Hero No More

 The next hurdle was being a cop wife through the pandemic.  Remember when cops were heroes?  Not any more.  They were viewed by many as racist pigs and were hated by a growing percentage of the population.  My family suddenly had targets on their backs.  My children were harassed at school.  Seriously.  My daughter was bullied on her tennis team by girls with BLM bracelets and stickers on their Hydroflasks.  (In case you were wondering, they were all white girls.)

We removed any Thin Blue Line evidence from our cars and homes.  We watched our backs and took caution wherever we went.  We lived in fear.  Thankfully, our suburban town didn't get too out of hand.  Although, one day as my husband was arresting a person, the man said, "I know where you live.  You live over by..." and he named a landmark very near our home.  The man made a threat to my husband that was very scary.  

Social media was dominated by BLM supporters and FTP was all over the news.  Supporters wanted my husband to be defunded and physically harmed.  No, they had never met him.  They had no idea that he had just grabbed a man by the arm who was dangling from a 6th story balcony and pulled him to safety.  This man was suffering mental issues and his African-American mother hugged my husband with sincere gratitude and thanked him for saving her son's life.  That didn't make the news.

A colleague took to social media with some unkind words about police officers.  She was someone I called a friend, a mentor, and professional.  I was disheartened and left Facebook that very day in 2020.  I have not returned and feel much better today because of that.  

I was still in college at the time.  My classes were online and we had weekly discussion forums.  I was receiving a high A in my history class.  My professor was excited about my thesis and told me she couldn't wait to see where I would take it.  She gave me full credit on my rough draft.  I made a few tweaks, developed my thesis statement more thoroughly, and wrote a conclusion.  In the meantime, I mentioned in the forum that my husband was a police officer and talked of my support for the profession.  I was immediately identified as a racist and was slammed by a fellow classmate and my professor.  When I received my grade for my final thesis, it was unfairly low.  The only comments on the paper were that my topic was a racist endeavor and that the movement I discussed was a failure.  It was the same topic she told me she was excited about on the rough draft, and she failed to mention that it was racist or a failure before she knew I was a police supporter.  Coincidence?  I reported that act to the Dean.

I miss the hero days.  

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