THE EMPATHIC PART OF HUMAN NATURE

Sir,

Every child during his or her early years grows up having dreams and aspirations of taking up a profession that tickles his or her fancy, when he or she reaches adolescent stage.

Some grow up having ambitions of being doctors, nurses, teachers, others being celebrities, in the process being famous, etc.
I was no exception from these teen-year aspirations. In my time of growing up, the choice of professions was very limited. I had dreams of being either a (please don’t laugh!) bus driver or a policeman. I am glad I neither took up either of the professions - for obvious reasons, especially the latter.

feels compassion

A policeman’s job is one of the most abhorred and hated jobs in the world, in spite of the fact that it is one of the most important professions one can ever think of. Some, in our judgmental societal attitude, view a cop’s job as a necessary evil, but imagine how social order would be if there were no law enforcement agencies around to protect society? 

Chaos, anarchy and lawlessness. It is on this premise that on one hand, the empathic part of my human nature, in spite of my anger, feels compassion for the family of the cop who allegedly pulled the near-fatal trigger of his pistol whose bullet flew on its deadly trajectory, injuring a teacher who was part of a group of teachers who were protesting against our misfiring government’s irrational decision to award civil servants a mind-boggling zero per cent increment.

Without any shadow of doubt, the hapless policeman is viewed as public enemy number one by especially, the progressive members of our society. On the surface, yes and they might be justified to be aggrieved. But wait.

quell public disorder
On the other hand, the other part of my human character, which is susceptible to negative human emotions like anger and animosity, prompt me to cry for justice to take its course, forgetting that the teacher who wrestled the policeman to the ground, throttling him while he was in the line of duty, also has to be condemned for losing his cool and acting irrationally. As a writer and someone who is always at pains and strives to get all humanly available facts about why things happened, I had to be objective and pose this crucial question to myself:

Why do some law enforcement officers, in the eyes of the public, seem to act irrationally and use force to effect arrest or quell public disorder, instead of resorting to dialogue or reasoning? Without appearing to take sides, it is imperative here to be rational and understand that not all cops are bad cops. It is the few bad apples - the rogue elements - who have brought disrepute to the otherwise upright name of the police service.

Alex Nxumalo 76058449

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