Mike Rowe Defends Policemen with Touching Video

While most of the country is busy condemning America’s police force, TV star Mike Rowe has stepped up to defend the protectors of the American people. The touching video he posted this week is making headlines. 

Most of us know Mike Rowe as the handsome host of the hit TV show Dirty Jobs (2003-2012). According to Rowe, the show is a tribute to his hardworking father and grandfather.

The video Rowe posted to his Facebook this week was created in 2013 by Paul Harvey, a former radio journalist whose father, a policeman, died when he was just three years old.  

The short video asks the question, “What is a policeman made of?” Somehow, within the span of just a few minutes, the narrator defines a policeman’s difficult and dangerous role in society. 

“He, of all men, is once the most needed and the most unwanted. He’s a strangely nameless creature who is ‘sir’ to his face and pig or worse behind his back.” 

The narrator goes on to explain just how thankless the job can be and exposes the reasons why policemen can never seem to win in the eyes of the public. For example, “If you hit him, he’s a coward. If he hits you, he’s a bully.”

The message comes as a surprise during an era in which many view policemen as enemies and abusers of the general public. The video begins:

“A policeman is a composite of what all men are, I guess, a mingling of saint and sinner, dust and deity. What that really means is that they are exceptional, they are unusual, they are not commonplace. Buried under the froth is the fact – and the fact is – that less than one half of one percent of policemen misfit that uniform. And that is a better average than you’d find among clergymen.”

More about Mike Rowe: Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Mike became an Eagle Scout in 1979 and worked as a professional opera singer before scoring his role on Dirty Jobs. 

In 2008, the TV host and narrator launched MikeRoweWorks.com, a website focused on the decline of blue-collar jobs and the crumbling of infrastructure. It is Mike’s goal to raise awareness of the importance of trade and construction jobs. 

He helped start the “I Make America” campaign in 2010 as an effort to create more manufacturing jobs and in turn improve the United States economy. “Many of the best opportunities that exist today require a skill, not a diploma,” says Rowe. 

At the start of his term, Obama received a sarcastic letter from Mike offering to help promote the millions of “shovel-ready” jobs he had promised during his campaign. Mike noted the difficulty of the task, “given the country’s then-current relationship with the shovel.” 

Rowe’s touching Facebook post reminds us that many members of America’s workforce, especially policemen, are hardworking, vital members of society in spite of the lack of respect they receive from the very people they serve and protect.