So last week I witnessed the NY Police Union Boss give an impassioned speech about fairness, stereotypes, and benefit of the doubt. He, from a position of power, was pleading for civility for his people. He said this…
“We’ve been left out of the
conversation”
“We’ve been victimized”
“Stop treating us like
animals and thugs”
THE IRONY WAS NOT LOST ON
ME.
Black Americans (from a
position of less power) for centuries have spoken passionately about fairness,
stereotypes, and benefit of the doubt and for the most part its fell on deaf
ears. We have endured the heat of ridicule for generations, and police can't stand
the spotlight on them for 3 weeks. Let me take that back...because it hasn't
really been a spotlight...it’s been more of mini-flashlight.
Every company, sports team,
organization, and high profile black person rushed to put out well- crafted
statements in the aftermath of the George Floyd public murder at the hands of
four police. I read many of these statement and couldn't help but notice that
the words BAD POLICE were absent from many of them. These statements were
replete with words like Systemic Racism, Inequality, Prejudice, Injustice; all
accurate but not precise enough. They sound strong but are vague enough so as
not to back one in a corner, or make one choose sides.
There is a reason why you
don't hear the phrase BAD POLICE it’s because everyone needs police, and
everyone is afraid to piss-off police. Think about it... No large sporting
event, concert, convention can happen without the cooperation and assistance of
police. No neighborhood can be or remain safe without police cooperation. We need police...and so no one dare ruffle
the feathers of law enforcement. High profile black people especially can't go
too far and say what they really want to for fear of repercussions. This is why
what the University of Minnesota did was HUGE.
In their statement soon after the Floyd MURDER, the university wrote
that they would no longer employ Minneapolis Police at their campus
events. This is power… this is leverage. If other universities, organizations, and
sports leagues would make this stand it would shine a larger light on BAD
POLICE and would give law enforcement incentive to root out their BAD
POLICE.
Let's just call a spade a
spade...
Police are the largest gang
in the world, and for the most part their activities go unchecked.
There is a reason why BAD
POLICE are rarely charged, prosecuted, or found guilty of crime... it’s because
they work hand in hand with prosecutors. Prosecutors know that if they go hard
at police they won't have cooperation on their cases. If they prosecute a bad
police then all of the cases that police worked become tainted. The system
is FUCKED and doesn't have an adequate amount of checks and balances. In fact
there are NO checks, and nothing is balanced.
Police in America started
mostly as slave catchers in the South.
The dirty secrets is that police by design are to create a boundary
between whites and non-whites. They have
been legitimized and called a neutral 3rd party in disputes but we
all know what the real deal is. And when
blacks learned the law and knew exactly what the 4th amendment, and
probable cause were… here comes Terry v Ohio to lower the standard for police
inquiry. Now furtive behavior was deemed
criminal and reasonable suspicion (subjectivity) replaced probable cause
(objectivity). And in America guess who
looks reasonably suspicious…BLACK PEOPLE.
It’s straight out of MINORITY REPORT.
And so in 1968 probable caused devolved into “I don’t like the way you
look.” Can you believe it? I don’t like
the way you look is NOW the foundation of our current criminal justice system.
DISGUSTING, and it’s been all downhill ever since.
As a country we have no
accurate data for police shootings. Think about it... we have data to show how
many pizzas, hot wings, and Doritos were consumed on Superbowl Sunday but can't
tell you how man human being were wounded or killed by law enforcement last
year.
Only the biggest baddest
gang in the world would willfully kill a person in broad day light with cameras
pointing right at them. But wait...you'd think with all the bad press lately
police would lay low, but NO, they have been emboldened. They think it's their
god given right to fuck people up and how dare you infringe on their ability to
do so. In Atlanta this weekend a man was killed by police when all the police
had to do was give him a ride home, take his keys, have him get an uber, or
have him get a loved one to retrieve him. The murder happened in front of
several witnesses. I've watched the video, over and over, and still can’t
figure out how this minor incident escalated so quickly. The loss of a life was
TOTALLY UNNECESSARY.
I often hear the misuse of
the phrase “one bad apple” when it comes to Bad Police. First and foremost it's
obviously not ONLY ONE. In Minnesota 3 BAD POLICE murdered a prone victim and
the 4th stood by and let it happen. Also the completion of the “one
bad apple” proverb states clearly “spoils the entire barrel.” Right now the barrel
is spoiled and we have no effective mechanism to police the police. Do you
think for one minute those Bad Police in Minnesota flipped and became murders
overnight? Don't be a fool. They've been this way their entire lives. Can you
imagine the injustice a lifetime BAD POLICE can do?...can you imagine how many
lives a BAD POLICE can poison on a daily basis? I knew all bets were off when
they cracked open that 75 year old white man in Buffalo.
BAD POLICE MUST GO!!!
Notice I didn't say all
police, because I am firmly against the movement to defund police.
WE NEED REFORM
The reform needs to be as
follows....
1.
All Police must wear body camera.
2.
Creation of special ADR unit within Police
Department to handle non-violent incidents.
3.
Local elected official must have the authority
to terminate police immediately.
4.
Creation of FBI Database to track complaints and
reprimands of police.
5.
Creation of FBI Database for every occurrence of
physical or lethal force used by police.
6.
Creation of Special Prosecutor in every
jurisdiction with sole purpose of reviewing police conduct having the
authority to recommend termination and criminal charges.
7.
Removal of Qualified and Sovereign Immunity for
Police
8.
Re-establish probable cause as the baseline for
police interaction with citizens.
The NY Police Union Boss in
his discourse really wanted to let the public know how difficult it was to be
police in this current climate. He expressed this with very little self-awareness.
Black American have been screaming about inadequate treatment since the birth
of this nation. Now you see how it feels. Doesn't feel good does it? Sucks
doesn't it? You won't get your reputation back until you do the right thing and
root out ALL BAD POLICE. GOOD POLICE know who the bad police are, but at some
point we can no longer call you GOOD if you continue to lend a blind eye to
what the worst among you continue to do.
