Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
If you follow my work, you know that I often call out police officers when they are wrong. That needs to happen and I’m definitely one of the ones doing it. Cops are not always right and sometimes they do some questionable things.
That being said, when something wrong is done to cops, I’m also going to call it out. In the image above you see a screenshot from a video showing a red bucket flying as it bounced off the head of a New York City Police Officer. This officer was in the process of handcuffing a suspect. I don’t know the full details of that encounter, so I can’t speak on it completely. However, as a citizen of this city, I can’t condone or applaud someone attacking an officer when his back is turned and he’s engaged in making an arrest.
In addition to this, other officers were soaked by citizens in a separate incident. The bucket throw is definitely a serious concern for me. The water situation I’m a bit more flexible with. I take issue with it because it’s disrespectful to our men and women in uniform and it can damage their equipment, but the bucket incident is a different matter entirely. If you damage property, you should be held responsible. There should be real consequences.
Fair is fair, right? If someone damages your personal property, you’re going to want them to replace it. Same thing applies here. It’s damaged property paid for with taxpayer dollars. Since it’s not coming directly out of any one person’s pocket, maybe some people don’t care. Well, that shouldn’t be the case. If you damage it, you should pay for it. Why should taxpayers bear the cost of someone else’s wrongdoing?
I have always discouraged assaulting police officers. That kind of action can have serious consequences at worst, or at best result in an arrest. I encourage people in general to keep their hands to themselves.
I do want to be honest though. There are times when officers make mistakes, and because of the nature of their authority, citizens may feel they have limited options in the moment. There are cases where people have been wrongly accused or mistreated, and those situations deserve attention and accountability.
I often ask myself what a person is supposed to do if they are being treated unjustly in an encounter with law enforcement when they did nothing wrong. It’s a difficult question because the legal system does limit options in those moments. People have been wrongly convicted, and that is a real and serious issue that deserves honest conversation.
What recourse does a private citizen have when a line is crossed? These are complicated situations with no easy answers, and they often result in difficult outcomes no matter what a person does. It’s a reality that deserves thoughtful discussion rather than dismissal.
I don’t know the details of the red bucket arrest, but there was no visible excessive force and it appeared to be a lawful arrest. Regardless of the broader conversation, assaulting a police officer is wrong and I strongly discourage that behavior.
Given the attention this situation has received, authorities are likely looking for the individual who threw the bucket. That person is fortunate the officer stayed composed and remained professional. Most people would struggle to stay calm after being struck in the back of the head while doing their job. Let’s not forget that officers are people too.
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