In the past several years, social media has now become the source of news. Every morning when we wake up, we check our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook timelines. We have a need to constantly be in the know. This newfound access can have positive and negative aspects. On one hand, you are never without a source of news, regardless if you turn on your nightly news or not. On the other hand, you are exposed to ALL news, good or bad.

In this day and age, deadly footage of police interactions, mainly with people of color, are becoming documented for the all of the public to see.

Whether you think a police officer was “justified” in someone’s eyes or not is neither here nor there, and that is not what this article is about. What this is about is accountability, a 14-letter word that weighs heavy in my mind.

Accountability is the bare minimum of what I’m asking for here. If someone is doing their job incorrectly, say something!

Yes, I know and realize that all police officers are not bad; I have family members that are police officers. Good police officers. But the bad ones are taking up all the headlines and the good ones are noticeably silent and/or are being silenced.

You would think that if you were good at your job and someone you worked with was horrible at it, you would not want to be associated with them in any way. You would want to be sure to let everyone know that that person does not represent who you are. Unfortunately, for police officers, this does not seem to be the case.

Like I said before, this isn’t about whether you believe someone was justified or deserving, this is about the good guys standing up and saying something whenever the bad guys do something. One bad apple does not spoil the bunch, but it can definitely make some turn their noses up at the stench.