Those Who Use The Death Of Cops To Amplify The Drum-beat About The Dangers Of The Job Are Trying To Silent Critics Of Police Abuse

Those who use the death of cops to ampli­fy the drum-beat about the dan­gers of the job are try­ing to silent crit­ics of police abuse.
Every per­son who sign up to be a police offi­cer, does so know­ing full well the dan­gers inher­ent in that job.
They know that behind the pow­er to wear a gun and badge and being able to restrict the rights of cit­i­zens, have pre­cious lit­tle to do with Hollywood’s roman­tic notions of police work.
Anyone who joined, then now pre­tend he or she was not con­ver­sant that every traf­fic-stop could be his/​her last is a men­tal incom­pe­tent who nev­er deserved to be a cop in the first place.
More fun­da­men­tal­ly impor­tant is the notion that because police work is poten­tial­ly dan­ger­ous it can­not be done with­out killing and gross­ly abus­ing the rights of citizens.
Those who con­tin­ue to per­pet­u­ate the lie that because of the poten­tial­ly vio­lent nature of the job police must be aggres­sive, assertive, and abuse does a tremen­dous dis-ser­vice to the truth, to the police and to the gen­er­al public.

I am not behold­en to any­one when I assert these truths.
As a young Police Officer in September 1987 I almost lost my life in a dark alley-way in Kingston Jamaica. I took a bul­let that night in direct ser­vice to the pub­lic, yet I nev­er felt it was the pub­lic against me when I go out to do my job.
When Police Officers adopt a pos­ture of ‘them against us” it is bad for the public,it sets up a poten­tial­ly dan­ger­ous face-off between police and mem­bers of the pub­lic as we are see­ing in cities and towns all across America.
I observed as a for­mer police offi­cer that there is a marked dif­fer­ence between the way police approach their jobs in the United States and the way we approached ours in Jamaica.
As a young police recruit in the Academy we were taught nev­er to take what cit­i­zens do personally.
They com­mit­ted them­selves against the state, not you the officer.
If you per­son­al­ize cit­i­zens trans­gres­sions you are more like­ly to assert your author­i­ty in a way that esca­lates the sit­u­a­tion rather than de-esca­late it.
In that sit­u­a­tion there are no winners.

Cops in the United States are aggres­sive, they per­son­al­ize the tini­est trans­gres­sions cit­i­zens make, par­tic­u­lar­ly black cit­i­zens. They esca­late the most minute sit­u­a­tions until they have cre­at­ed an arrest-able sce­nario. Often times these arrests end up becom­ing vio­lent because sub­jects of these arrest believe they did noth­ing wrong which would neces­si­tate them being arrested.
Over the years I have spo­ken with offi­cers from sev­er­al police depart­ments here in the United States, I have also observed their actions personally.
Some offi­cers have been sur­pris­ing­ly can­did in assess­ing their roles as ser­vants of the peo­ple. Officers have inti­mat­ed to me that their depart­ment heads do not want them to have cor­dial rela­tion­ships with the pub­lic. They want them to go out write traf­fic tick­ets, and enforce low-lev­el infractions.
Some offi­cers have con­fid­ed in me that their boss­es want them to be enforcers and not social workers.
The sour rela­tion­ship between New York City’s Police Department and the city’s minor­i­ty com­mu­ni­ties are a direct result of those aggres­sive poli­cies which police boss­es argue are nec­es­sary to tamp down on seri­ous crimes but crit­ics argue they are designed to stock pub­lic cof­fers from traf­fic fines and crim­i­nal­ize young men of color.

It is impor­tant as we grap­ple with this epi­dem­ic that we under­stand that these issues are not hap­pen­ing in a vac­u­um. There is prece­dent for this .
Up until 50 years ago insti­tu­tion­al­ized racism was the law of America.
When Martin Luther King and oth­ers marched and demand­ed social jus­tice the num­ber one issue in front of them was police abuse of blacks.
Today the num­ber on issue fac­ing blacks is police abuse.

From the 1880s into the 1960s, a major­i­ty of American states enforced seg­re­ga­tion through “Jim Crow” laws (so called after a black char­ac­ter in min­strel shows). From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal pun­ish­ments on peo­ple for con­sort­ing with mem­bers of anoth­er race. The most com­mon types of laws for­bade inter­mar­riage and ordered busi­ness own­ers and pub­lic insti­tu­tions to keep their black and white clien­tele separated.

Here is a sam­pling of laws from var­i­ous states:

Nurses No per­son or cor­po­ra­tion shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hos­pi­tals, either pub­lic or pri­vate, in which negro men are placed. Alabama

Buses All pas­sen­ger sta­tions in this state oper­at­ed by any motor trans­porta­tion com­pa­ny shall have sep­a­rate wait­ing rooms or space and sep­a­rate tick­et win­dows for the white and col­ored races. Alabama

Railroads The con­duc­tor of each pas­sen­ger train is autho­rized and required to assign each pas­sen­ger to the car or the divi­sion of the car, when it is divid­ed by a par­ti­tion, des­ig­nat­ed for the race to which such pas­sen­ger belongs. Alabama

Restaurants It shall be unlaw­ful to con­duct a restau­rant or oth­er place for the serv­ing of food in the city, at which white and col­ored peo­ple are served in the same room, unless such white and col­ored per­sons are effec­tu­al­ly sep­a­rat­ed by a sol­id par­ti­tion extend­ing from the floor upward to a dis­tance of sev­en feet or high­er, and unless a sep­a­rate entrance from the street is pro­vid­ed for each com­part­ment.Alabama

Pool and Billiard Rooms It shall be unlaw­ful for a negro and white per­son to play togeth­er or in com­pa­ny with each oth­er at any game of pool or bil­liards.Alabama

Toilet Facilities, Male Every employ­er of white or negro males shall pro­vide for such white or negro males rea­son­ably acces­si­ble and sep­a­rate toi­let facil­i­ties.Alabama

Intermarriage The mar­riage of a per­son of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void. Arizona

Intermarriage All mar­riages between a white per­son and a negro, or between a white per­son and a per­son of negro descent to the fourth gen­er­a­tion inclu­sive, are here­by for­ev­er pro­hib­it­ed. Florida

Cohabitation Any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not mar­ried to each oth­er, who shall habit­u­al­ly live in and occu­py in the night­time the same room shall each be pun­ished by impris­on­ment not exceed­ing twelve (12) months, or by fine not exceed­ing five hun­dred ($500.00) dol­lars.Florida

Education The schools for white chil­dren and the schools for negro chil­dren shall be con­duct­ed sep­a­rate­ly.Florida

Juvenile Delinquents There shall be sep­a­rate build­ings, not near­er than one fourth mile to each oth­er, one for white boys and one for negro boys. White boys and negro boys shall not, in any man­ner, be asso­ci­at­ed togeth­er or worked togeth­er.Florida

Mental Hospitals The Board of Control shall see that prop­er and dis­tinct apart­ments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white per­sons be togeth­er. Georgia

Intermarriage It shall be unlaw­ful for a white per­son to mar­ry any­one except a white per­son. Any mar­riage in vio­la­tion of this sec­tion shall be void. Georgia

Barbers No col­ored bar­ber shall serve as a bar­ber [to] white women or girls.Georgia

Burial The offi­cer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any col­ored per­sons upon ground set apart or used for the bur­ial of white per­sons. Georgia

Restaurants All per­sons licensed to con­duct a restau­rant, shall serve either white peo­ple exclu­sive­ly or col­ored peo­ple exclu­sive­ly and shall not sell to the two races with­in the same room or serve the two races any­where under the same license.Georgia

Amateur Baseball It shall be unlaw­ful for any ama­teur white base­ball team to play base­ball on any vacant lot or base­ball dia­mond with­in two blocks of a play­ground devot­ed to the Negro race, and it shall be unlaw­ful for any ama­teur col­ored base­ball team to play base­ball in any vacant lot or base­ball dia­mond with­in two blocks of any play­ground devot­ed to the white race. Georgia

Parks It shall be unlaw­ful for col­ored peo­ple to fre­quent any park owned or main­tained by the city for the ben­e­fit, use and enjoy­ment of white persons…and unlaw­ful for any white per­son to fre­quent any park owned or main­tained by the city for the use and ben­e­fit of col­ored per­sons. Georgia

Wine and Beer All per­sons licensed to con­duct the busi­ness of sell­ing beer or wine…shall serve either white peo­ple exclu­sive­ly or col­ored peo­ple exclu­sive­ly and shall not sell to the two races with­in the same room at any time. Georgia

Reform Schools The chil­dren of white and col­ored races com­mit­ted to the hous­es of reform shall be kept entire­ly sep­a­rate from each oth­er. Kentucky

Circus Tickets All cir­cus­es, shows, and tent exhi­bi­tions, to which the atten­dance of…more than one race is invit­ed or expect­ed to attend shall pro­vide for the con­ve­nience of its patrons not less than two tick­et offices with indi­vid­ual tick­et sell­ers, and not less than two entrances to the said per­for­mance, with indi­vid­ual tick­et tak­ers and receivers, and in the case of out­side or tent per­for­mances, the said tick­et offices shall not be less than twen­ty-five (25) feet apart. Louisiana

Housing Any person…who shall rent any part of any such build­ing to a negro per­son or a negro fam­i­ly when such build­ing is already in whole or in part in occu­pan­cy by a white per­son or white fam­i­ly, or vice ver­sa when the build­ing is in occu­pan­cy by a negro per­son or negro fam­i­ly, shall be guilty of a mis­de­meanor and on con­vic­tion there­of shall be pun­ished by a fine of not less than twen­ty-five ($25.00) nor more than one hun­dred ($100.00) dol­lars or be impris­oned not less than 10, or more than 60 days, or both such fine and impris­on­ment in the dis­cre­tion of the court. Louisiana

The Blind The board of trustees shall…maintain a sep­a­rate building…on sep­a­rate ground for the admis­sion, care, instruc­tion, and sup­port of all blind per­sons of the col­ored or black race. Louisiana

Intermarriage All mar­riages between a white per­son and a negro, or between a white per­son and a per­son of negro descent, to the third gen­er­a­tion, inclu­sive, or between a white per­son and a mem­ber of the Malay race; or between the negro a nd a mem­ber of the Malay race; or between a per­son of Negro descent, to the third gen­er­a­tion, inclu­sive, and a mem­ber of the Malay race, are for­ev­er pro­hib­it­ed, and shall be void. Maryland

Railroads All rail­road com­pa­nies and cor­po­ra­tions, and all per­sons run­ning or oper­at­ing cars or coach­es by steam on any rail­road line or track in the State of Maryland, for the trans­porta­tion of pas­sen­gers, are here­by required to pro­vide sep­a­rate cars or coach­es for the trav­el and trans­porta­tion of the white and col­ored pas­sen­gers. Maryland

Education Separate schools shall be main­tained for the chil­dren of the white and col­ored races. Mississippi

Promotion of Equality Any person…who shall be guilty of print­ing, pub­lish­ing or cir­cu­lat­ing print­ed, type­writ­ten or writ­ten mat­ter urg­ing or pre­sent­ing for pub­lic accep­tance or gen­er­al infor­ma­tion, argu­ments or sug­ges­tions in favor of social equal­i­ty or of inter­mar­riage between whites and negroes, shall be guilty of a mis­de­meanor and sub­ject to fine or not exceed­ing five hun­dred (500.00) dol­lars or impris­on­ment not exceed­ing six (6) months or both. Mississippi

Intermarriage The mar­riage of a white per­son with a negro or mulat­to or per­son who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlaw­ful and void.Mississippi

Hospital Entrances There shall be main­tained by the gov­ern­ing author­i­ties of every hos­pi­tal main­tained by the state for treat­ment of white and col­ored patients sep­a­rate entrances for white and col­ored patients and vis­i­tors, and such entrances shall be used by the race only for which they are pre­pared. Mississippi

Prisons The war­den shall see that the white con­victs shall have sep­a­rate apart­ments for both eat­ing and sleep­ing from the negro con­victs. Mississippi

Education Separate free schools shall be estab­lished for the edu­ca­tion of chil­dren of African descent; and it shall be unlaw­ful for any col­ored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a col­ored school.Missouri

Intermarriage All mar­riages between…white per­sons and negroes or white per­sons and Mongolians…are pro­hib­it­ed and declared absolute­ly void…No per­son hav­ing one-eighth part or more of negro blood shall be per­mit­ted to mar­ry any white per­son, nor shall any white per­son be per­mit­ted to mar­ry any negro or per­son hav­ing one-eighth part or more of negro blood. Missouri

Education Separate rooms [shall] be pro­vid­ed for the teach­ing of pupils of African descent, and [when] said rooms are so pro­vid­ed, such pupils may not be admit­ted to the school rooms occu­pied and used by pupils of Caucasian or oth­er descent. New Mexico

Textbooks Books shall not be inter­change­able between the white and col­ored schools, but shall con­tin­ue to be used by the race first using them. North Carolina

Libraries The state librar­i­an is direct­ed to fit up and main­tain a sep­a­rate place for the use of the col­ored peo­ple who may come to the library for the pur­pose of read­ing books or peri­od­i­cals. North Carolina

Militia The white and col­ored mili­tia shall be sep­a­rate­ly enrolled, and shall nev­er be com­pelled to serve in the same orga​ni​za​tion​.No orga­ni­za­tion of col­ored troops shall be per­mit­ted where white troops are avail­able, and while white per­mit­ted to be orga­nized, col­ored troops shall be under the com­mand of white offi­cers. North Carolina

Transportation The…Utilities Commission…is empow­ered and direct­ed to require the estab­lish­ment of sep­a­rate wait­ing rooms at all sta­tions for the white and col­ored races. North Carolina

Teaching Any instruc­tor who shall teach in any school, col­lege or insti­tu­tion where mem­bers of the white and col­ored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruc­tion shall be deemed guilty of a mis­de­meanor, and upon con­vic­tion there­of, shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dol­lars ($10.00) nor more than fifty dol­lars ($50.00) for each offense. Oklahoma

Fishing, Boating, and Bathing The [Conservation] Commission shall have the right to make seg­re­ga­tion of the white and col­ored races as to the exer­cise of rights of fish­ing, boat­ing and bathing. Oklahoma

Mining The baths and lock­ers for the negroes shall be sep­a­rate from the white race, but may be in the same build­ing. Oklahoma

Telephone Booths The Corporation Commission is here­by vest­ed with pow­er and author­i­ty to require tele­phone companies…to main­tain sep­a­rate booths for white and col­ored patrons when there is a demand for such sep­a­rate booths. That the Corporation Commission shall deter­mine the neces­si­ty for said sep­a­rate booths only upon com­plaint of the peo­ple in the town and vicin­i­ty to be served after due hear­ing as now pro­vid­ed by law in oth­er com­plaints filed with the Corporation Commission. Oklahoma

Lunch Counters No per­sons, firms, or cor­po­ra­tions, who or which fur­nish meals to pas­sen­gers at sta­tion restau­rants or sta­tion eat­ing hous­es, in times lim­it­ed by com­mon car­ri­ers of said pas­sen­gers, shall fur­nish said meals to white and col­ored pas­sen­gers in the same room, or at the same table, or at the same counter. South Carolina

Child Custody It shall be unlaw­ful for any par­ent, rel­a­tive, or oth­er white per­son in this State, hav­ing the con­trol or cus­tody of any white child, by right of guardian­ship, nat­ur­al or acquired, or oth­er­wise, to dis­pose of, give or sur­ren­der such white child per­ma­nent­ly into the cus­tody, con­trol, main­te­nance, or sup­port, of a negro. South Carolina

Libraries Any white per­son of such coun­ty may use the coun­ty free library under the rules and reg­u­la­tions pre­scribed by the com­mis­sion­ers court and may be enti­tled to all the priv­i­leges there­of. Said court shall make prop­er pro­vi­sion for the negroes of said coun­ty to be served through a sep­a­rate branch or branch­es of the coun­ty free library, which shall be admin­is­tered by [a] cus­to­di­an of the negro race under the super­vi­sion of the coun­ty librar­i­an. Texas

Education [The County Board of Education] shall pro­vide schools of two kinds; those for white chil­dren and those for col­ored chil­dren. Texas

Theaters Every person…operating…any pub­lic hall, the­atre, opera house, motion pic­ture show or any place of pub­lic enter­tain­ment or pub­lic assem­blage which is attend­ed by both white and col­ored per­sons, shall sep­a­rate the white race and the col­ored race and shall set apart and designate…certain seats there­in to be occu­pied by white per­sons and a por­tion there­of , or cer­tain seats there­in, to be occu­pied by col­ored per­sons. Virginia

Railroads The con­duc­tors or man­agers on all such rail­roads shall have pow­er, and are here­by required, to assign to each white or col­ored pas­sen­ger his or her respec­tive car, coach or com­part­ment. If the pas­sen­ger fails to dis­close his race, the con­duc­tor and man­agers, act­ing in good faith, shall be the sole judges of his race.Virginia

Intermarriage All mar­riages of white per­sons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya here­after con­tract­ed in the State of Wyoming are and shall be ille­gal and void. Wyoming>

It is impor­tant as we grap­ple with this issue going for­ward, that pol­i­cy mak­ers rec­og­nize that vio­lence begets violence.
People react vio­lent­ly when they expect that vio­lence will be used against them.
I have repeat­ed­ly stat­ed that it is a false argu­ment when police apol­o­gists tell you that police work can only be done by being aggres­sive, arro­gant, abu­sive, and over­ly assertive.
The best police work is achiev­able when offi­cers do the exact oppo­site of the aforementioned.
That of course is depen­dent on whether those who make pol­i­cy want that kind of interaction.
It depends on whether pol­i­cy mak­ers want that kind of country.
In many parts of the coun­try they don’t .
Already there is new data show­ing that more police offi­cers are being shot.
The envi­ron­ment is tox­ic with inci­dents of police killing unarmed black men, as peo­ple demon­strate against police across the nation more offi­cers are pay­ing the ulti­mate price.
No police offi­cer deserves to die for doing his job.
No inno­cent per­son (regard­less of col­or) should be harassed, abused or mur­dered, that’s the bot­tom line.