“The first step in fixing any problem is recognizing that there is one; America is not the greatest country in the world.”
This quote by fictional anchorman Will McAvoy in the HBO show “the Newsroom” has shown itself to be increasingly relevent since it first aired in 2012.
In the years since the words were spoken, U.S. citizens have been exposed to numerous events or reports that have shown that our nation may not deserve the honor and recognition that we have placed on it.
America has recently shown itself to be a competent but flawed nation, but the idea that it can always be better is what has given the hope that this can become the greatest nation in the world.
And it is that hope that has lead many in the country to deride practices in other countries and declare that ‘‘we don’t allow things like that to happen here.”
But with a recent report in the Guardian, a British newspaper, Chicago police officers have been using a warehouse as a secret torture chamber where they shackle and beat citizens, refusing them access to legal counsel or contact with family members.
The Chicago police have held suspects in that warehouse for months, breaking them down and coercing them to confess to whatever crime they were suspected to have committed, even when they were innocent.
Incredibly, this alarming report has not been reported substantially by the mainstream media. This is just the latest tale of officers of the law making themselves the perpetrators against those they swear to “serve and protect.”
Local police forces have vital roles within any community. Unfortunately, many of these law enforcement personnel have become corrupted by their power and military-style armor and equipment.
Those who wonder why American city streets look and feel like war zones should not look farther than the militarized police forces throughout the nation. Some citizens feel like enemies who are targeted by police armies.
Having a badge and the ability to enforce the law does not and should not make anyone believe he or she is above the law. And until the day comes when law enforcement officers, whose job it is to protect my ability to walk the streets of this country safely, are not a threat to kill me as I walk those streets, then America cannot be the great nation that we all believe it to be.
We have problems, and the only way that they can be fixed is through vigilance and action. It is our patriotic duty to find the problems that we see or feel and expose them to everyone. It is the only way that we can leave this nation and the world better than we found it, and the only way that America can become a more perfect union.
