AthenaAwakened
Contributor
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2003
- Messages
- 5,338
- Location
- Right behind you so ... BOO!
- Basic Beliefs
- non-theist, anarcho-socialist
My father was a police officer. When I was little, one of our neighbors asked him was he a black man or a black cop? My father said
I'm a black man who works as a cop. And I ain't never confused.
Black voters and civic organizations worked hard to integrate police forces across this country in hopes that black officers would do right by black citizens, something many white officers were not doing.
Now we have black officers, black detectives, black police chiefs, we even have black attorneys general. But putting black men in a punitive policing culture and expecting them to fight that culture, fight their fellow officers, day in and day out is madness.
This is but one reason why we have to rethink public safety and end punitive policing. Simply hiring more black police is not enough. Simply promoting more black police is not enough. You see, the problem with the bad apple in the barrel is the barrel.
I know there are good people who every day put on a badge and gun just like my parents did. And they try mightily to do some good in the world. But if they have "goals" to meet in order to keep that job, they are gonna meet those goals. And that's just the beginning.
From issuing tickets that keep municipal revenues up to the blue wall of silence that keeps bad cops in law enforcement, the way we police our communities is not designed for the benefit of those communities as much as to provide control of communities and to mine the pockets of those citizens.
We need to be rid of the tradition of punitive policing, a tradition born of slave patrols, tenement controls and union busting, and replace it with a system of comprehensive public safety. A system that sees addiction not as a crime but as a medical condition, that sees unruly behavior in students not as a disciplinary problem but as a problem of classroom overcrowding and too few teachers and support staff, and that sees the citizenry not as a revenue source to be ticketed and bailed, but as people deserving of worth, dignity, protection and service. No more "just us" but in its stead, justice.
My father joined the federal police after President Truman desegregated the civil service. He and his fellow black officers were told to arrest white people politely and courteously for the rest of DC was still segregated. My father knew the easiest way to be polite and courteous was to be that way deliberately and thoughtfully to everyone, not just white people. He also knew that he owed his job not to his captain or even Harry Truman, but to the black citizens who lobbied and fought for desegregation for decades upon decades. He always felt he owed it to the community who fought for him to fight for them.
I'm a black man who works as a cop. And I ain't never confused.
Imagine if every police officer, regardless of color said those exact words every day before heading to work.
Imagine the trouble that could be avoided. Imagine the lives that could be saved on both sides of that blue wall.
I'm a black man who works as a cop. And I ain't never confused.
Black voters and civic organizations worked hard to integrate police forces across this country in hopes that black officers would do right by black citizens, something many white officers were not doing.
Now we have black officers, black detectives, black police chiefs, we even have black attorneys general. But putting black men in a punitive policing culture and expecting them to fight that culture, fight their fellow officers, day in and day out is madness.
This is but one reason why we have to rethink public safety and end punitive policing. Simply hiring more black police is not enough. Simply promoting more black police is not enough. You see, the problem with the bad apple in the barrel is the barrel.
I know there are good people who every day put on a badge and gun just like my parents did. And they try mightily to do some good in the world. But if they have "goals" to meet in order to keep that job, they are gonna meet those goals. And that's just the beginning.
From issuing tickets that keep municipal revenues up to the blue wall of silence that keeps bad cops in law enforcement, the way we police our communities is not designed for the benefit of those communities as much as to provide control of communities and to mine the pockets of those citizens.
We need to be rid of the tradition of punitive policing, a tradition born of slave patrols, tenement controls and union busting, and replace it with a system of comprehensive public safety. A system that sees addiction not as a crime but as a medical condition, that sees unruly behavior in students not as a disciplinary problem but as a problem of classroom overcrowding and too few teachers and support staff, and that sees the citizenry not as a revenue source to be ticketed and bailed, but as people deserving of worth, dignity, protection and service. No more "just us" but in its stead, justice.
My father joined the federal police after President Truman desegregated the civil service. He and his fellow black officers were told to arrest white people politely and courteously for the rest of DC was still segregated. My father knew the easiest way to be polite and courteous was to be that way deliberately and thoughtfully to everyone, not just white people. He also knew that he owed his job not to his captain or even Harry Truman, but to the black citizens who lobbied and fought for desegregation for decades upon decades. He always felt he owed it to the community who fought for him to fight for them.
I'm a black man who works as a cop. And I ain't never confused.
Imagine if every police officer, regardless of color said those exact words every day before heading to work.
Imagine the trouble that could be avoided. Imagine the lives that could be saved on both sides of that blue wall.
