With great power comes great responsibility

Another Rav post got me thinking about women in the 21st century and what improvements still need to be made. Please read this article about "jokes" Irish police officers were making. My father is a cop, and a cop that I respect and love, which I think is why when I hear about "bad" cops I am so disappointed. The Spiderman quote, “with great power comes great responsibility” always comes to mind. I think it’s very true, people with power should be held to a higher standard. While in uniform, officers should not conducting themselves in a way that is anything less then professional and fair. Even in college this was something my sorority was big on, while in letters or wearing your badge you are not only representing yourself but every woman in the sorority. If a sorority can do this why can't a police force?

Some people think the media is blowing this out of proportion and that "people will make jokes, they are just jokes." But there is bigger issue on hand. I think it’s sad that the first thing these men had in mind was to use their position of power to threaten women with physical violence both in deportation and rape. I hope that this is not the norm for Irish police but I think there should be an investigation into this instance and whether or not women in general are treated with violence by police. I definitely think it undermines the justice system and deters women from going to the police in the future with rape cases. Even if these men would never act out these jokes, what they are saying reflect what they are thinking.

And saying “well people make jokes” in my opinion is the same logic in saying “well boys will be boys.” Excusing men from taking control of their actions is a ridiculous form of reasoning.