The Blue Wall: police brutality in our own backyard

Police and the military are one, and they are killing unarmed black men at an alarming rate.

 

Rev. Coakley Pendergrass, Min. Louis Mohammad, and SCLC President Ben Williams discuss police brutality in Cobb County, Ga. at last night's town hall meeting sponsored by The Cobb United for Change Coalition.

Military forces are authorized to use deadly weapons to "defend or support the interests of the state and some or all of its citizens."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military).

Lately, however, police (the local military) are getting away with murdering citizens while trying to "defend themselves" against unarmed threats.

 

We need to affirm this:

 

Officer Friendly does not exist except in our imaginations.

 

Officers wearing solid blue camouflage attire are trained to kill first and protect and serve later.

 

"Dead or alive mostly means dead!"

--- quote from the 1960s "The Rifleman" TV Show

Public safety directors smile in your face and can take the heat when asked questions regarding officer performance but are doing little to train or put cop's jobs on the line when they fail to follow protocols. 

 

How can we protect ourselves from the police?

 

We need a Civilian Review Board to investigate police brutality.

 

We need to inform police that the protection of citizen's rights is of primary importance, and they must work, live within, and understand the culture of communities they are mandated to serve.

 

Ministers and political leaders are concerned about the moral and management issues regarding policing in Cobb.
The meeting was held at the public library.

We need bail money to help advocates and protesters who are arrested while they are "fighting" police brutality.

 

We need to hold police and elected officials accountable when someone is shot or Tasered, especially if a citizen is killed.

 

Cobb Public Safety Director Sam Heaton said police feel they are targets in blue uniforms and only make $38k yearly for putting their lives on the line. Heaton's salary is reported to be $138k or more.

We need women, mothers, and young people to get involved.

 

Sis. Brenda Muhammad said the community's women will be getting involved to save lives.

Police need to spend more time patrolling predominately white neighborhoods for criminals instead of profiling black males.

 

All sheriffs, DAs, mayors, county managers, public safety directors, and police chiefs should be terminated from employment for ill-trained officers and poor community relations when police brutality and excessive force occur.

(Some of the above recommendations were made after communicating with community activists and parents of deceased victims.)