I am the Thin Blue Line

I am the Thin Blue Line.  Most of my life I’ve been feared and revered, trusted and faulted, esteemed and belittled, respected and – well, you know.  I may have had my birth in London, but I’ve existed in spirit since the beginning of time.  Maybe even before.

I walked the streets at night checking doors to make sure they were secure.  I rode the range on horseback tracking down train robbers and bank robbers and murderers.  Sometimes I rode the rails to secure express cars.  I sat atop more than one stagecoach defending the passengers inside and the payroll at my feet.  I’ve been sunburned and drenched all in the same day and I’ve eaten enough dirt to plant a field of corn.

I lit the gas lamps at night in the cities and tapped my nightstick on the sidewalk in neighborhoods to let people know I was coming through.  Occasionally I had to borrow your wheelbarrow to haul a drunk away to sleep it off in the drunk tank.  I always brought wheelbarrow back.

I had a callbox key that I carried with me everywhere I went.  If I didn’t check in, the desk sergeant would send somebody looking for me.  Generally, I was doing fine.  Just forgot to check in.  Sometimes I wasn’t fine.  Not at all.

I’ll never forget my first “police radio.”  It filled the entire trunk of my police car.  It was handy though, especially if I was within a couple of miles of the radio tower.  I had to buy my own uniforms and gun and leather.  Sometimes I had to use my own car.  I don’t have to do that so much anymore.  My radio almost fits into the palm of my hand now.  Occasionally I use my POV (privately owned vehicle) for work for which I may or may not be reimbursed.

Back in the Twenty’s I could just walk onto the job.  If I could shoot a gun and punch someone in the face who desperately needed it, I was hired.  Today I can’t pin on a badge until I’ve had between six months and a year’s worth of training and then I have to ride with a field training officer.

I am the Thin Blue Line.  I stand between you and the mugger.  The rapist.  The human trafficker.  The forger.  The abuser.  The murderer.  The mutilator.  The kidnapper.  The anarchist.  The burglar.  The thief.  The vandal.

I delivered your baby.  I changed your flat tire.  I gave you directions.  I delivered the message to you that your mother died.  Or that your son was killed going home from a party.  I gave you first aid.  I investigated your accident.  I took your theft report.  I checked on your neighbor when you were concerned.  I put the fire out that was under the hood of your car.  I escorted your neighbor’s funeral procession.  I saved the choking baby.  I jumped into the icy river to save someone that fell through the ice.  I rescued the kitten from that low tree limb.  I’m awake at night while you sleep.  Sometimes I work double and triple shifts.  I probably gave you a speeding ticket. 

I’ve seen things that no person should ever see.  While you may talk about parts of speech, I know about the body parts.  “Parts” is the operative word.  I’ve seen babies in freezers.  I’ve cleaned up blood and vomit and urine and stuff you don’t want to even think about.  I’ve done things that you don’t want to do yourself.  I’ve misled the bad guys on the street and told the truth in court.  The Supreme Court said I could do that.

I’ve been yelled at, spit on, punched, choked, stabbed, shot and left for dead in a dumpster or at the bottom of a river or alongside the road or in a ravine.  Most of the time my body has been recovered.  That would be most of the time.  My mother’s reputation has been called into question – more than once.

I have learned certain phrases from the public.  “I pay your salary.”  “Do you know who I am?”  “I know Captain Jones.”  “Why aren’t you doing real police work?”  I hear them every day.  There’s a good chance I’d get suspended if I responded to your snarky comments.

My kids get taunted at school.  I can’t eat at a restaurant in town.  People know me and sometimes cooks and servers do things to my meal.  When I eat out at a restaurant, I sit so I can see who comes in through the door.  Bad things that have happened in the past have taught me that I have to be that way.  My personal cars have been vandalized.  You may have seen my name spray painted with some derogatory terms on a building.  My kids and spouse have seen it.    I can’t walk into a store on my own time without being asked about the accident that happened or the fire that occurred or the ruckus at the home basketball game.  I don’t go to parties with “civilians.”  The only thing people want to talk about is police work.  They forget I have a family, too, or that I coach Little League.  I get asked a lot to do an unethical favor.  When I go to the movies, I hear the crowd cheer as the police beat or kill someone.  You know.  Like, “Go ahead.  Make my day.”  Yeah, we hear you tell us that’s what you want us to do.  We don’t.

I’ve drawn my duty weapon maybe a dozen times over a 25-year period of time.  I fired it once during that time.  It was to dispatch a deer that was still alive after it had been struck by a car.  Yes, I’ve had to use deadly force during my career.  On average, I kill someone once every 602 years. That’s about one, one-thousandth (1/1,000) of a chance that I will have to kill someone.  It’s not a choice I relish.  I do it to save my own life or to save someone else’s life.

I’ve had false allegations filed against me.  One time a civil rights complaint was filed against me for something I wasn’t even present for.  That investigation was carried out by the FBI.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been accused of racism because I stopped a racial minority at night, in the dark, without even seeing the race of the person in the car that I stopped.

I hate making an arrest.  I never know how the person arrested is going to react.  I try to maintain control, but sometimes I get hurt making an arrest.  I’ve spent too many hours in the emergency room.  It comes with the job.

I spend as much time writing reports as I do on the street.  Often when I make an arrest, the person I arrest is back out on the streets long before I finish the report.

Television Police.  If I did a smidgen of the abuse they get away with, I’d be fired on my first day on the job.  And if I solved crimes as quickly as they do, I would be awarded tights and a cape.

I am the Thin Blue Line.  Lately, I’ve been beaten and battered and torn and ripped.  I’m tired.  I’m worn out.  I am disgusted by what I see happening around me, not just by the bad guys, but by the people I’ve sworn to protect and defend.  I am sickened by what I see happening to my country, my community.  I am disheartened when I see our Constitution hanging by a thread.  I despise the fact that I am lumped in with the less than one percent that mess it up for the ninety-nine percent who get it right.  At the same time, I’m heartened and uplifted by the fact that there is a silent majority that is willing to stand with me.

I am the Thin Blue Line.  I swore an oath to which I will never be released.  I am proud.  I am the police.

I am the Thin Blue Line.

Declaration of Principles

Declaration of Principles

IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MAJORITY in a republic to protect the rights of the minority, but it is also important for the minority to honor the desires of the majority.  While a republic may not always protect the individual desires of the minority, a pure democracy will disregard the wishes of the minority and defer to the will of the majority.  A pure democracy by its very nature is controlled by those in power, and when deemed necessary, power will be exercised by the powerful for their benefit.

LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS are defined in the Declaration of Independence as unalienable rights.  While they are not Constitutional Rights, they are unalienable rights given to us by our “Creator.”  The rights in the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights are safeguards to preserving individuals’ unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

LIFE IS A GIFT FROM THE CREATOR.  Only in rare circumstances should the life of another be taken, and then only as a matter of necessity or deliberate consideration.  As a gift from the Creator, we must do all in our power to preserve it, promote it, protect it, and sustain it.

LIBERTY IS RESPONSIBLE FREEDOM PROPOSED BY STATESMEN AND PAID FOR WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS.  Its foundation is celestial and eternal in nature.  It must be cherished, nourished, and guaranteed. 

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS IS AN OPPORTUNITY THAT MUST BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF BY THOSE WHO WANT HAPPINESS.  It must be earned and is measured not by wealth or possessions, but by inner peace that comes from doing what is right.

RIGHTS, GUARANTEED BY AGREEMENTS, DOCUMENTS, CONTRACTS, COVENANTS, AND CONSTITUTIONS are inseparably connected to responsibilities attendant to those rights.  Similarly, those rights are not merely gifts, but sacred possessions for which one must continually work for, strive for, and endeavor to achieve and retain.  They are the effects one may pursue as a matter of right.  Vigilance must be taken to assure that these rights are not taken away.  The first responsibility we have to those rights is to them.  Rights left unguarded, will be taken away one by one, beginning with what is perceived as the weakest link yet most threatening.  Once taken, rights will never return until a revolution takes place.  We are duty bound to protect ALL rights for ALL people.

NO GUARANTEED RIGHT CAN PREVAIL AT THE EXPENSE OF ANOTHER guaranteed right.  When any right prevails at the expense of another right, then all rights are susceptible to being denied and abolished.

GOVERNMENT, INSTITUTED BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE, properly dictates the actions of the people but can never and must never attempt to dictate the conscience of the people.  It may inform the people of facts, but should never interpret the mind and will of those who act nor should government tell the people what to think.

HISTORY, ADMITTED OR NOT, CANNOT BE ERASED because it has offended any segment of society.  Because an act in history offends the conscience does not mean that it did not happen nor does it mean that the memory of history should be deleted.  Not all history is worthy of celebration, but all history is worthy of recording.  Monuments to actors in history are reminders of successful and failed attempts at moving a community, a state, or the nation in a specific direction.  Often, the right course in history is defined by the winner in a conflict, whether morally correct or morally corrupt.  Descendants of those for whom monuments are built are entitled to the legacy of their past, whether deemed good or evil.  Rarely in history is a person found who is completely above reproach.

THE VALUE OF A PERSON cannot be determined by station in life, profession, occupation, wealth, color, race, national origin, religion, or gender.  Who a person is, is not based upon a label.  The value of a person is not based upon a label.  As we are endowed with unalienable rights by our “Creator,” then we are sons and daughters of that Creator.  That is who we are and that is our value.  All are of value.  The president and CEO of a corporation is no more valuable than the janitor who cleans the president’s office.  Were it not for the janitor, the CEO could not effectively and efficiently perform those duties.  Were it not for the CEO, the janitor would not have a job.  We are all interdependent.  We rely on one another to accomplish our goals.  One is not more valuable than the other.  Both the janitor and the CEO have the capacity to bring a corporation to its knees.  Value added in a station in life determines the value a person contributes, but not the value of the person.  The definition of success is not how high a person climbs the ladder of success but upon how complete a person fills a chosen role in life.  People are of divine nature and infinite worth.

FAMILIES STAND AS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR NATION and as such, parents have the responsibility to love, cherish, and rear their children by teaching them the correct principles of honesty, fidelity, loyalty, and charity.  They should provide for the welfare and protection of their children and to instruct and nurture them that they may become responsible adults.  In order to Preserve the Union the Union must first Preserve the Family, regardless of composition.

WHEN RIGHTS, CONSTITUTIONS, CONTRACTS, AND COVENANTS ARE VIOLATED OR THREATENED, then people have a duty to rise up and to do all within their power to protect and preserve those rights beginning with measurable and assertive means.

Gregory B. Talley

July 4, 2020