Police Shame

Police in Ferguson Missouri should feel ashamed .That shame should also be pal­pa­ble to Cops in Staten Island New York . It should be felt by every cop and every per­son who sup­ports and believes in the rule of law everywhere.

It ought to grate on the con­science of every cop, when the com­mu­ni­ty they serve sees them as mur­der­ous tyrants. Law enforce­ment is a dan­ger­ous job. I know some­thing about that, hav­ing being a front line cop who bear the scar of being shot in the line of duty.

One of the prob­lem which bedev­ils Police Departments is their bone-head­ed approach to cit­i­zens com­plaints . Perceptions are some­times real­i­ty. I served in a Department which did not heed the calls to change until it com­plete­ly lost the con­fi­dence of the public .

It does not help police depart­ments when they bat­ten down the hatch­es and refuse to change. The streets of Ferguson is proof pos­i­tive that approach does not work.

It can­not be that a police offi­cer decid­ed­ly shoots some­one because that per­son is.

1)Running away.

2)Hits a cop.

3)Says some­thing an ego-mani­a­cal cop does not like, or otherwise.

Police offi­cers are autho­rized to use lethal force only in defense of their lives or that of anoth­er. There are police cheer-lead­ers who talk out of the side of their mouths about when cops ought to use lethal force.

The fact is police offi­cers are bound by law to arrest some­one even if that per­son just shot at him/​her as long as that per­son laid the weapon down. Cops nowa­days are very hap­py to exe­cute peo­ple for the slight­est reasons.

The sec­ond rea­son for shame is the loot­ing by cer­tain crim­i­nal ele­ments who are using this tragedy to destroy busi­ness­es in their own com­mu­ni­ty. Residents of Ferguson have every right to demon­strate against police bru­tal­i­ty and aggres­sion against mem­bers of their com­mu­ni­ty. They do not have a right to destroy prop­er­ty. They do not have a right to loot stores and steal property.

Then there is the white major­i­ty which large­ly sits on it’s rear-end and ben­e­fit from white priv­i­leged. By it’s silence and refusal to be iden­ti­fied with those who are suf­fer­ing under the bru­tal yoke of brutish police depart­ments they have sided with the oppres­sors. If this crim­i­nal assault by cops is allowed to con­tin­ue, it will even­tu­al­ly get to their door soon enough. It may not come with the ven­omous hatred many cops have for the black pop­u­la­tion. It will come for oth­er reasons.

Police bru­tal­i­ty is a nation­al Epidemic which sur­vives and thrives on the silent acqui­es­cence of the white major­i­ty. The white major­i­ty pre­tends not to see because it is yet to get to it’s doorsteps. That may soon change. The so called main-stream media does noth­ing to report on police excess­es. Cops pret­ty much have carte-blanche to do what they chose.

I am delight­ed to see res­i­dents of Ferguson stand­ing up and say­ing no more , lets hope this is not a flash in the pan but a National awak­en­ing which will push back the Police to being ser­vants of the peo­ple and not their Lord exe­cu­tion­ers. There is a sense of own­er­ship which comes from the nar­ra­tive of the non-minor­i­ty pop­u­la­tion in this coun­try. Not sure where that sense of own­er­ship comes from.

I haven’t heard the opin­ions of Native Americans on this issue, . I will be hap­py to hear from them when this own­er­ship ques­tion comes up. In the mean­time I will throw my sup­port behind the sons and daugh­ters of slaves who bled and died for this land and still do today. Right now my tol­er­ance for the slave-mas­ters and their house slaves is very low.