After the recent acquittal of officer Edward Nero in the Freddie Gray case, activists are left frustrated with the Baltimore Police Department and police departments in general. Recently, too many stories have made their way to trending news highlighting police brutality and unjust deaths among black people with law enforcement officers at the foot of the blame.
We complain about police brutality like it’s something scary and new, but in reality, cops have been getting away with being dicks for, like, ever. We should be blaming the system instead of the men who are merely a result of it.
Think back to the civil rights movement. The story of Rosa Parks reverberates in our minds as a time when “the law” wasn’t on black people’s side. Parks wouldn’t move to the back of the bus, so she’s a threat. Trayvon Martin was wearing a hoodie, so he’s a threat. Freddie Gray had a knife, so he’s a threat. Michael Brown’s skin was brown, so he’s a threat.
I’m not saying that nothing has changed since 1955, I’m just saying the system hasn’t. Laws were put in place to protect black people, but the stereotype that “black people are bad people” is still alive and thriving, so what’s to stop the people who were put in place to protect black people from acting on stereotypical impulses?
I may be completely off base — I usually am — but hear me out. I can’t help but think that maybe the influx of “bad cops” has more to do with their training and less to do with their character. This “black men are trouble” and “black men are thugs” attitude seems like a learned trait that is continually passed down. Instead of looking at officer Nero as a bad guy, why don’t we look at the Baltimore Police department as a messed up institution? Instead of going after individual officers in individual police brutality cases, why don’t we treat the entire police system as a case of the fogeys? Let’s set higher standards for police officers in training and actively work to dissolve racist stereotyping from the inside out instead of pointing angry fingers.
This breeding of bad cops isn’t the only problem our current system is fostering. All of this negative media around the police is enforcing an “eff the police” agenda among the people. Police officers are being innocently shot while on duty, and from what I’ve seen from working with troubled teens, the next generation has no respect for police authority whatsoever. There should be a sense of relief seeing a patrol car checking on a local park or elementary school, but there’s not. The police and the people seem more like enemies than friends when police are supposed to be around to protect us.
I guess what I’m saying is to cut Edward Nero some slack. Cut our local police officers some slack, too. Just like there are good and bad people in the world, there are going to be good and bad cops. I’m thinking out loud saying it’s possible that the police are not the problem; the problem — that inherent racism never left — is something bigger than anyone cares to admit.
Black lives have always mattered, but we are just barely starting to give a shit. Police have been targeting black people for years, but we are just barely starting to notice. So instead of turning against our defenders and shifting all blame away from ourselves, maybe we should look inward, find where this racism is stemming from, and kill our own thoughts so we can give birth to newer, more politically correct ones.
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The first time I went to Thailand almost three decades ago, I stayed there for over three months. The first week, being over 6′ tall, I bashed my head at least on average twice a day… I had wounds that were reoppened after being bashed again and again… By the third week, I had developed a sixth sense, for use of a better term, of ducking and dodging over head signs, low doorways, and other protruding objects. The statistics are clear in regards to violent crime. A police officer regardless of his or her race, going into gang infested (primarily low income / high crime) neighborhood, HAS TO, by default, develop instincts related to self preservation and survival. Regardless of training, the reality of the the job is that they have witnessed fellow officers get killed or end up wounded in critical condition in the hospital. Yes… I agree there are good and bad police officers, and no doubt corrupt police departments, just as there are good well run police departments in this country. The bottom line as well, is there are good neighborhoods and also bad ones as well, where little kids get killed on the way to school by stray bullets…. (I know as I have lived in neighborhoods of this kind) It takes both sides to reach out… As an example in my own local community , the Santa Clara Chief of Public Safety recently met with the African American students at Dixie State in an open forum, discussing their issues and perceptions, as well as inviting them to come and experience the local police department. The answer is taking the right steps to build trust and proactively addressing issues in the local community. Destroy that trust and the locals perceive the police as an organized gang, let alone bullies, no different then the gangs and criminal elements they police, and it all become a self fullfilling prophecy.