Fantasy

 I saw this meme earlier and didn't believe it.  It was too inane, too fantasy-driven, too problematic to be anywhere close to the truth.  Turns out, it is probably true.  As it turns out, the first words scrammed by the passenger in the vehicle of the woman shot by ICE, screamed, "Why did you have real bullets?"

Did she think that this was some play-action fantasy?

The problem with these folks is that they cannot differentiate between Instagram reels, TikTok shorts, and the real world.  In the fantasy of holding ICE accountable, everyone goes home safe.  In the fantasy of video gaming, there is a reset button.

This gal who was killed is not some "white chick George Floyd", as I've seen her described.  She is not a martyr to a cause.  She is just the latest example of a lethal force encounter going very bad, very quickly.

For my entire police career, as I was getting ready for my shift, I'd look in the mirror and ask myself if I were willing to take a human life that day.  We do a job in the real world with real consequences.  Thankfully, I never had to take a life.  I drew my weapon only four times in the line of duty.  I never had to fire.  For that I am thankful.

Today's "protestors" don't seem to understand lethal force. That is unfortunate, because the cops understand it very well. There is no reset button.  It is forever.