Politicians Are Responsible For Racist/​bad Policing Practices…

In keep­ing with my focus on the impor­tance of the rule of law in Democratic soci­eties, I am at pains to be laser-focused on the need to have good, com­pe­tent and pro­fes­sion­al police, all while hold­ing them firm­ly account­able.
If our soci­eties are to have peace and feal­ty to the con­cept that the laws are sacro­sanct, and there­fore where our loy­al­ties are sup­posed to be, the laws must be enforced fair­ly and equi­tably regard­less of defin­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics.
This makes the role of those tasked with enforc­ing the laws crit­i­cal to the peace and tran­quil­i­ty in the soci­ety.
It is arguable that some of the most severe instances of pub­lic anger unfold­ing and over­flow­ing into civ­il dis­obe­di­ence may be placed at the feet of bad polic­ing.
Interestingly, how­ev­er, it is usu­al­ly the pol­i­tics of a par­tic­u­lar coun­try that influ­ences the qual­i­ty of the polic­ing or the lack thereof.

My native Jamaica is no excep­tion to that con­cept. Politics, incom­pe­tence, lib­er­al­ism in the courts and oth­er mal­adies are a direct result of the poor qual­i­ty of the polic­ing ser­vices the pub­lic receives.
And of course, all of those mal­adies have their gen­e­sis at the doorsteps of cor­rupt and incom­pe­tent polit­i­cal lead­er­ship.
In the United States the sup­pos­ed­ly ost advanced soci­ety on plan­et earth, ad polic­ing is a sta­ple as it is in the poor­est devel­op­ing nation.
Race as a deter­mi­nant in how the laws are enforced has had a pro­found effect on how the police are viewed in the diverse and myr­i­ad com­mu­ni­ties through­out the US traditionally.

Today a pow­er dynam­ic of rich over poor has been added to the white over every­one else par­a­digm, inex­orably cre­at­ing an even greater degree of angst racial­ly.
As a con­se­quence, over forty mil­lion African-Americans (M$40.000,000, and prob­a­bly an even greater num­ber of Hispanics view American police with skep­ti­cism and dis­trust.
Additionally, oth­er small­er eth­nic minori­ties, includ­ing reli­gious minori­ties across the nation view police with dread and trep­i­da­tion.
They believe they will not be accord­ed the same degree of respect and def­er­ence giv­en their white neigh­bors or will be treat­ed fair­ly.
They are usu­al­ly correct.

Regardless of how one views polic­ing, the tone of polic­ing, neg­a­tive or pos­i­tive is set at the apex of the polit­i­cal food-chain. It is because of that why it is impor­tant not to demon­strate against police or hate indi­vid­ual police offi­cers.
Police offi­cers do the right thing when they know they will be held account­able for their actions.
The reverse is true when they know they are pro­tect­ed by the peo­ple above them.
In the United States today as it has always been, police abuse of peo­ple of col­or was the law. Arresting and incar­cer­at­ing Black peo­ple after the eman­ci­pa­tion dec­la­ra­tion and the peri­od known as recon­struc­tion was the law.
The gen­er­al con­sen­sus was that Blacks had no rights whites were oblig­at­ed to respect. Today that prin­ci­ple is no longer cod­i­fied into law but polic­ing across the board gen­er­al­ly fol­lows that principle.

Legislatures, from Federal to Municipal, have con­sis­tent­ly refused to draft and pass leg­is­la­tion which holds American Police respon­si­ble for civ­il rights and human rights vio­la­tions against peo­ple of col­or.
The Judiciary at both ends of that same spec­trum is also com­plic­it in the con­tin­u­a­tion of the police abuse cul­ture which is such a sore point in America.
Shockingly, politi­cians and Judiciary fall over them­selves to pay false homage to law-enforce­ment, even when it is clear that the cops are in the wrong.
Powerful police unions hold tremen­dous sway over politi­cians and judges alike which cre­ates the regres­sive result of the tail wag­ging the dog.
Ultimately, for peo­ple of col­or, it is often dire con­se­quences as their sur­vival depends on a deranged racist, trained for 4 – 6 months if at all, hav­ing the pow­er of life and death over them.
Usually, the results are deadly.

Even when a politi­cian grows some balls and tries to hold a dirty or cor­rupt racist cop account­able, oth­er politi­cians race to place the police even if it means lick­ing their boots.
The recent case in which a Florida city com­mis­sion­er called out a cop who had ille­gal­ly arrest­ed him, then lied on the arrest report was over­shad­owed by that city’s Mayor who stepped in imme­di­ate­ly after to lick the boots of the police is par­tic­u­lar­ly disgusting.

In a New York Times arti­cle; titled “‘You’re a Bad Police Officer’: Official Confronts Deputy at Awards Ceremony.”

An award cer­e­mo­ny hon­or­ing a sher­if­f’s deputy turned unset­tling after a city com­mis­sion­er called him out for “false­ly arrest­ing” him four years ago.
During the week­ly city com­mis­sion meet­ing last Wednesday in Tamarac, Florida, Commissioner E. Mike Gelin dis­rupt­ed the con­grat­u­la­to­ry tone of the cer­e­mo­ny with his brief con­dem­na­tion of the offi­cer.
“Joshua Gallardo, can you come down for a sec­ond?” he asked.
Minutes ear­li­er, Gallardo was hon­ored with a Deputy of the Month award for the month of April for arrest­ing a man want­ed for a mur­der com­mit­ted in El Salvador, per WBFS-TV. 

“It’s good to see you again,” he said as Gallardo walked down to the front of the cham­bers.
“You prob­a­bly don’t remem­ber me, but you’re the police offi­cer who false­ly arrest­ed me four years ago,” Gelin, who is black, told Gallardo. “You lied on the police report. I believe you’re a rogue police offi­cer, you’re a bad police offi­cer and you don’t deserve to be here.”

The may­or, afraid of the police union decid­ed to lick boots rather quick­ly, and true to form the police union began with the threats.

In an email, the may­or said she believed Mr. Gelin’s remarks “were high­ly inap­pro­pri­ate.” “This was nei­ther the time nor the forum to air per­son­al griev­ances,” she wrote. “This is NOT the way we treat employ­ees or peo­ple who work for our city. There are prop­er chan­nels to fol­low, but the com­mis­sion­er chose not to use them.”
The pathet­i­cal­ly weak bootlick­ing Mayor had no com­ments about the wrong­ful arrests or the alle­ga­tions the cop fal­si­fied the police report.
The trau­ma suf­fered by the Black com­mis­sion­er was of no con­cern to the grov­eller.
As I have said many times the fight needs to be waged against these pathet­ic politi­cians who see the police as their pri­vate armies and not at a bunch of peo­ple who have received 4 – 6 months training.

See full sto­ry here. https://​www​.nytimes​.com/​2​0​1​9​/​0​9​/​2​8​/​u​s​/​b​r​o​w​a​r​d​-​c​o​u​n​t​y​-​d​e​p​u​t​y​.​h​tml

Mike Beckles is a for­mer Jamaican police Detective cor­po­ral, a busi­ness own­er, avid researcher, and blog­ger. 
He is a black achiev­er hon­oree, and pub­lish­er of the blog chatt​-​a​-box​.com. 
He’s also a con­trib­u­tor to sev­er­al web­sites.
You may sub­scribe to his blogs free of charge, or sub­scribe to his Youtube chan­nel @chatt-a-box, for the lat­est pod­cast all free to you of course.