“Back the Blue” deserves careful thought

“Back the Blue” deserves careful thought

By Lisa Rutherford

I’ve noticed that several of my neighbors have “Back the Blue” signs in their yards encouraging people to support the police. Let me begin by saying clearly that I do support the police – “good” police. But, there are those who I do not describe as “good” police and do not deserve support in my opinion, nor do they deserve the support of their brothers and sisters in blue but usually get it anyway.

My position is based partly on personal experience. It’s not always Black or Brown people who are mistreated by the police. My story goes back to El Paso, Texas, where I went to school at the University of Texas at El Paso and taught elementary school after I graduated. I was unable to get a public school job so taught thirty-five fourth graders at a catholic school for $250 a month. This was the early 70s.

Of course making $250 a month did not allow much money for housing and other expenses so I lived near the university which was also close to the school in a ratty, cockroach-infested apartment for $75 a month. Not the highlight of my life! The apartment was part of a two-building, two-story complex with a courtyard between the two buildings.

Given that it was cheap and near the university, many students lived there but also others who did not have much money. Since it was the early 70s when drug use was becoming prevalent, students were using readily-available drugs in the border town.

Then came the night of the raid.

I guess I should have suspected something like that would happen, but I was still a pretty naïve young adult. I first noticed lots of running and yelling in the courtyard below my apartment around 11 pm. I stayed put but it wasn’t long before I heard a noise in the hallway and opened my door to see what was happening. Just at that time, the door across from mine was kicked in and the tenant shoved to the ground with a gun pointed at him. Soon I had a warrant in my face and was told to sit down. My apartment was ransacked—drawers were thrown and broken, messes left. Finally, a female officer came in and asked if they’d found anything in my apartment. They told her no. She said, “Find seeds. Find anything!” That made my heart stop. I did not know who had lived there before me and, truth be told, I wasn’t the best housekeeper at that time myself. Fortunately, nothing was found.

I later discovered that an elderly couple had had their apartment busted into, and a Hispanic woman who cared for a woman’s child while the woman worked nights had the same experience including a gun in her face. Most people were in bed trying to get a sound night’s sleep when all this happened. Hard to get to the door in a timely fashion when you’re asleep, so I guess busting in just seemed right!

Anyway, I was rightfully upset about the experience and told the nuns about it at school the next day. About a week later we had a staff meeting with a presentation by an El Paso detective on drug prevention efforts by the police. The detective said that they always had to have “probable cause” for warrants before conducting raids. I timidly raised my hand and asked if that was the case in the Randolph Street apartment raid since they had warrants for all tenants in the two buildings and it seemed strange there would be probable cause for elderly people and others. He asked, “What do you know about the Randolph Street raid?”  I said, “I was in it.” He started stammering a bit. By that time I was in tears and the nuns were huddled around me to provide comfort. He didn’t have much to say in defense of the raid and didn’t try.

So, my experience with the police was “in your face” and not good. That said, I still know there are plenty of good police. I just wish that they would stand up against the bad players more. Perhaps it’s the way the system is currently constructed that forces them to support behavior they themselves would not exhibit. Or, perhaps they would provide that undeserved support no matter what the system because it’s the nature of the beast. But that is no excuse to not work on the problem.

As for the current riots against police brutality, I get it that people want reform. It’s long overdue. I’m just troubled that it’s happening right now. It’s not like the mistreatment, brutality, and death perpetrated on people of color more than whites proportionally hasn’t been occurring for a long time. It’s troubling that during this time of great stress from COVID-19 and the need to get the pandemic under control for the good of all—particularly those of color in minority communities who fare worse —that these riots are occurring. It is also troubling that “bad players” on the right side of the issue are making the situation worse and not doing the “good players” any favor, in my opinion. Again, the good players—as in the police situation—should not be condoning the bad.

So, back to the “Back the Blue” signs. It’s understandable that many citizens want to show their support for the police, but I would advise that they face the reality that change is needed. The problems that we face with police brutality and the inability of the current system to deal effectively with that problem need to be resolved and soon—or at least try!

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