Thankfully, we are starting to see some loosening of restrictions related to the pandemic. Gratefully, throughout the entire time, definitely from the get-go, private-sector businesses and philanthropic organizations kept coming to the aid of our nation’s law enforcement officers, providing them with whatever essentials were necessary to keep them safe, guarded, and unimpacted by COVID.
Social media platforms were and still are abuzz with donations and contributions being made by external sources—from brew houses to medicinal marijuana dispensaries, goods keep coming from all corners. And governmental agencies have been welcoming recipients of what not too long ago were declarations of items in direly short supply.
It truly is amazing how America can come together, especially at a time when the country (and planet) in its entirety confronts the virus threat—a foreboding new way of life no one could have imagined.
One static thing, though, is cops going out to do the job. That is not to say it is business as usual; to the contrary, some tweaks in concepts and service provisions will be implemented. Nevertheless, we continue to witness what police professionals do best: Adapt and lend a helping hand to anyone who reaches out.
My neighbor is a large-city cop, and our chat last night was filled with how normally violent sections on his beat have all subsided to a degree, causing wonder…and gratitude. Despite the predicate behavior ordinarily exhibited by humans cooped up too long, violence is down. So is suicide.
He hit upon a point that we as a nation have been lacking over a handful of years: Support of law enforcement and embrace of the warriors out on the frontlines of potential fiasco.
People in his jurisdictional area have been forthcoming with their own supplies, equipping cops who are far more likely to need such imperative items. Masks, hand sanitizer, sterile instruments such as rubber gloves, cases of drinking water (Florida heat), you name it…folks are contributing.
Whereas some governments ordinarily cite limited resources and budget constraints hampering properly equipping police officers, private sources step up. When some police departments claim the pandemic compels them to lay off cops, external entities pull up with truckloads of supplies to outfit police officials at zero cost to the agency. As a governor threatens to do away with law enforcers (in a seemingly childish game to wrangle funds from the federal government), entrepreneurs and practitioners of commerce readily fill the void…at their own expense.
This would seem a contrarian view of an economy portrayed as massively impacted and thus anemic. Yet it underscores the muscle and mite of capitalism and the reserves (or buckled-down resource production methods) of some innovative companies whose privately employed personnel come to the aid of public servants. In that context, to the naysayers we can confidently say Just watch what we can do! And supply a spectrum of evidence to prove that we can overcome most any trial, with a little help from friends.
And it is not just bona fide companies who are putting forth the effort to produce and deliver much-needed supplies—mostly hand sanitizer, face masks, and gloves. Whereas one independent modest-sized company ceased its regular daily production
A youngster down the street from me set up shop in her driveway. Under her parents’ tutelage, a teen girl contrived a sewing station and went to work fashioning face masks for first responders, neighbors, friends and whoever was without. Last I heard, she stayed in business and has churned out hundreds of face masks.
When the COVID chips are down and seemingly stacked, the reassurance of Americans and their provisional wares are indisputably the best deal to have in hands of law and order practitioners. After all, the dividends cops parlay are redistributed, appearing in myriad ways, paramount of which are constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The best way a police officer can get to you and render aid is by being properly equipped and protected while publicly deployed. The symbiotic relationship increasingly influenced by COVID circumstances amounts to selfless giving from citizens to selfless giving back of law enforcement officers. A win-win.
And the two policemen depicted in our cover photo (above) portrays one of the many recurring examples of community coming together. The Temple Terrace, Florida police force and its frontline warriors are now better suited to serve, thanks to Thin Blue Line USA donating 75 Thin Blue Line American flag mask/neck gaiters.
Donations and support of law enforcement in communities has real impacts which transcends real-time change for the good of all. Silver linings exist, and as we dig out from the inexplicable upended society compelled by COVID, daily little things like citizens supplying their cops really matter, to both the police and the folks they serve. In the aggregate, we are faring fine enough as we navigate needs and give whenever to whomever. In the police biz, all of this is known as “mutual aid.”