Cop goes viral for open letter on how disrespectful protesters have 'broken' him: 'You have not earned my duty and dedication'

A man purported to be a Seattle police officer penned an open letter to the city, insisting that he was "broken" over the fact that Seattle's citizens turned their backs on the police department.

The letter subsequently went viral on the internet.

What are the details?

Conservative radio host Jason Rantz of KTTH-AM shared the letter on Monday, writing, "A Seattle police officer shared with me a heartbreaking letter explaining why they are 'broken' after so many years protecting the public."

"This is an officer who has committed much of their adult life to serving a community that, right now, is doing little to support police," Rantz writes. "This officer is 'broken' due to recent experiences as activists demonize cops and the Seattle City Council pushes to defund the department by 50%."

Rantz insists, "This is an officer you don't want to lose."

The now-viral letter begins, "I am a police officer in your city. I say your city because I don't live in the geographic boundaries that make up 'Seattle.' My kids were fully entrenched in school in a neighboring city when I decided to become an officer and I didn't want to uproot them."

"My experiences are my own," the letter continues, "but I believe other officers will have had similar experiences and may be nodding their heads when they read portions of this letter."

The letter points out that he always built a rapport based on respect with the citizens of Seattle, including even the most hardened of criminals.

"The criminals who I have interacted with trust me because I always treated them as human beings first, while still holding them accountable for their illegal behavior," the letter continues. "Police officers are very mission oriented problem solvers by nature and I am definitely that type of person."

The letter explains that the officer works in a thankless career in order to serve and protect citizens only to be shunted to the side by the very people who he promises to protect.

"Along the way my spouse and children suffered," the letter continues. "They didn't understand why I would choose to experience all this for strangers. Over the years I have tried to explain it to my family. I think my spouse understands but I am not sure my children have had enough life experience to fully grasp what I have been teaching them."

The officer explains that he fought against crime even at the risk of putting his personal safety at risk.

"Then came the George Floyd protests. It was not a new experience to have protesters screaming in my face. Telling me to 'go kill yourself, pull out your Glock, put it in your mouth, and pull the trigger and make the world better,'" he writes. "'They hired you because you have an IQ below 80 and will do whatever they tell you to do' and 'I know you beat your wife because…'"

The officer points out that protesters assaulted him and other officers with any possible means, including "glass bottles, rocks, pieces of steel, chunks of concrete."

The officer adds that demonstrators even attempted to maim or even kill him and other officers with what he says were "improvised explosive devices."

Of the latter, the officer says the media knows full well about the explosives, but refuses to share video evidence with the public.

"Then came the politicians standing right in front of me, on the front lines, calling me a racist killer cop," he adds. "Standing next [to] people who were telling us to kill ourselves, with people around them handing out rocks and bottles which were thrown at me shortly thereafter."

"That," he insists, "didn't break me either."

What has broken the officer, he writes, is that he no longer believes in "the mission" — or at least in what he says is his ability to complete the mission.

"At this point in time you have not earned my duty and dedication to 'THE MISSION,'" he writes. "You don't deserve me. That may sound harsh. You may recoil at that line. But go back to my experiences before the part where the politicians sold me and you out. I made it through all of that unbroken … When a mob can control city streets, those who do not agree with the mob are not free. Who is responsible for this breakdown? You. You are allowing it."

The letter adds, "Whether you are afraid to speak up to your political leaders. Whether you feel like 'I pay the police to deal with that stuff.' Or maybe you just try to ignore political stuff altogether. This is your responsibility. I, & the collective 'we' the police officers, cannot change the trajectory Seattle is on right now."

"Only you can change it," it concludes. "Only you can march in the streets against the mob or flood the city council meetings…only you who don't want to see mayhem, disorder, and anarchy in your city can stop it. Only you can make the politicians allow us to complete 'THE MISSION.' Only you can unbreak me. Only you can let me return to THE MISSION. I await your decision."