2016 has gotten off to a really shitty start. I say "start" loosely since we're in middle of July but the shitstorm of fail we've been going through feels like its not quite done with us yet. As far as bad weeks go, its hard to top the week Prince died but with another terror attack in France, an attempted military coup in one of the largest countries in NATO, and cops in Dallas being killed by snipers, this week tried its damnedest to take the crown. Don't get me wrong, there were some positive stories too but when the lowest point in the week
isn't the deaths of more than 100 people innocently celebrating a national holiday in France, even the
New Day would be hard pressed to find a silver lining. This week I thought I'd examine just where Black Lives Matter is going as a movement and what would it take for it to abate.
#Blacklivesmatter
There have been a lot of accusations thrown around by both sides of this debate. Black Lives Matter has been called a "terrorist" group by numerous media outlets that I won't give the dignity of being mentioned here and likewise Black Lives Matter and their supporters have launched that same charge at our nation's police officers. As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle and no one has tried to step in and ratchet down the rhetoric because they're too busy trying to use the moment to push an agenda or get ratings. If we're being honest, officers tend to get a overzealous when dealing with black people, no matter our
social class. They're less patient, less likely give us the benefit of the doubt, and much more quick to use force on us to gain compliance...and those are the good ones. There are many departments that blatantly
racially profile,
harass, and
brutalize African Americans.
These are facts. Conversely, If the police force (en mass since we've been dealing in broad brushes all week) were really a terrorist organization on the level of the KKK, there would be a lot more dead black bodies in the streets. Most of the egregious police misconduct we see on television are against poor blacks in poor black neighborhoods, where violent crime tends to be higher. Naturally, officers who've never lived in the area and probably have never been exposed to this type of environment, are on edge. They don't know the people, culture, mindset, nor do the people make it easy. Granted, the modern police force started off as an organization of
slave catchers and I already mentioned how officers tend to mistreat black people so the attitude is historically justified. However, all that being said, "fuck the police" isn't helpful to anyone either. Most officers do their jobs well and are not putting on the uniform every day with the sole intention to harass and murder black people. Ticket quotas combined with decades of cultural conditioning are probably more responsible than a bunch of individual "rogue" racists in uniform for the current broken state of the relationship. Most of them, like their civilian counterparts, don't even
realize they're racists. But even with all that on the table, I firmly believe this problem is solvable. We need the police. Their function in society is vital, which is why it is imperative that their applicant screening process, psych evaluations, and accountability steps must be impeccable. But they can't do it alone. Policing at its best is a joint effort between officers and the people they protect. The cops can't arrest the people making our neighborhoods unsafe if they don't know who these people are. Without reliable intelligence, law enforcement is forced to operate blindly with disastrous results. There are several accepted aspects of police/community culture that must change for real reconciliation to happen.
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| Silence really does speak volumes. |
Break the Blue Wall of Silence
As a veteran of the Army Reserve, I understand brotherhood. I understand the power of instantly understanding what your fellow soldiers have been through to get where they are and to be instantly understood. You want to protect your brothers (and sisters) against unfair treatment. However, this practice has often stood as a shield for people who's racial biases, bully mentality, and misogynistic attitudes should disqualify them from wearing the uniform. Too many of these "officers" use the law as a tool to harass, intimidate, and humiliate whoever they wish and until recently, their fellow officers remained silent about it. We've already seen cracks starting to show in the wake of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Good cops are finally fed up and starting to
speak out against their
prejudiced and
corrupt colleagues. In addition to the high profile cases of racial discrimination, we've also seen far too
many cases of
sexual abuse from officers.
Victims included unsuspecting motorists, schoolchildren ordered to
raise their shirts in a supposed search for drugs, police interns taken
advantage of, women with legal troubles who succumbed to performing sex
acts for promised help, and prison inmates forced to have sex with
guards.
The AP's findings, coupled with other research and interviews with
experts, suggest that sexual misconduct is among the most prevalent type
of complaint against law officers. Phil Stinson, a researcher at
Bowling Green State University, analyzed news articles between 2005 and
2011 and found 6,724 arrests involving more than 5,500 officers.
Sex-related cases were the third-most common, behind violence and
profit-motivated crimes. Cato Institute reports released in 2009 and
2010 found sex misconduct the No. 2 complaint against officers, behind
excessive force.
Cases from across the country in just the past year demonstrate how
such incidents can occur, and the devastation they leave behind. -- Matt Sedensky and Nomaan Merchant, 11/1/15, Associated Press: Hundreds of officers lose licenses over sex misconduct
The police are the only public service that gives its employees the power to end another person's life if they deem it necessary. Doesn't it make sense that the people they hire should be as free of prejudice as possible? Do good cops want these maniacs representing them? Are these really the best candidates we can find? If so, that's a bigger indictment on our culture than any North Korean propaganda film.
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| When 'keeping it real...' is suicide. |
"No Snitchin'" must end.
I lost a man I considered my brother to the bullets of a crazed drug addict on November 25, 2001 . We came from a rough neighborhood and when you live in rough neighborhoods, meeting friends with spotless criminal records is hard. As a matter of fact, when your neighborhood is over policed, schools are poor, and employment options are few, having a criminal record isn't as big a knock on your character. It's expected. It's what whether you go locked up for jay walking or got lock up for murder that matters. Living in isolation isn't an option if you want to live a semi normal life so you talk to people, even if they've been to jail or sell drugs. I was lucky enough to have gotten out of that environment through some extraordinary sacrifices by my mother but my God-brother couldn't so he had to deal with who he had to deal with. Unfortunately, that post Thanksgiving Sunday night, my 18 year old God-Brother was walking home from his new job and decided to chat with one such individual. Not long after, they were approached by a man wanting to buy drugs. My God Brother's friend was a known dealer so this wasn't out of the ordinary. During the course of the sale, the addict decided he didn't want to pay for his purchase and produced a revolver. My God brother ended up on his back and choking to death on his own blood at the bottom of dirty basement stairs, shot in the chest 5 times, while both the dealer and the killer fled the scene. Both were eventually caught about a week later and the addict was charged with murder, his 3rd felony strike. The drug dealer, in jail on an unrelated charge, was the prosecution's "star" witness as the only other person who knew what happened that night. I attended the trial, determined to get the truth of why my friend was dead. When the drug dealer finally testified, it wasn't his description of the last moments of my brother's life that hurt the most. It was the during the defense's cross examination that we found out that the drug deal had committed an armed robbery 3 weeks before and the local PD failed to arrests him. Had he been caught, none of this would have happened. I initially blamed the police for not doing their jobs, for neglecting yet another young black man's death. But I know the kind of people who live in the neighborhood we grew up in. I know because its the same attitude I had as a teenager. Too many instances of disrespect and outright abuse between us for anyone to say anything to the police. Even if that meant an armed robber remained free. The only thing that accomplished was another member of our family being robbed of his future. Sometimes, the first step to rebuilding a relationship is taking a leap of faith. We know which officers have no interest in engaging us as a community and which do. Use those connections and return the respect you're given by making the officers who actually care look good so they can become the people in charge of setting the tone for community relations. We can weed out the bad cops the same way customers weed out bad employees, build a record of complaints so long they can't deny the pattern of misconduct. Keep filming, keep exposing them, and keep them from getting another job. Fighting fire with fire only proves them "right" and costs more black lives.
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| "Broken Windows" was used in post invasion Iraq with disastrous results (Photo: Wired.com) |
Broken Windows Policing/Stop and Frisk/Ticket Quotas Must be Abolished
For folks who are screaming at their screens right now asking about Chicago and why I'm not speaking as vehemently about the black deaths instead of bashing the police? Simple. Gang members and criminals didn't take an oath to uphold the law and represent the highest ideals of our judicial system. It's a false equivalence. A straw man argument. It should go without saying that the police should be held to a higher standard as taxpayer funded peacekeepers. Honestly, anyone who doesn't think that's fair should ask themselves if they'd like to be treated the way the people of Baghdad were treated during the American occupation because that's exactly what "broken windows" policing and "stop and frisk" are. In theory, broken window focuses on aggressively enforcing petty crime to deter more serious ones, restoring trust, reducing fear, and increasing pride in a community. It was initially successful in Iraq but that was because Iraqis knew that the local police were backed up by the heavily armed American military. Eventually, that fear gave way to rage as civilians refused to talk to Iraqi police or American MPs, allowing Al-Qaeda to kill at will. Since our departure, crime and terrorism are
worse than ever in Baghdad. In New York City, which credited the practice for it's dramatic drop in crime during the 90s, it's become another excuse to use already low income people as source of
municipal revenue. The proof is the dramatic reduction in tickets written during the NYPD "protest" against Mayor DeBlasio last summer. There was no corresponding rise in criminal activity during the down period inadvertently proving most of the officers have become little more than uniformed backdoor tax collectors. Stop and Frisk compounds the issue by treating innocent young men of color as criminals regardless of
actual guilt or innocence. You cannot build a trusted network of neighborhood intelligence when you don't make the distinction between civilian and criminal. Now, just as in Baghdad, police all over the country are being targeted in retaliation for years of abuse. Good cops are paying the price for years of ineffective leadership, stat padding arrests, and racial profiling.
Where does it end?
It ends with the end of racism. We got a glimpse of what that America would look like in the weeks after 9/11. I can't remember any other time in my lifetime that we were all Americans. No hyphens. We're not where we were before the 60s but we clearly have a long way to go. I used to believe that as the older generation died out, they would take their prejudices with them. Unfortunately, we're seeing the same old battles play out among people my age who didn't live through the civil rights movement, proving poisonous ideas are just as hereditary as eye color. We shouldn't be surprised though. Racism didn't die out with the end of the Civil War, either World War, nor the Civil Rights movement. We've seen small steps though, taken after each generation, slowly repealing explicit legalized racism and with the legal restrictions on education and housing lifted, more African Americans than ever are rising into positions of leadership. We must remember though, that these leaders are still forced to work within a system that constrains how quickly they can effect that change and how entrenched the social barriers are to that change. It's like trying to chip away at a glacier with an ice pick. Killing cops won't help. Ignoring police misconduct won't help. But don't just take my word for it...ask the US Department of Justice, who've made the same recommendations I've just spent the last few paragraphs blathering about.
Resource Guide for Enhancing Community Relationships and Protecting Privacy and Constitutional Rights
After-Action Assessment of the Police Response to the August 2014 Demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri
Community-Based Approaches to Prevention: A Report on the 2014 National Summit on Preventing Multiple Casualty Violence
...Til Next Week!
