“Blue Family Until I Die.”

“Man I’m tired of seeing these niggers on TV protesting. “ Tim said as he gets in our patrol car.

As I start the car up, I turn to Tim. “They are really trying to make us look bad.”

“You about what happened to John right?”

“Yes, I feel bad for him and his family.” John is a good cop, blue family until we die. Some black guy resisted arrest. He was reaching for something and John told him to stop. Long story short, John shot him. Which he was supposed to do. These people don’t have any common sense. The incident is being investigated because the guy didn’t have a gun but how was John supposed to know. We can’t take any risk.

“I just hope our justice system works in his favor.” Driving through the town, we see some black protestors. They have signs that read “Fuck the pigs,” “Black Lives Matters,” “John Jail,” “Don’t fail us, Judges.”

Tim shakes his head,” Look at them. Our lives matters too. I have kids.” I can see Tim turning red. I’m just as upset. Everyone is mad at us but we are just doing our jobs. Protecting our community, protecting our family, protecting, isn’t that our job?

Every time we have to patrol this area there is always something happening. I hate it. This is where the incident happened with John, so we have to be on point.

“What’s going on over there?” Tim looks real serious. I slow down the car to get a better look. I see two black kids sitting on a stoop. A woman who looks like a crackhead is walking towards them. She is scratching her arms excessively. She gets closer to them and one of the kids hands her something. I can’t make out what it is.

“Let’s see what’s going on,” says Tim. I stop the car and turn the sirens on. The woman starts walking fast and the two boys look in our direction.

As Tim gets out the car, the one who gave the woman the drugs starts to run. “Shit!” Tim starts to chase him.

I run to the other kid, “Don’t do anything stupid.” He still, he doesn’t even blink.

I see Tim chasing after the kid, so I start running that way.

“Stop! You won’t get far!” Tim yells. I’m not far behind but suddenly the kid trips. He gets up and immediately puts his hands up.

“Now you want to stop, you are under arrest.”

“I ain’t doing anything, sir.” The young boy says as Tim is walking towards him with his gun drawn.

“Seriously? We saw you selling crack.”

“I wasn’t.” His voice cracks.

The kid is nervous, his eyes move from us to the gun, back and forth.

“Look kid, just come with us.” As I walk towards him he reaches for his pocket.

POP

The kid grabs his chest. Red starts to spread his white tee shirt

“What the hell dude?” I run to the kid’s side to see if he is breathing. Tim steps back.

“Stay with us kid.” I check his pockets. I feel something. It’s a container with white substance.

“See I knew this nigger had drugs on him.” Tim starts to smile. He looks like a kid in a candy shop. I open the container but the smell is of lotion.

“Kid, what is this?” I look at the kid who is holding his chest. He has to be the same age as my son. Tim takes the container and smells it.

“Fuck. This is lotion. You sure there is no drugs on him? Check again.” He starts to sweat. That smile wipes off from his face real fast.

“I’m calling it in.” As I reach for my walkie. Tim grabs my shoulder.

“Don’t.” He reaches in his pocket and gives me a small container with drugs in it. “Fuck this kid. He ran. Put this in his pocket.”

I look into the kid’s eyes. Tears start to form. I put the container in his pocket. He stares at me, hopeless with his hand on his chest.

Blue family until I die.