Balloons and Aspirations

The Criminal Justice System is not perfect.  I've covered that fact in earlier blogs.  While in conversation the other day with a co-worker, we were discussing the changes that individual police officers experience during their careers.  Other that going pre-maturely gray and bald, and we go through other changes.  My co-worker made the following analogy:

John Q, its like this.  When we graduate from the police academy, they give us this large, inflated balloon.  When we hit the streets, we are carrying this balloon around, being very careful not to let it get punctured.  We were told not to let it deflate; so we protect it from danger.  We do our very best to keep it blown up.  Slowly, as we go from call to call, and months turn into years, the balloon begins to deflate.  After a couple of years, we are carrying around a half-inflated balloon, that is a little wrinkled, but still has some air in it.  After a few more years, the balloon is sagging and although there are no holes in it, most of the air has escaped.  And by the time we get to 10 or 12 years, we are carrying around a completely deflated balloon.  Its stretched out and wrinkly and won't hold air, but we still carry it around, because we think we have to.  


So, I thought about it.  Am I carrying around an inert, deflated balloon that once represented everything right with the system, but now is a sorry reminder of what is wrong with it?  Perhaps its true.  Maybe I can even remember the first time my balloon lost some air.  Should I try to blow the balloon back up, or would I be wasting my time?

Moreover, when I see a new officer protecting his still robust balloon, should I save him the time and aggravation, and just stick a pin in the balloon, speeding up the process?