The conversation on race in America is being conducted as if the problem is insurmountable as if there is no fix to it.
The fact is that there are people who do not believe that every other human being should enjoy the rights and privileges that they enjoy so casually and as a matter of course…
I write this article as the Seattle City Council voted to cut nearly four million dollars from the police budget, and the City’s Black female police chief, Carmen Best, resigned in protest.
Best announced her retirement Monday night, shortly after Seattle’s City Council voted to cut nearly $4 million from the police department’s budget.
Best’s announcement came the same day the council approved the mid-year budget cut from the police department’s 2019 – 2020 budget of $400 million. (according to CNN).
The Mayor of the city of Seattle, Jenny Durkan, heaped praise on Best, pictured above, after the City Council on Monday voted 8 – 1 to defund its police force and kill 100 jobs.
To the Seattle Council, I say “bravo” thank you for standing up to the tyranny that policing has become.
The chief tendered her resignation thereafter, and the Council had also voted to slash her $285,000 a year salary.
The lone no vote came from Councilmember Kshama Sawant because she did not think the cuts went far enough, which makes little sense.
Alarmists who gin up fear about criminals taking over cities and towns because of cuts to over-bloated police departments are the usual fear mongers, (hello Marco Rubio, look at you). They are usually white, entitled, and don’t give a damn about police murdering black people. They have little to no worry about police abuse; police serve as protectors of their white privilege.
In most communities of color, the police have been a force of terror against residents for decades. The residents of those communities are forced to pay with their hard-earned tax dollars to have police overlords abuse and kill their children.
The citizens of Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, New York, and places in between have every right to elect leaders who will carry out their will.
They have every right to demand from those leaders who are already in office to hear them on how they want their tax dollars spent.
Privileged white people with no fear of police abuse and frankly do not care whether black people live or die have no right or say ‑in what black residents demand in their communities.
Monies saved from cuts to police over-bloated budgets and the lack of hiring of more aggressive, racist, uneducated thugs as police officers must now be diverted to programs that begin to heal the hundreds of years of trauma on the black community.
Housing, Health care, Education, Social Services, preventing recidivism for inmates who want to assimilate into society, providing loans to support black start-ups, etc.
All these things will exponentially lower crime and reduce the need for massive militarized police forces across the country.
The massive police build-up has become an out-of-control behemoth that many Mayors have little control over.
They are gangs that terrorize citizens, make their own rules, and live by their own codes.
In city after city, we see leaders elected by the city scared shitless of these massive police departments and their corrupt unions.
(Maya Lau /Los Angeles Times)
In October of 2019, Axios wrote: In California, critics of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department have been faced with a unique version of the issue: the existence of what has been called “deputy gangs” — cliques of officers who allegedly engage in violent and potentially criminal behavior while protecting their members and clashing with other law enforcement officers.
These groups have reportedly been around in some form or another in Los Angeles County since the 1970s and have been a frequent topic of local media reporting. Outlets like the Los Angeles Times have highlighted how other officers have filed formal complaints about the “secretive groups,” describing them as powerful forces within the sheriff’s department who beat and harass residents and, at times, actively work to intimidate other nonaffiliated officers. In 2018, the outlet noted that nearly three dozen federal civil rights lawsuits against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department pointed to a deputy’s “gang culture that encourages excessive force, particularly against minorities.”In that time, nearly three dozen federal lawsuits have been filed against the department.
Despite the criminal acts those thugs commit, Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva argues that the groups are little more than “intergenerational hazing.”
Arguably, one of the most important aspects of this defunding debate is the hundreds of millions of dollars paid to victims of police crimes.
For that purpose, I believe and encourage progressives not to engage with pro-police proponents who refuse to acknowledge the crimes being committed by police.
Every Doctor has to have malpractice insurance to practice their craft, Lawyers, and other professionals. A small business owner has to purchase expensive insurance that guarantees the public some level of protection to the customer who graces their establishments in case of a simple fall.
Yet Police officers, many of whom make well over a hundred thousand dollars annually, in some cases more than two hundred thousand dollars each year, commit all kinds of crimes for which they are not prosecuted. Yet, when their departments get sued and are held to account financially, taxpayers are forced to pay the tab.
Even under the rarest circumstances in which a victim sues and is awarded damages, they do not pay; the taxpayers pick up the tab for their criminality because city leaders have set aside slush funds of your tax dollars as throwaway money to pay for their crimes.
That is a huge part of why they act with such blatant disregard and impunity.
Qualified Immunity.
The Black police chief resigned because her salary was cut, and the department’s budget was cut by a measly 4 million dollars, in addition to the cutting of 100 officers.
The Mayor bemoans that it is most likely that the officers cut will be the last joined cops, arguably of a more diverse persuasion.
Simply speaking, she wants us to believe that black cops will be the ones cut.
The fact is that (a) the Seattle Police department has been operating under a consent decree from the Obama Administration; this is not a saintly police department; it has had issues of abusing citizens. The Mayor’s protestations and praise amount to nothing more than a heap of horse manure.
(b) More Black or Hispanic cops do not necessarily mean better cops.
The NYPD is a perfect example of that.
A totally out-of-control mob that the city’s residents have been conditioned to believe they cannot do without.
Regardless of color, cops will abuse citizens if they are allowed to get away with it.
Defunding the police is not an alien concept; it is what the power structure wants you to believe and what the idiots on the political right would have you believe because the police do their bidding.
Defunding the police does not mean getting rid of the police; it means investing in our youth, in skills training, in ending the school-to-prison pipeline that fattens already fatcats that make up the one percent.
It means that America will finally begin to live up to its creed, that all men are created equal, not just empty words, but in the way that each person is treated equally under the law.
When they refuse to listen to your demands, you have no obligation to give an ear to theirs.
We still need well-trained, respectful police officers who enforce the laws with compassion, skill, and fairness. We need competent detectives to investigate crimes. We need well-trained swat units to save lives. We need community-based officers who live in the communities they police to respond to and protect our communities.
What is certainly not needed and must end are the heavily militarized police departments that have emerged, like standing armies of soldiers making enemies out of American citizens.
They do not operate in white communities and have turned communities of color into veritable battlefields.
I had a conversation with a gentleman who shall remain anonymous recently. He reached out to me on social media, as many often do when they read my Articles.
Sometimes I consider not responding; at other times, when I am led to, I do respond.
Sometimes they call, sometimes message me, and we have productive conversations on race.
In all of it, I feel vindicated in my long-held beliefs that a lack of exposure to other cultures is a significant factor in the persistent culture of white racism that pervades American society.
This conversation was prompted by my response to a violent and uncalled-for police response that resulted in officers pointing rifles at three young black teens who were the victims of assault; despite being told they were the victims, the cops continued in the way they were operating.
Here is the conversation he had with me; full disclosure, I am a former police officer who served in one of the most violent countries in the world for a decade.
He:
Have you ever watched police shows like Live PD or Cops? Almost always, the first thing they do is make sure there is no weapons present. From my understanding, the call placed a knife on the scene. Because of that, the police had guns drawn. While they were trying to detain the teenagers, there was a lot of confusion, aside from the witnesses. Multiple calls were made to alert the police. And two calls were different. The only thing in common in all calls was the knife. The police had to ensure the scene was safe for all parties. The time to tell the police what happened is after the subjects are detained.
Me:
As a former police officer who did police work in one of the toughest countries in the world and was shot in the line of duty, I can state unequivocally that there is never a need to point a rifle at a subject even if he is armed with a knife. These cops are doing far too much, and they continue to push the bounds of credulity so that they may continue to use unjustifiable levels of lethal force, where simply talking would suffice.
He:
Thank you for replying on messenger to my comments. It is excessive on the rifle being drawn. Thank goodness no one was killed.
Me:
The police are acting as overlords and as if they do not give a damn about perceptions. The children they are traumatizing today, please explain how they will cope with the results of what they have done. There are approximately 40 million black people in the United States of America, and growing, they are creating a dangerous situation for everyone with their dumb arrogance. They serve the people, but they act like the people serve them.
He:
Honestly, I have no idea. You learn from any mistake and try not to repeat it. People should not be defined by one mistake, and yet they are. Today, you have people calling for social justice but don’t believe in forgiveness.
Me:
Forgiveness is a theory rooted in penitence and acknowledging wrongdoing. Forgiveness is not an entitlement; it is something that one is given when one admits to wrongdoing and asks for it with contrition. When wrongdoing is not addressed, it foments anger and resentment.
He:
That is true. I find most people who are social justice warriors show no empathy towards any ideas that don’t align with theirs. Usually, name calling comes next with you’re a racist because of that belief. Or homophobic, and they are alienating people that do believe in some of their causes.
Me:
The cause of social justice should be the cause of all decent human beings. The idiocy of racial superiority allows some people to ignore that salient fact. To me, racial superiority is deeply rooted in insecurity coupled with extreme ignorance.
He:
I am a firm believer in the golden rule.
Me:
What is that?
He
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In short, treat people the way you want to be treated.
Me:
Well, I daresay that is an important lesson that needs to be learned about the black experience in America. With that lesson should come a sincere apology and healing, but pride and arrogance stand in the way of that happening. In the meantime, the cauldron of anger and resentment boils, and those forces will not be quelled with militarized police or the military itself.
He:
I am just ready to go back to work.
Me:
I wish you well.
He:
Thank you. I am a teacher’s assistant at an elementary school. I did enjoy talking with you, and it has opened my eyes.
Me:
The lines are always open. I believe that if we put ourselves in the shoes of others, life would be much easier. I enjoyed my talk with you as well, be safe.
He:
I will be safe.
Me:
I leave this with you. Humans are the only species that make an issue of color. Fish, mammals, and plant life are all hues, and flowers would be just bush without the different colors. That is what makes racism so silly. Have a good night.
He:
Have a great night.
Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.