Police Conduct

I had an incred­i­bly poignant con­ver­sa­tion with a young friend yes­ter­day. Our con­ver­sa­tion was cen­tered around the ongo­ing imbroglio sur­round­ing the Police killing of 18 year old Ferguson Missouri Resident Michael Brown. My friend was adamant that there is not enough out­cry when blacks kill blacks. He feels fun­da­men­tal­ly that the black com­mu­ni­ty has a high­er expec­ta­tion of police than we have of our­selves. So we had an inter­est­ing­ly cor­dial exchange. I agree with my long­time friend that this can­not be it. We sim­ply can­not be upset at police while giv­ing our own killers in our com­mu­ni­ty a pass.

However ‚Black on Black crimes are pun­ished by the sys­tem, as long as law enforce­ment find evi­dence these per­pe­tra­tors are brought to jus­tice. America’s Prisons are filled with over 2 mil­lion peo­ple. The vast major­i­ty of the incar­cer­at­ed are African-Americans. The issue for the black com­mu­ni­ty is that when­ev­er there are alleged police excess­es the com­mu­ni­ty has to take to the streets just to get an inves­ti­ga­tion start­ed . There must be equal pro­tec­tion under the law. We can­not have the same expec­ta­tion of Police that we have of Gangs. Police Officers are sworn to pro­tect and serve.That is why they are held to a high­er stan­dard of con­duct and account­abil­i­ty than crim­i­nal Gangs. The way some cops have been act­ing there seem to be lit­tle dis­tinc­tion between the two . Law abid­ing cit­i­zens have an absolute right and expec­ta­tion that the police will not abuse or kill them.

Unfortunately for the African-American com­mu­ni­ty, after the protests we go back to the way we were. We go back to accept­ing dis­re­spect from Police. The issue of Police abuse is now a seri­ous epi­dem­ic across America. It will not change , because white Americans do not see police in the same way Blacks do. Many in the black com­mu­ni­ty believe if there are more black cops the com­mu­ni­ty’s rela­tion­ship with police will be enhanced. I dis­agree, it’s a band-aid approach which will only fix the optics. How many times have we seen black cops abus­ing black peo­ple , or not doing any­thing about their white col­leagues who com­mit abuse in their pres­ence?

The issue for the black com­mu­ni­ty is one of respect. Police do not respect the com­mu­ni­ty, the com­mu­ni­ty do not trust the police. Crime is high­er in black com­mu­ni­ties because of the enmi­ty which exist between the two groups.I have had police offi­cers tell me they are encour­aged not to have a friend­ly rela­tion­ship with the com­mu­ni­ty they serve. In many cas­es these are top down deci­sions which have dire con­se­quences for minor­i­ty com­mu­ni­ties and offi­cers alike. When the com­mu­ni­ty is opposed to offi­cers it places offi­cers lives at risk. It puts res­i­dents lives at risk.

The atti­tudes of Police brass and unions will have to change if there is to be an improve­ment in the way police are viewed. A tox­ic rela­tion­ship between police and cit­i­zens serves no one.

Anyone liv­ing in or around New York City dur­ing the tenure of Rudolph Giuliani will recall the hor­rif­ic inci­dents of cal­lous­ness car­ried out on black and brown cit­i­zens by NYPD cops, attrib­ut­able large­ly to the rhetoric com­ing from Giuliani who clear­ly had a deep seat­ed dis­dain for peo­ple of col­or. ‚Patrick Dorismond, Amadou Diallo , Anthony Baez, Abner Louima,.

The list of those killed and abused is long and var­ied. Unfortunately this did not end when Giuliani left office, the killing of young African American men con­tin­ued under Bloomberg, and into the present Administration.

Perhaps the most pow­er­ful advo­cate for a pro­fes­sion­al police force was Sir Robert Peel, a Minister of Parliament who served as Home Secretary for the United Kingdom in the 1820’s. In 1829, Peel estab­lished the Metropolitan Police Services in London. With the found­ing of London’s police force, Peel became wide­ly regard­ed by crim­i­nol­o­gists and his­to­ri­ans alike as the father of mod­ern polic­ing. British police offi­cers are still known affec­tion­ate­ly as “Bobbies” in hon­or of his first name, Robert.

Public Opposition

The con­cept of a cen­tral­ized, pro­fes­sion­al police force was a tough sell ini­tial­ly, and was met with a tremen­dous amount of resis­tance. There was a fear that a police force would essen­tial­ly behave as anoth­er arm of the mil­i­tary. As result, there was an under­stand­able reluc­tance to agree to be con­trolled by what many assumed would be an occu­py­ing force. In order to over­come this oppo­si­tion, Peel is known for lay­ing the frame­work for what a police force should be com­prised of how a good police offi­cershould con­duct him­self. While there is debate as to whether he ever clear­ly enu­mer­at­ed his ideas in any sort of list for­mat, it is gen­er­al­ly agreed that he cre­at­ed what are to this day con­sid­ered to be the pri­ma­ry prin­ci­ples of policing.

• The pur­pose of the police force is to pre­vent crime and main­tain order.
• Police depend on the approval and trust of the pub­lic in order to effec­tive­ly do their jobs.
• The ulti­mate goal of polic­ing is to achieve vol­un­tary com­pli­ance with the law in the community.
• Police must be unwa­ver­ing in their duties and adher­ence to the law, main­tain­ing impar­tial­i­ty and avoid­ing the temp­ta­tion to be swayed by pub­lic opinion.
• The use of force and phys­i­cal con­trol is to be used as a last resort, only when oth­er forms of per­sua­sion have failed.
• Police offi­cers must remem­ber that they, too, are mem­bers of the pub­lic and that their pur­pose is to serve and pro­tect the public.
• The true mea­sure of the effec­tive­ness of any police force is not the num­ber of arrests or police actions tak­en, but the absence of crim­i­nal con­duct and vio­la­tions of the law.

I wish to pub­lish this for the ben­e­fit of cops today. These are the prin­ci­ples by which police offi­cers must be guid­ed. Consent of the cit­i­zens not cit­i­zen dom­i­na­tion. Unless of course American police offi­cers still do not see African Americans as citizens.