Whether it's police officers, firefighters, first responders, or 911 dispatchers, many dedicated Americans work long hours, and often in difficult conditions, to make sure that when someone's in need, they can help.
Not every officer is a bad police. I work with police officers. I know first responders.
In the midst of the heartbreak and wreckage of 9-11, the world also witnessed what is America's greatest strength. Firefighters, nurses, police officers, first responders and local residents worked around the clock to rescue and care for those injured.
Our first responders risk their lives to help others. The least we can do is make sure they have the resources they need to do their jobs.
Many White people are not sensitive to the kind of abuse that African Americans, especially younger African Americans, receive at the hands of police officers and police departments. I think for most Whites their experience with the police has been good or neutral because they don't interact with the police as much as those in the Black community.
In the same way that we want to expand mental health service for people with mental illness, we also need to make sure that our police officers are getting the mental health help they need.
After years of police work, officers often can't help but be influenced by the cynicism they feel.
From maintaining public safety to educating our children to providing critical services, our police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers, teachers, librarians and so many other public employees are there for us when we need them most.
The overwhelming number of police officers in Chicago are doing good work under difficult conditions. They put their lives on the line every day in situations none of us can fully comprehend or appreciate.
It's so much more difficult to get police officers to testify against other police officers.
We have to create a safe space where our communities feel protected by the police instead of victimized. We also need to make sure our police officers feel appreciated as our local heroes.
I think in the end the big issue is that the private sector still needs more help. And the answer is not more big government. I know in my state our reforms allowed us to protect firefighters, police officers, and teachers.
To me, there's only 5 real jobs in America: Police Officers, Teachers, Firefighters, Doctors, and the Military Service.
Why wouldn't the police officers be on edge? Why wouldn't they be alert? And why wouldn't people in the community trust police officers? Because they are consistently harassing them, and they have experience with police officers doing awful things.
We need to support our police officers and make sure that community policing becomes something that becomes the standard across the country.
Despite the characterization of some that teaching is an easy job, with short hours and summers off, the fact is that successful, dedicated teachers in the U.S. work long hours for little pay and, in many cases, insufficient support from their leadership.
In today's YouTube world, are officers reluctant to get out of their cars and do the work that controls violent crime? Are officers answering 911 calls but avoiding the informal contact that keeps bad guys from standing around, especially with guns?