While sitting and enjoying my coffee this morning, I’ve been considering something… I’m pretty particular about taking time to get the best coffee I can. It’s worth it!  I’ve been considering the things I like other than coffee, too!   For me, it’s important to find the best in whatever I use and the extra costs involved are well worth, for example, either the time spent, or the monetary involvement.

‘Better’ goes a long way in terms of usage, durability, and …satisfaction… over “cheaper”!   Price isn’t necessarily the best indicator of quality, either, so I take the time to taste, or work with the things I intend to keep and use in improving the quality of life for both myself and others (family) around me.

Material things that are of good quality are worth going after; tell me I’m wrong right after you’ve moved to sit in that wonderfully cheap lawn chair with your favorite drink… yeah, the drink you end up wearing as your newest fashion statement as you discover that cheap doesn’t necessarily equate to ‘durable’. Heh!

While material things are o.k. for a measure in quality of life, there are many “immaterial” things as well; these are things that we can’t measure statically.  They can only pass the measure of quality, through demonstration over time; Honesty, Honor, Candor, Fortitude; the kind of Integrity that pulls all of the healthy traits into a coherent whole, and that amazing ‘spark’ that allows a “weakling” to overcome fear and stand with incredible Bravery in the face of overwhelming odds!  These things we all love!

I’ve also been thinking about the things I dislike the most in this world, and…  there are a few that top my list.   It’s not a long list, not even as long as the list of my favorite coffees…

I hate bullies; I don’t just dislike bullying; I absolutely detest it.  I hate supervisors who ignore their department bullies, and I absolutely detest those who have the power to do something but… don’t…  I actually heard a supervisor tell someone that bullying wasn’t bad…  “Bullying can be handled  like water off a ducks back“, he said.  NO!  It.Is.Not.!   It’s far more akin to standing naked in a sand storm in the deserts of the Middle East!  Unchecked bullying behavior, like standing naked in the sandstorm, is deadly!

At the heart of some of the killings in our schools is a ‘tell’ that indicates bullying in the mix… At the root of many, I mean.. many of the killings of our citizens by police officers, is the issue of “Free-wheeling Bulling”; Bullying that seems to be consistently overlooked by Senior management, followed by a dismal failure in accountability. Don’t take my word for it! LOOK… Look on line and see the compilation of recordings of Police bullies and thugs at work. Yet, most officers are decent, and work to really “Protect and serve”…

Now, ask yourself, “Why, if most law enforcement personnel are decent, and really do work to protect their communities, are they being ‘seen’ as thugs, and bullies?”

In the wilds, a predator picks its prey for a very good reason; survival… food… and it’s pack. In the wilds, a predator will kill, selectively , culling the weak, as needed; in this way, relatively speaking, all of the wild kingdoms members are kept…healthy.  Within civilization’s boundaries, however, the bully, as the atypical predator, has the opposite effect!

The bully’s selection of victims (perceived as weaker than the bully) occur because this warped predator must feed an always hungry ego… As a warped predator, the bully thrives when feeding off of the engendered fear and for the bully that fear is his idea of power and respect… but it goes much further than that!    Removal of the victims dignity is a bully’s sought after trophy…  If the bully is allowed, he will always “draw” others around to become like himself. Bullies allowed to run rampant – or not being made accountable for their actions will always be a bane on a peaceful community.

and…Police officers who are bullies bring about a negative effect on their fellow officers and departments!    If supervision continues to fail to require an accounting for reports of extraordinarily aggressive or overbearing officers – officers that bully other officers or our nations citizens, then… could we possibly begin to see whole departments becoming involved in routine brutality against the communities across this nation?!  Could we begin to see our police departments become more like warlords, ruling over their communities, with no regard for real justice?…

The other side of this “coin” isn’t any better!   If  Law Enforcement Supervision fails to shut down overbearing behavior towards our citizens, Police departments may become “empty”… the truly good officers will begin to leave because of loss of support from a general populace; it’s historically typical that the ‘good’ men, both officer and citizen, will ‘leave’ for areas they feel are more ‘secure’ and where ‘Justice’ isn’t just a word bandied about by those who can afford to buy it…

When citizens are bullied or become victims of even a  single law enforcement official, who bullies and displays astounding disregard of the Bill of Rights, they begin to ‘see (and believe)’ all officers as thugs and bullies – that’s “antithetical representation at it finest!”

We will all lose if Law Supervision only responds when its’ bullies unchecked behavior becomes root cause for the lawless behavior in cities like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis or Chicago…

A final …word… about something rare… This, I will call the “edge of the coin”… It rarely happens that a coin will actually land and stay on its hard edge, but it does happen!

It’s a simple word of advice for the bully, or those whose lawless behaviors are creating havoc in our cities…

Being peaceful does not negate the ability to defend, kill, or make war and it doesn’t negate lawful use of force!

“The Good Book warns those who are mean spirited to beware of the wrath of a ‘patient’ man…or… patient citizens.”   That would be the hard edge of the coin…