A video is making the rounds of a female police officer in Cranston, Rhode Island, aggressively approaching a car waiting at a red light, gun drawn, and demanding that the driver “get out of the car”. The driver is understandably scared, and, probably fearing for his life, takes off. The officer chases the car briefly and fires off a wild gunshot before rushing back to her squad car. The video, which can be viewed HERE, shows an insane and reckless interaction that police should never instigate. While many are blaming the fact that she is a woman, the real factor to me is the full-length sleeve tattoo on her left arm. Tattoos are a red flag, and many tattoos, including a sleeve, should be an automatic disqualification from police employment. I see tattooed cops with alarming frequency lately, and it is extremely disconcerting. Long experience informs me that tattoos are a sign of an unstable individual, man or woman, people who shouldn’t be given a gun or power over others. Tattoos signal a certain lifestyle; normal people aren’t just going down to the tattoo parlor to get permanently branded with ridiculous and immature images that will be visible to everyone they interact with. Alcoholics, weedheads, hair trigger rage monsters, and walking emotional rollercoasters get tattoos of this size. It’s of course their right to do this to themselves, but they shouldn’t be hired as cops.
