War On Police?

[Palehorse]

With 11 Police Officers killed across the country in the last week or 10 days, it is no surprise to hear local news and media espousing about the possibility of a supposed "war on police". But truthfully I do not believe this to be the case, and if you think about the things I am going to say here, I believe you will not either.

Over the past 3 years this nation, and in fact the world, has been experiencing the negative impact of poor decisions and ill advised financial /international trade policies that have resulted in an economic downturn of global proportions. And while it is true that some areas of the world have been more impacted by this than others, suffice to say that the fallout from this situation is just beginning to be felt surrounding the human toll it is set to claim.

For years individuals within this country have strived to obtain the trappings of success; new homes, vehicles, and other material items that come along with a successful career and being employed by a thriving company.

While it is true that some of these folks over reached in purchasing a home that was in reality beyond their reach with traditional financing instruments, the less than admirable instruments made them obtainable to them and they purchased them.  These folks were the initial casualties in those first 2 years of this collapse, and with them began the fall of evaluations of every piece of real estate in the country, regardless of whether or not the owners and their mortgages were traditionally acceptable or not.

As manufacturing continued its flight from the shores of this country, the jobs of millions of hard working Americans went with them, and when that happened the second wave of financial crises began; with families once living well within their means beginning to lose their homes because they could no longer find a good job to fill the void that so unexpectedly arose. In many cases both wage earners within a given household found themselves unemployed.

Then there are those who lost their jobs who have chosen to raid their life savings and retirement funds in order to try to keep their homes , meet their financial obligations, and bridge the gap until they find gainful employment. Yet, as each day has passed that replacement employment has been elusive for the majority of those unemployed.

Each and every week now, there is an ever increasing portion of our population that is reaching the end of the line surrounding hope in finding a job that will allow them to get out of the weeds and back onto the path of success.  As their savings and retirement funds dwindle away to nothing, and their unemployment benefits are exhausted, they become increasingly desperate; and angry.

This desperation, frustration, and anger has been building over the past 3 years, and as we enter into 2011 and the prospects are not materializing quickly enough to save these folks, people that were perhaps always on "the edge" are being motivated to act out in ways that society finds unacceptable, and that are in direct conflict to the laws of humankind.

As resources dwindle surrounding our city, state, and federal government, cuts are being enacted that are negatively impacting the social safety nets that have traditionally been available to help people deal with such circumstances.  Couple that with the tripling of the number of individuals in dire need of these resources, and you have a formula for disaster; and each one of us are but a plant closing away from being faced with this ourselves.

When these people on the edge of ruination, or those that are past the brink and in the middle of it, reach the breaking point, they are more inclined to act out and drive incidents such as those we have seen recently that have resulted in the killing of 11 police officers, the incident in Arizona, etc.

In many of these incidents, the only thing standing between each one of us and the individual(s) bent upon inciting anarchy, are the police officers. Yes, it is their job, it is what they are trained to do, it is what we have equipped them to do, but sometimes even they are ill prepared for the suddenness or savagery that are achieved by these emotionally and perhaps mentally disturbed individuals.

So, I say, lets not buy into the media propaganda campaign that is clearly attempting to create that which is not there in the first place. There is no war on the police in this country. What we have are desperate people driven by the circumstances of desperate times, and they are being increasingly pushed beyond the line between sanity and insanity by the actions and decisions of those who control the economic, financial, healthcare, and industrial areas of this nation, and in fact the world.

Jobs are the key and restarting the industrial heart of this nation is the engine that creates those jobs. In the meantime, we need to find a way to get these people what they need to tide them over until we can get that engine restarted, and mindless propaganda generated by an uncaring media is not helping things!