Blue Lives vs. The Rules
A stark reminder by Jordan Rock

Blue Lives don’t matter, because blue lives don’t exist.
Let me get that out of the way. Being a police officer is a profession, a choice.  A job, in America, that gives you the right to beat the crap out of anyone you may deem a threat. You can even murder people in the street with impunity, even if you make fake charges. Recent video evidence shows usually people of color are victims of police violence.

The reason the BLM protests have gone on for as long is because we’re tired of this happening. And it has been happening for generations. When the people started screaming at the police to stop carrying out acts of brutality against American citizens, the various police forces of the United States seemed to come together with a simple sentiment; “Naw, we’re gonna keep doin’ it.” Anti-police brutality protests have been met with even more police brutality nationwide, and it shows no sign of stopping.

In the last few weeks, the slogan “Blue Lives Matter” has popped up, to support police violence.  “Blue Lives Matter” is a policy statement. “Blue Lives Matter” to protect the police. Instead, police must be accountable for murdering innocent people on American streets.

The reasoning behind this often-parroted phrase goes like this – Police officers across the country now fear having their lives threatened just for doing their jobs. Simply putting on the uniform now scares them.” To which the whole of the black community shot back; “If you stop killing us, we’ll stop filming you doing it and showing the rest of the world.”  So blue lives really don’t matter.

New Normal

There is a new paradigm. Police officers now fear the social consequences of their actions. After generations of facing zero consequences for their actions, it is hilarious to me considering the lifetime of fear I’ve lived through as a black man in the United States.

But check the list of social rules to be safe.

What are the basic rules that an officer of the law must follow in a social setting?
For an officer of the law to not get blown out on social media, they basically have to perform their job of acting as security and enforcers for private enterprise without resorting to assaulting, wrongly arresting or murdering the people they are purported to protect and serve.
If a police officer is afraid of reprisals for their actions, all they have to do is take off their uniform and no one will know that they’re a cop.

Blue lives really don’t matter. But Black lives do matter.

What are the rules that black men have to follow when they encounter the police?
1. Smile. Look into the officer’s eyes and speak with clear diction. Essentially, you have to talk to the police as if you were a third grader speaking to a principle.
2. Don’t wear baggy pants, and erase your accent if you can, because appearing especially “ethnic” makes you more likely to be wrongly arrested.
3. Stand up straight, don’t slouch and be as politely as you possibly can. Cops have fragile egos, and when they sense disrespect in any degree, they tend to get aggressive.
4. Make sure to announce to any witnesses when you’re complying with the orders of the police, as they will likely be recording. That recording may be evidence in a future trial. Make sure to ask if you are being detained. If so, ask the police to clarify what is happening.
5. If they cuff you, do not fight or struggle or sit still. Do everything they say, or they are likely to tase or beat you, or charge you with resisting arrest.
6. Don’t get angry or aggressive or outraged by how they treat you, because they can mark that down as resisting arrest as well. Don’t curse.
7. If they plant something on you, announce it. Loudly ask “What are you putting in my pocket” so that the witnesses can hear it. Police have a cash incentive in the form of a quota of arrests to meet every month.  The higher the charges, the better for them.
8. When in custody, say nothing. It is up to the police to allow you to make your phone call. When you’re at the station, you are under their complete control. Say nothing to them besides asking for a lawyer, otherwise they are likely to take whatever you say out of context and use it against you in a court of law.

Yet even if you follow all of these rules and do everything right or  nothing at all, you could still be murdered by the police.

So truthfully blue lives don’t matter. Especially if shouting blue lives matters means that black lives don’t matter and police in America get to continue their reign of terror with impunity and without reprisals.

That’s the life that I lead as a person of color in America; I carry the knowledge that I could be murdered at any time. Police officers might be killed in the line of duty, but someone will almost always pay the price. Blue lives are protected. Black lives must become protected. So I must yell BLM to get the protection that police officers already enjoy.

If police across the country had to practice the kind of grace that I’m expected to with a gun in my face, they’d resign within the day. And that’s all there is to it.  Because, we really know blue lives don’t matter.