OPINION

Editorial: Respecting the badge, and each other

Editorial Board
Police officers wait to escort  Black Lives Matter protesters through downtown Rochester on Friday.

There is a badge over the heart of every police officer. This small piece of metal represents different things, to different people.

It can mean honor, sacrifice and a promise to protect. It can also induce fear and, for some, anger or hate.

Because of its diverse interpretations, the badge is far from a perfect symbol. But, every day, men and women leave their homes wearing them. Some do not go back.

At a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest on Thursday in Dallas, five hearts stopped beating underneath these badges. There was no return trip for Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol and two other officers.

Yet, on Friday morning, thousands of other men and women still got up and left their homes, wearing their badges. In the afternoon, some were in police cars, leading a Black Lives Matter march down Main Street in Rochester.

Imagine how much more chaotic and dangerous our country would be if they were not there. The thought should strike a cold fear inside all of our hearts.

As in any job, the people wearing the badge do so with varying degrees of skill and professionalism. Sadly, a small fraction of them lack respect for human dignity and life. But, the badge deserves our utmost respect and, in the vast majority of cases, so do the brave people who put it on.

There is no doubt that police and black communities have to build a stronger relationship, across the country and here in Rochester. But this work cannot be left to the police and black communities alone. As wearers of the badge, police must cross bridges that most of us — on both sides — have avoided for far too long. The more we all work to increase understanding, address racism, fight intolerance, and unite our neighborhoods, the greater support we will be giving to the badge.

It will not be easy. It will not be quick.

But if we do not take this path, we will, as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. once said, "... learn to share only a common fear — only a common desire to retreat from each other — only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this there are no final answers."

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