Police officers are those among us charged with enforcing society's laws. Yet let's be real here, they're people. Because of that, you find all kinds. Some cops are moral paragons while others are really just criminals who also have a badge. Most fall somewhere in between.
But many think there should be two sets of rules about guns, one for cops and one for the rest of us. One Denver officer, however, showed why that's a terrible idea.
It seems she didn't want to be bothered with airport security just like the rest of us would be.
A police officer was recently fined a couple of days' pay for using her police powers and uniform to escort her parents through airport security.
The incident happened Nov. 20, 2023, but the information only recently become public because the officer was disciplined in September, according to City of Denver discipline records.
The documents describe how Denver Police Officer Kerri Misiano wore her full police uniform, including her firearm, with the goal of escorting her parents to their gate. As they were going through TSA security, a supervisor approached.
“I said, 'I’m not a DIA officer. I’m a regular DPD officer. I was just wondering if I could walk my parents to their gate,'” Misiano is quoted in the discipline records.
Initially, she was allowed to pass before other officers responded and told her she wasn't authorized to be there.
Now, this wasn't really a huge thing. Yeah, she broke the rules to do something that a lot of us would at least consider for a moment, if not longer, but that's not really the point.
The point is that Misiano was able to operate under a different set of rules than the rest of us. In this case, it involved her bypassing security with a loaded weapon--something we'd never be knowingly allowed to do--simply because she had a badge. She didn't even have to lie to the TSA supervisor, apparently. They just let her pass because police officers don't have the same rules the rest of us have.
That shouldn't happen.
I'm not about to say police shouldn't be armed. I'm not saying they shouldn't be permitted to walk around the airport while armed. I'm saying that if someone in a police uniform says they'd like to walk their parents to their gate, the default shouldn't be to give them a pass while literally no one else can get one.
I know that if I were interested in killing a bunch of folks that I knew were disarmed, this wouldn't exactly be low on my list of ways to potentially get somewhere that I could inflict a lot of damage and there be no one who could stop me.
Yet let's also be real here, this isn't the only place in gun laws that cops get a pass.
In fact, a lot of measures are put in place to restrict what guns people can have that expressly exempt police officers. Not police departments, mind you, but officers themselves. They can buy and own things that you or I would be forbidden to buy. It happens all the time.
It shouldn't.
Police officers are private citizens who also happen to get a paycheck from a government body. The rules shouldn't be different for them than they are for us. I get the argument that they're more likely to be targeted by criminals while out and about because they make enemies in the course of their job.
Guess what? I do too, but I don't get to walk into the secure area of an airport with a gun. I don't get to go wherever I want with a firearm simply because of the supposed risks to me and mine. I, like everyone else, am relegated to praying that the gun-free zone sign is enough of a deterrent that anyone wishing me harm will have to use harsh language alone.
And anyone can make enemies who want them dead. Hell, the majority of homicide victims aren't off-duty police officers. They're regular folks who got killed because they made an enemy.
If people want police to have guns anywhere they want to be so the officers can protect themselves, then fine. Just open things up so everyone else can protect themselves, too.
