It's tough being a good cop, these days.
More correctly, it's tough being seen as a good cop, even when hundreds and thousands of good police officers are very good at what they do.
But frankly, the reason it's so tough is that for every hundred dedicated, thoughtful, patient, smart set of officers, there seems to be at least one or two who are busy setting fire to public trust in law enforcement departments all across the country.
The nation is still reeling from horrific deaths at the hands of police in recent months. Video was rolling as Eric Garner suffocated in Staten Island, N.Y., last July after police put the unarmed man in a chokehold when they said he resisted arrest for selling unpackaged cigarettes. A month later in Ferguson, Mo., America watched as militarized police pointed guns and war vehicles at peaceful but loud protesters after unarmed teenager Michael Brown was shot several times by an officer who stopped him for jaywalking. The officer said the teen unsuccessfully tried to grab his gun before running away then turning to charge him.
In Cleveland, Ohio, street surveillance video showed 12-year-old Tamir Rice playing alone with a toy gun in a park when a police cruiser swooped into view and skidded to a stop as a rookie officer simultaneously fired from the car, killing the child. The video shows the action happening so fast it might as well have been a drive-by shooting. Last Sunday in Los Angeles, a homeless man, Charley Saturmin Robinet, was surrounded by five officers, tasered and then shot in a volley of gunfire after officers perceived him to be reaching toward a rookie officer's gun.
There is no doubt that policing is hard, but there also is no doubt that living through a police confrontation -- no matter how benignly it begins -- also is hard. Especially if you are not white.
The Justice Department's six-month review of the Ferguson police workings found racial disparities so stark that officials ruled the department was routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents.
While only 67 percent of the city's residents is black, citizens of color accounted for 85 percent of traffic stops, 90 percent of tickets and 93 percent of arrests. In cases like jaywalking, which often hinge on police discretion, blacks accounted for 95 percent of all arrests.
And of course there were the email "jokes" on Ferguson officials' city email.
One city official said Barack Obama would not be president long because "what black man holds a steady job for four years?" Another included a cartoon depicting African-Americans as monkeys. A third described black women having abortions as a way to curb crime.
Locally, we've had our share of recent incidents, too. A black man was beaten in 2012 by two Chattanooga officers for about 10 minutes until his legs were broken in multiple places and the incident was caught on surveillance video that went public in 2013. An Hispanic man was beaten last April by a Red Bank officer. The beating was recorded on a police cruiser dash camera.
The Chattanooga officers were fired, ordered rehired by a judge, then bought out in a city settlement by Chattanooga officials insisting that they no longer police city streets. The Red Bank officer was cleared by his department but charged by the Hamilton County District Attorney on Wednesday following a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe. The charges are aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and official misconduct. The officer resigned ahead of the indictment.
And we mustn't forget our two Cleveland, Tenn., police chiefs who couldn't seem to keep their pants zipped -- or at least couldn't keep their kisses away from someone else's wife.
The first retired in December 2013 after surveillance video surfaced of him rendezvousing several times with a woman not his wife at a storage unit "love nest." The second was demoted last week and reassigned after firing one of his officers who covertly photographed the chief kissing the subordinate officer's wife in a borrowed car.
Without question, being a good cop is made harder by fighting the headlines that follow the chokeholds and damning statistics, the mistaken child shootings, the beatings and just plain dumb behavior.
Often police blame the victims -- as Cleveland, Ohio, did in a recent federal court filing about the 12-year-old's death, stating that injuries, losses and damages were "directly and proximately caused by the failure of [Tamir] to exercise due care to avoid injury."
But in at least four instances locally, Chattanooga, Hamilton County and Bradley County officials took the high road. In recognizing that respect is a reciprocal relationship and public trust is crucial, they are holding police to the high standard they are sworn to uphold.
We're grateful. And good cops are, too. We're also especially grateful for the unsung good cops who don't hog all the headlines.