Context: I’ve been seeing footage of cops being total mask nazis, walking to people’s businesses to enforce covid restrictions, the likes. I’ve also seen police departments announce that they won’t be enforcing the ridiculous restrictions. To name one, the LA Sheriff's department. Before my chat with this officer today, I’ve organized a small fundraiser for this local PD way back in late July. The money (little over $1,300) was used to buy things I thought would be useful for their daily shifts: insulated water bottles, hand sanitizer packs, shoe insoles, hand warmers for the winter, chapstick, and gum. I have a lot of faith in my local PD, but with the recent footages of mask nazis and stuff, I thought I should talk to them to bridge the gap between the people and the police.

So, today, I took the time to drive to my local PD and requested to talk to an officer. Dispatch told me that the officer assigned to talking to me was in a priority call, so I waited 40 minutes until she arrived.

Trying to keep things short and simple while listing all the important details here: we greeted each other, and I asked if she wanted me to have my mask on while talking to her. She told me that I was free to do whatever that would make me feel comfortable. I kept the mask off.

I let her know that my reason for wanting to talk to an officer was to understand what the PD was doing in regards to covid restrictions. She said that they were not citing people for not wearing masks and REALLY don't want to cite businesses for not abiding to covid restrictions. The issue is that the state government (fuck you Newsom, go jump off a cliff) can easily take away funding for specific departments that don't enforce the restrictions. This, obviously, means that they will likely lose their jobs and won't be able to support themselves or their families. I know you guys argue that they should "do the right thing" and just defy the state, and I agree. I'd like for that to happen, as well. But we can't ignore the fact that this is a shitty situation for everyone but the state government. I told this officer that they essentially play god, and she agrees wholeheartedly.

Another thing I pointed out with her was the two sides of the political spectrum and their views on police. The far left, obviously, think "ACAB" and they should be defunded/abolished. Then there's us and the whole Back the Blue movement, but that is starting to diminish after seeing cops enforcing the objectively ridiculous covid restrictions. She expressed a lot of grief on how the police, as well as the people and small business owners, are all in a very shitty situation due to the trickle-down effect of the state governments. She and the department do not support the mask nazi-like cops just as much as we do.

At one point during our conversation, she did something with her body cam. It took me a second to realize that she turned it off, possibly to go off-record. She asked if I was recording the conversation, and I said no (I really wasn't). She then continued to express her true feelings on everything:

• She had strong beliefs that California is a red state. Issue is, we will never truly know because we aren't transparent with voting results.
• It's insane how the governor makes these covid regulations despite not following them himself.
• It's insane how we allow so many people to be crammed up in a big business like Walmart and Target, but it's somehow dangerous to be in a restaurant, hair salon, or a barber shop with much less people.
• She and many others are struggling every day because they have their hands tied by the state: refuse to be their muscle, and they risk their own ways of life.

I guess my point in this post is that it may not look like it, but our police officers are hurting right now and I think we should continue to support them; obviously not the mask nazis. Police as a whole are not supposed to be politicized nor are they supposed to be vocal about their political beliefs I think when we talk to officers that are enforcing covid regulations or are "siding" with the leftists in public encounters, we should make it clear that we didn't become vocal supporters of them because we expected them to side with us and beat up or arrest leftists, but rather do the right thing: enforce the rule of law and the Constitution, in which they swore an oath to. Remind them what makes them and their profession in America so great.