore political stuff altogether. This is your responsibility. I, & the collective ‘we’ the police officers, cannot change the trajectory Seattle is on right now.
“Only you can change it. Only you can march in the streets against the mob or flood the city council meetings…only you who don’t want to see mayhem, disorder, and anarchy in your city can stop it. Only you can make the politicians allow us to complete ‘THE MISSION.’ Only you can unbreak me. Only you can let me return to THE MISSION. I await your decision.”
America’s police officers need our support now more than ever. Please join us in saying a prayer for them.
This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on July 21, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
Chicago cops punch 18-year-old black protester in the face, knock out her teeth at riot over Christopher Columbus statue
Pelosi threatens to use smoke to forcibly remove President Trump from the White House
Blue Lives Matter creates powerful video ‘standing up for officers’ around the country