Pro-Oversight Doesn’t Equal Police-Hate

Here we have an example of a man — a fellow American — who was sitting on a public bench waiting to pick up his child.  The story may seem like a shock to those who are far removed from such realities, but here it is:

1. Cops show up on an innocent person on ambiguous circumstances.
2. Cops are inconsiderate of the person’s rights and escalate things.
3. Cops assault the person.
4. Cops charge the person on false pretenses.
5. All charges dropped once video is known OR guy goes to jail doing wrongful jail time.

The interesting thing about this video, is of course the comment’s section.  The overall sentiment?  “Well jee, only if he had accepted his second class citizenship, none of this would have happened.”   All of which are conservative white people (sorry to hurt your delicate feelings, but yes they are, deal with it).  Another pattern with these conservatives is how they stick to false narratives; people were repeating the false charges on the man despite the FACT that those charges were manufactured (because they were blatant lies) and subsequently dropped.  How do you deal with this?  As a black man you have a firm understanding that law enforcement practically assumes second class citizenship upon all black people, and of course white people simply don’t care enough to use their social capital to change things.  As a white person, what do you do?  Pretend this doesn’t exist?  Pretend the man was infinitely guilty?  Why?  How?  Pretend “we don’t know all the facts”?  Find relief that the charges were dropped?

While this is just one video, this is a mass-scale reality for non-whites in America; the darker the skin tone and more husky the voice, the more aggressive cops are.  Why isn’t this considered a human rights violation?  A civil rights violation?  Do these cops still have a job?  If they were fired or otherwise sacked, are they capable of finding similar police work elsewhere to perpetuate the same aggression?  What’s with police captains covering up for incompetent cops?  Why is this allowed?  Is this standard procedure?  What if this was a white person waiting to pick up his child, would the same thing happen?  Does it take white people to be falsely accused, tazed or even murdered by cops for white people to find this appalling?

Illustration by Steve Sack

The man was remarkably calm.  In fact, his level of calm was alien-like.  Why?  Because he has to practice a different situational awareness no other ethnic group has to worry about:  Afrophobia.  He is aware of the irrational, illogical, asinine fear of black people that our society has.  He’s also aware that if he’s bigger than the white person before him, that white person will freak out  (kill him on sight) if he even looks upset, bewildered, shocked, angry, or remotely has a furrowed brow.  Because of afrophobia, intelligent blacks figure we have to take care of (coddle) whites at all times — even when WE are the ones who need help.  While I’m sure folks enjoy having to be coddled at all times by black people to ease fears, I think it’s time to question that fear and perhaps defeat it by understanding that less than 2% of blacks are criminal, belligerent, & commit crimes; like anyone else.  Of top of that, we should have the same range of emotion as everyone else, considering the circumstances.  You should not judge 100% of black people off of the 2% who commit violent crime.  You should not have to fear me Ben Stein, especially when I’m unarmed (nor should you invent reasons to call me “armed”).

 “Look, I’m not your bro” ~ Belligerent Cop

I find it disconcerting that the police officer seems to NEVER consider the public responsibility or option to DE-ESCALATE the situation at hand.  Protect.  Serve.  Protect, and Serve.  That phrase written on the side of your cruiser isn’t meant for you; it’s meant for US, the Public.

 “But but but… what about black on black crime?” ~ Conservative deflection talking point

which registers as:

“If criminals can do it, why not cops?” ~ What?

 Mentioning “black on black” crime when a police officer — one of those guys we are supposed to trust in an emergency service call — MURDERS an unarmed civilian on U.S. soil is like mentioning we have a roach problem when our trusted dog just mauled someone’s baby.

There is a severe problem when people attempt to defend misconduct of law enforcement professionals by attempting to compare them to actual criminals.  One simply doesn’t defend the stank behavior of a cop with criminals; our cops should NOT be criminal in behavior.  Isn’t that a reasonable standard to ask for?  Calling out police brutality, police misconduct… this doesn’t mean one is anti-cop.  This means we hold them to a higher standard.  One might be PRO-OVERSIGHT, not anti-cop.  Police in America have a severe lack of oversight; it’s no wonder why they figure they can manufacture arrests and convictions.  Soldiers treat people better in foreign lands than how cops treat the public on U.S. soil.  The problem is this:  we WANT to trust our police force.  We need police to exist as a society.  But at the same time, our police need to know that they are a part of our community.  They need to stop acting like everyone who isn’t a cop is a enemy combatant.  You are NOT Soldiers; you are police officers.  You currently betray our public trust.  We are not the enemy.

Perhaps all policemen should fall under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, due to the fact they enjoy looking like Soldiers.  That way, police captains would promptly throw cops under the bus for misconduct (like the military officers do), AS IT SHOULD BE.  Maybe the Executive branch could ensure all policemen in America have cameras attached and dashcams as law of the land.  In fact, the president can make that a part of his Brother’s Keeper Initiative.  That’s a novel idea.

Photo Credit: Brandon Jamar