Do Push-Ups Because Blue Lives Matter

Care about the police and want to help them out?  Do push-ups.  I’ll tell you all about it.

We Need Better Police

Can we all agree that we need a better police force in this country?  I have been on the receiving end of police brutality, and I have also worked a lot with police officers.  I will tell you from my own thoroughly-experienced perspective that we do need better police officers, police departments, and a better institution of policing in general.  I care about police and I know from talking to them that the good ones devote their lives to being better officers and creating a better police culture.

I wrote yesterday about how I use “push-ups” as a code word for getting your life together.  If you’re a cop, I think one of the best places to start is with actual push-ups.  Addressing your own physical fitness will prepare you to be more useful as a human, and more confident in high stakes situations.  This will help you make better decisions when they count the most.  Addressing your own physical fitness will also push you to address your underlying physiology and mentality.  I’ve spoken before about placing lifestyle and nutrition higher in your hierarchy of priorities than exercise itself.  If cops do this work on their own mental and physical health, we will go a long way towards having better police and improving police as an institution.

We Need A Better Recruitment Pool For Police

I work with law enforcement officers frequently and I can tell you that they struggle to find qualified recruits.  We have a population in the United States that is gradually becoming weaker, sicker, and less useful.  Big problem; hard to identify the causes.  I would propose that it has a lot to do with technological distractions, a culture that values commerce over utility, and a ‘nerfed’ world for children with less PE and less playtime than in the past.

If we want to see better police on the streets, doing a better job and honoring their profession–truly serving their communities–then we need to start by providing them with a better recruitment pool.  So do your darn push-ups.  Encourage the growth of physical culture.  Turn off the TV or video games and do something outside.  If you can set an example to your friends and your neighbors and your kids, maybe we can turn this thing around and create a world where the police force doesn’t have to dredge the bottom of the barrel for new recruits.

We Need Better People

Third reason to do push-ups if you care about police: We need to be fitter, healthier, better people.  We need to police ourselves so that we don’t require so much policing or depend upon police so much.  I mean, think about it, if you’re a mess and your life is a mess and your home is a mess, your friends are a mess, what kind of activities are you getting into?  I can say this from experience, when you’re a mess, you’re a burden or even a threat to society, and sometimes the police are going to get called in.

I know the people from the CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle have been talking about living in a world without police.  That’s a utopian, idealistic vision.  It would be beautiful if we never needed police because we never did anything wrong to each other.  No crime; no cops.  However, removing police will not remove the need for police.  To remove the need for police, we actually need to be better people.  That starts with you getting your life together and building a better relationship between yourself and your society.

Do your push-ups.