Cops that no longer help

This morning I had an experience that made me so angry that I am still shaking with anger and frustration. At 5:00 in the morning I left my house and drove down the street to buy myself an egg and cheese wrap at the local Jack in the Box. When I returned, there was no street parking left so I parked in the Dollar Tree parking lot and ate my food. As soon as I finished my breakfast, I heard a male voice yelling in absolute anger. It was so loud and threateningly intense that I considered not even stepping out of my car and lying down on the seat and hiding.

The area that I currently live in used to be relatively safe but as of January of this year has become increasingly treacherous. A man was shot right outside of my home several months ago and the following week another man beaten in the same location. I didn’t witness these incidences but I did find out that both were gang related. Hearing gun shots now has become so common to me that around July I would play a game where I when a heard a loud “BOOM” I would guess if it was a gun or a firework. It has gotten so bad that I have been wanting to move for a while but finding a welcoming location for my beloved English Mastiff is difficult in Los Angeles. Luckily, I am moving next week.

                I decided to get out of my car to make a mad dash for the safety of my abode. As I was turning towards my house I saw a man on the sidewalk become physically violent to a quiet woman walking next to him. I was scared but quickly took out my phone and screamed out to him, “I’m calling the police.” I was shaking and afraid that he would go after me because he began to vociferously swear at me. Finally he continued to walk and yell at the frightened woman, so despite my fear of the man I once again yelled out “I am calling the police now!” and quickly pushed the number 911. A female operator answered the phone and I explained the situation to her repeating that I was afraid for the woman’s safety. She asked me what is his race and her race and both times asked me if they were black or Hispanic. I said “No, they were both white. Please hurry, I really think he is going to seriously hurt her. Things are escalating fast with him.” I told the dispatcher the intersection and I told her what direction the couple were heading. She informed me that a unit was on the way, so I thanked her and gave her my information. By this time, I was walking into my yard and let my dog out for a little relief. As I was doing this a police officer with his window pulled down slowly drove his cruiser by my house, heading in the opposite direction. As soon as I saw him, I waved my arms in the air while calling out, “Officer!” and caught his attention. He slowed down to a stop and looked at me. I rushed over to his car and when I was ten feet from his window he stepped on the gas and drove away, leaving me standing alone in the street.

                I couldn’t believe it. Allegedly, and as the authorities like to remind us at every opportunity, the job of a police officer is to, “serve and protect.”  The officer in the cruiser not only clearly saw me trying to grab his attention but blatantly drove away when I approached. What if I was that woman who was just assaulted? What if I was hurt and needed help? What if someone was robbing me or was harming my child and I needed police intervention? He didn’t know who I was. What he knew was that there was an escalating situation in the area where a woman’s safety was at risk. Who was being served and protected?  As I stood in shock in the street and watched the police cruiser vanish into the early dawn, I was left to assume that that information was not a high priority for a number of reasons.

First of all, I live in the ghetto.  I don’t think it is a revelation that the lives of people that don’t have a lot of money are treated with less importance than individuals that have money. I know this because I grew up in an upper middle class white family and grew up with the mindset that the police are here to help. My family used to bake the local PD cookies and we were always treated with attentive kindness and respect. When I moved away from my family, I didn’t have a lot of money. There is a visible difference in the way that I am treated by an officer of the law depending on the car that I drive or the area that I live in. The trashier the car, the ruder that I am treated. When I called the cops because I was literally watching my neighbors getting robbed while they were gone, the officers just drove by the house, walked half way up the stairs without actually reaching the house, then the simple turned and left. I began to realize more and more that my life and safety matter more on my perceived wealth than on just being a human needing help.

After enjoying the delightful and reassuring experience of having two intruders come into my house through a window, amongst several other situations where police did nothing to assist despite my phone calls, I finally realized three years ago that I could no longer rely on police for protection and began looking into getting a good guard dog. For a while I fostered Rottweilers but in the end I decided I would feel safer with a larger dog. So I adopted a seven-week-old English Mastiff and invested money in a dog trainer to ensure that he would be the guard dog that I needed. It was also during this time that I took self-defense classes, which I strongly recommend for all woman no matter where you live.

        I understand that the police need to have a description of the two individuals involved in this incident but I find it interesting that black and Hispanic were the only two races named off by the dispatcher, and when I said, “white,” the ending result was a white police officer treating this situation as if it was nothing to the extent of driving from me when I tried to grab his attention. I could have really needed help and there was a woman that did actually need assistance but the officer, a publicly-salaried government official designated to protect the public that pays him not only did not do his job but blatantly treated me like my life was not worth protecting. This realization of a lack of care is a gut-wrenching eye-opener to why so many individuals no longer trust the police. For every one video of a cop helping someone on our media feed, I see at least twenty videos of cops either assaulting another individual, disrespecting someone, or ignoring a situation when help is needed.  When the media trumpets some good deed done by a police officer, it is apparently newsworthy because it is the exception and not the rule.  Even if I am factually wrong in my assessment, the perception remains the reality of many and that perception is very dangerous for a civil society.

                I am not emphatically stating that all cops are bad or callous. Some really do want to help. There are many officers out there that are genuine sweethearts that truly do help others regardless of wealth or race and I have the utmost respect for them and the job that they do every day. However, in most cases I have found that is not the situation and the worth of a human life is often determined by the money in their pocket or color of their skin. Someone’s worth should never be based on how much money they make or their race. How can anyone feel safe when the people that were put in place to protect us don’t care enough to stop and do the job that they are paid to do? I could have really needed help but I was left staring at the tail lights of the police car wondering, why don’t I matter to you? Why doesn’t she matter? Things need to change.