Pat,

It is said that Peoria is well known for being a test market for the country, hence the saying, "If it plays in Peoria"....

With that, just over a year ago we had an incident where a b/m held up a bank with a handgun, then went home and after a stand-off, exited the house with the handgun, charged the officers while pointing the handgun at officers and was shot and killed. He was hit a large number of times (15-18). He was also with mental illness.

This turned into a huge racial controversy and made national news, partially because one of the rappers from the female rap group TLC was related to the man.

This incident is like a barometer of how things are going in some ways - when things like this happen we hear things like "why didn't the police shoot him in the arm or leg" (almost impossible to do by an average officer on a moving target) to outright lies (he wasn't armed, the gun was planted and switched out with a butane grill lighter to he was just opening the garage door).

The troubling thing is how when police respond accordingly they are treated as acting criminally.

Frankly, I am not optimistic about the future of policing because the parties that really need to discuss deviance are unable to. On one hand we have too many people that base their views on things like crime on bad data or their own beliefs (for example, back in college one elderly white female that had hardly any experiences or interactions with people of color as the types that were most likely going to victimize her).

Then we have the other groups that when faced with any sort of criticism or observations by others, automatically cry such critcism or observations are based in racism.

I often tell people that in my experiences as a liberal in policing is that each day I came in, the things I saw made me question my liberal beliefs, while for conservatives, it reinforced their beliefs.

(For those that wonder about my views on deviance, I fall under the thought that there are so many factors that infuence behavior (environment, role models, parents, education, family, peers, biology, et cetera and especially pre-natal and early birth nutrition, that behavior can't be assigned to minimal factors.)

On top of this, I believe those in the lower socio-econmic classes are more prone to be hit with more of these such factors than other people, so their possibilities of life behavioral difficultes are greater.

I do think that the one siliver lining in a lot of this will be Body Cameras because I think the more footage that is collected will show what critics of police don't realize is out there and that is how difficult policing in America is.

And don't get me wrong - each time I see or learn of police misconduct it sickens me.

Over the years one common comment I have heard directed at myself by other officers is the remark of how patient I am with people. And that has been my key over the years - learn to talk to people, however, the sad part is that skill is being eroded due to a number of reasons.

Oh, well, don't know if that was what you were after or not....

Keep healthy...(I hope through your health, as I found out with my own, is that music really is a powerful and healing thing)....