In the past few years, we have witnessed clash after clash between the police and the black community in the United States. We’ve seen black life after black life lost at the hands of American police officers; some were lost after truly threatening the life of the officer, but some were completely innocent lives, taken for absolutely no reason.

Let me be the first to say that police officers deserve respect. They put their lives on the line every single day in an effort to protect and serve the communities they serve in. Police forces are composed primarily of well intentioned people, and they should be thanked for their service.

Police should be respected and thanked, but even moreso, they should be held accountable, and conservatives should be among the first to do so.

If we think about it, who do police departments ultimately represent? The government, that’s who. As conservatives, if we claim to support limited government, we must hold the representatives of the United States government accountable, and that includes police departments.

Actually, police need to be held accountable in an entirely different way than government officials and elected representatives. While the latter groups create terrible and overreaching law, police are the enforcers of that law. They are the ones with weapons, and they are the ones who bring the law to the communities.

Why would we want those who enforce laws to be unchecked? If we don’t trust big government and the elected officials that play a large part in it to be infallible and always on our side, why wouldn’t that also carry over to America’s police force? If we want to see government held in check, we must include the police in that desire as well.

Yet, when conservatives should be taking charge of the campaign for police reform and should be the first to hold police officers accountable for their actions, we are so frequently the last to do so. I think we look around and see the terrorist tactics of groups like Black Lives Matter, the propaganda being pushed by the left, and other terrible approaches to police accountability and decide we want nothing to do with it. In doing so, we find ourselves almost always backing the actions of the police, even when all the facts condemn certain actions and decisions.

Folks, let’s stop being scared of being viewed as similar to liberals and domestic terror groups like BLM. We may all desire police accountability, but conservatives can lead the charge in condemning violent means, promoting proper legislation, and being able to talk about the subject with class, dignity, and respect for the hurting black community without burning police officers at the stake.

This is not an issue that allows us to be silent; we must choose which side history will find us on. Let us respect police with open and questioning eyes, be reasonable and kind, determined to kill injustice wherever we may see it, and compassionate toward the ongoing problems that black Americans still face each and every day. Let us hold police accountable, and in doing so, recognize that it is the logical thing for conservatives to do.