Do I Have A Target On Me?

Seems my entire life to ONE question has gone unanswered…do I have a target on me?

I ask this because it seems that while I watch others get away with things with no one saying a word, including myself. Yet, the minute I attempt to cross the line, I have people on me like …well, [insert your own analogy in here].

I am not out to get people. I have an opinion, just like you. I am not a naturally hurtful person. I am not a political figure, I am not a pillar of the community, I am not a judge nor juror of humanity nor am I a miserable old _ _ _. I simply have a mind that is constantly thinking and was raised to use that mind.

Why is it than when I speak up and give my opinion, people react as if I am waving a weapon of mass destruction into a crowd of innocent children.  If I have to listen to YOUR opinion, it’s only fair you listen to MY opinion.  It just seems that no matter the situation, if I step left and you step right, I am the wrong one.

A great example was a conversation at work.  Now, when we are very slow at work, I tend to just leave, [that’s another topic].  I usually leave because I really don’t like to mingle at work.  I’m paid to do a job not gossip or yammer on about my life.  Anyway…this particular day, it was raining out I had only been there a few hours and we suddenly had nothing to do.  I stood around.  It was painful.  Conversation started about the latest issue a nearby city has with panhandling, I call it mooching.  It was mentioned that it was against the law for them to bring attention to themselves.  I listened. An example of one panhandler in wheel chair trying to get peoples attention and yet a police office was sitting at the intersection next to him the entire time.  The question was raised, “why can’t the police officer just get him right then?”.  I think it was a valid question.  Coworker spoke up and said, “Because, it’s not their job”.

WOAH!! WAIT!! Hold the train a minute!!  I spoke up, “It’s their job to enforce the laws, right?” Heads nodded, I continued, “so, it is their job to enforce the law and should have taken the panhandler into custody.  Heck, why can’t these police officers just pick them up and take them to a local shelter or something?”  Again, I was advised, “that is not their job”.  WAIT A MINUTE!! Their job is to “PROTECT AND SERVE”. If they take a panhandler out of a busy intersection where there is a potential of harm, they are protecting the individual. Then I heard it again, “But that is not their job. You cannot expect the police to be taking every panhandler off the streets.  People just need to stop giving them money.” 

Then, somehow, something was said and I reacted with a statement I’ve heard from my husband (and I have come to realize to be pretty true), “Police are just there to draw the chalk outlines.  The way our law enforcement system works now…police are not there to PREVENT the crime, they are there to RESPOND once the crime has been committed”.  

I was told, “that is a horrible way to look at it, you cannot really believe that!” 

Another person said, “well, it’s just like a domestic volience case. Someone calls afraid they may be harmed. Police show up and if there has been no harm, the caller can be arrested for false reporting or the police have to just stand there and wait for something to happen”.  Of course, we all agreed that the crime won’t happen as long as the police are present, in most cases. 

Finally, it got pretty heated when I pointed out that calling the police BEFORE a crime is committed is considered illegal.  Yet, at the same time, how do we know there is a crime about to be committed?  If we do, we are an accessory.  So calling the police does no good until the crime has been committed, in most cases, it is too late.

Why.. why did the coworker get so upset with me when I stated MY opinion?  Do I have a target on me?