Respect isn’t blind obedience to power

Authoritarianism, blind obedience, and the way people in power twist the idea of “respect” just drives me up the wall. Growing up, I remember Sheriff Andy Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show - he always said he didn’t carry a gun because he wanted the folks in Mayberry to actually respect him, not just fear him. But out in the real world, especially lately, it feels like a lot of cops and authority figures don’t care about earning respect at all. For them, it’s all about demanding obedience, and if you don’t instantly comply, they act like you’ve committed some personal attack. They honestly can’t even tell the difference between respect and fear - to them, having power over someone is the same as being respected. A few weeks ago, I watched a body cam video of a cop who escalated a regular traffic stop (for an unreadable license plate) into a full-blown felony arrest. The cop told the passenger, “I don’t want to see you driving anywhere.” The passenger calmly replied he wasn’t the driver, and that tiny bit of pushback sent the cop into a meltdown - screaming things like “stop resisting!” and “you’re about to get shot!” while trying to drag the guy out of the car. The driver panicked and tried to get away, and suddenly everyone is being charged with fleeing, obstruction, and even child endangerment, just because the cop felt “disrespected.” And this isn’t some rare one-off. This kind of thing happens all the time, and it’s only gotten worse over the last six months. For so many of these people in power, “respect” just means total obedience, and anything less gets treated as a crime. It’s gotten to the point where refusing to instantly obey can get twisted into every charge under the sun: obstruction, resisting arrest, failure to comply, you name it. If you’re not white or a citizen, just not having the right paperwork on you can mean even more trouble. They want any normal reaction, any hesitation, any moment of being human to be something they can punish - even fatally. Never forget: they want you to feel hopeless and alone, to give up. Don’t let them have that power.