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Video: Fla. officer’s emotional plea goes viral

An officer’s testimony about the perils of policing has gained momentum online

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By Police1 Staff

MIAMI — A Miami-Dade police officer’s video detailing the perils of her profession has garnered over 12 million views online since Friday, NBC 6 reported.

Officer Lydia Marquez posted a video on her personal Facebook page that captured her in uniform, sitting in a cruiser, discussing why she does her job.

“Because mommy cares,” she says she told him.

After an emotional conversation with her son in the wake of another ambush attack on an officer, she felt compelled to make the video addressed to the public, she said.

Marquez stresses her job is colorblind and officers, like her, are working because they care.

“We don’t ask that dispatcher, ‘hold on, wait, is this a black person who’s calling, is this a white person who’s calling?’ That doesn’t matter because we don’t care, we don’t care at all. It’s not about color, it’s not about any of that, it’s about the fact that all lives matter,” she says in the video.

She acknowledges there are some “bad apples” in her profession, but that doesn’t make up the majority.

The 20-year-veteran and mother of two ends the video with an everyday thought she has: whether she will make it back home to her children.

“When I kiss my children in the morning before I go to work and tell them I love them, I don’t know if I’m going to be coming back at the end of the day,” she says. “I don’t know, especially nowadays, and it’s hard, it’s really hard. But I’m here. Why? Because I care, all lives matter, everyone’s life matters.”

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