Behind The Picture. July 4th Parade. Constitution Avenue, Washington, DC
The Washington DC Police Sergeant walks proudly next to the cadets. Singing cadence. The teens are bellowing out the same cadence I sang decades ago. Proud. A man with his family on the side of the road yells out “F*ck the police” at the top of his lungs in front of his young children. The Sgt looks over as I snapped this pic.
I’ll never know what it’s like to be in uniform and hear a stranger yell these words at me. A stranger that knows nothing about what is going on in my life. How little I make. How I barely scrape by. How I’m emotionally drained coming home being stuck on shift for 15 hours. Missing meals or lucky enough to eat a sandwich on the run. Knocking on a door wondering if a barrage of bullets will burst through taking my life. Rushing from one call to the next, an unresponsive child, a fighting couple, a motorcyclist splayed across the roadway, to “auditors” recording my every move. I’ll never know what that’s like, and I bet that man screaming hate at this group of cadets and this sergeant will never know. I’ll never know where his hate came from and if it’s deserved. The picture tells part of the story but I’m learning there is so much in front of the lens I don’t know. So much to learn.