WE LIVED HAPPILY

and for many years in a little town just south of Dayton, Ohio.

We had a police force dedicated solely to our small community.  We were scarcely big enough to warrant such a thing but we appreciated their presence.  We trusted all our police personnel except for Sergeant Edwards, who wore his super-dark glasses no matter the weather and was the bane of every law-abiding, and not-so-law-abiding citizen!  But I digress.

Our police department understood that the community was dedicated, first and foremost, to being a safe place to live and raise families.  And they knew their most important job was to make sure it stayed that way.

As it happened, each of our very own and seemingly-law-abiding children were escorted (aka picked up) for an un-planned “visit” to the town pokey.  The calls informing us of their various “arrivals” went something like this: “Good evening, Mr. and/or Mrs. Collins, we have (whichever child it happened to be) here at the station.  There was a small “incident” but everything’s fine.  Could you just please come and pick him up?”   And, usually, that was that.

During those “arrests” each child had was afforded an exclusive in-person tour of a real, albeit slightly rose-colored jail, and each decided that a life of crime would not fit his hopes and dreams. Or those of his parents.

All of this is to say that I was seriously alarmed by a recent headline stating that “ICE will be buying local police forces.”

The mere thought sends shivers up my spine. And makes my tummy hurt. It’s hard to imagine what an “ICE-owned police force” would look like.  Or maybe it’s not so hard, in fact. We’ve seen way too many pictures and none of them are comforting.

I know for sure it wouldn’t be anything remotely like the one we knew and honored. 

Happily, headlines come and go, and we can only hope this one disappears. Fast, furiously and forever!