(A little behind the curve of the day-to-day. The following was prompted by an online conversation.)

Police officers deal daily with the worst humanity has to offer. They guard me while I sleep. I have benefited all my life from the good work of police men and women. There’s nothing the world needs more than honest, brave police officers.

Likewise, there’s nothing the world needs less than corrupt and/or cowardly ones. That’s because the stakes are very high — the highest, in fact, because alone among all professions, law enforcement is entrusted with the discretion to use force and violence as part of their jobs; up to, and including, deadly force.

I understand the police want respect for what they do. But respect is earned. No one should be dictating the terms by which others accord them respect. If you look the world round, you basically see two different kinds of police. One kind protects the public — this kind is associated with freedom. The other kind protects itself against the public. That kind are cowards. And policing as it’s practiced in the United States of America is the second kind. In the USA, police are trained to be cowards.

Remember this?

Daniel Shaver was seen with a pellet gun on a hotel balcony in Mesa, Arizona, and someone phoned it in to the police. The responding police officers did what they were trained to do: i.e., they subjected him to a lethal game of the hokey-pokey. When he didn’t put his right foot in as instructed, they shot the intoxicated, unarmed and completely harmless man dead with an AR-15.

Contrast that with this, just a couple of weeks ago:

The police officer who responded to the Toronto van attack had far greater reason to fear for his safety than the officer who shot Daniel Shaver — unlike at the hotel, there was a chain of bodies littering the ground. The van attacker (alleged to be one Alek Minassian) further directly provoked the officer by gesturing as if reaching for a gun and pretending to aim at the officer. The officer kept his cool, and secured Alek Minassian alive. He didn’t fire shots that might have endangered bystanders. If Minassian had had accomplices, he was kept alive to give information about them. And fundamentally, this officer’s training and actions reflected a respect for the value of human life.

The death of Daniel Shaver is evidence of a police force trained to protect itself at the expense of the public: cowardice. The apprehension of Alek Minassian represents a police force trained to accept risks in order to protect the public: bravery.

Prove me wrong.