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New
police recruits… are they the “best” people to protect and serve us?
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OPINION piece:
Cops
have the gun, the law, and the court system behind them, so I don’t feel sorry
for police who say they feel maligned, demoralized, and can’t find good recruits
because citizens don’t like them.
I
"LIKE THEM" just fine. It’s their actions against defenseless people that I don’t
like which are now being recorded with cell phones and body cameras. “Perceptions are
reality,” but data and videos don’t lie. Citizens are watching,
and it all began with Rodney King.
2018
is not like 1946, when George W. and Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy
Malcom were lynched in Moore’s Ford, Ga., and a witness said a police car was on
the scene. Mrs. Dorsey’s seven-month old fetus was cut out of her belly that
day, for God’s sake, but nobody was brought to justice, and the investigation
was dropped earlier this year. No one was even charged in their murders.
Today,
we have “hero” cop shows, Coffee with Cops programs, Adopt a Cop, collaborative
community meetings, police discussion groups and police review boards. When the local police chief
says he must work 24/7 to protect us and we’re just sitting back throwing
stones, that’s a misconception.
The
traffic stop is the first step in being treated inhumanly - facing
abuse, death, loss of freedom, legal fees, lost employment, destruction of the family, homosexuality, and/or time behind bars.
Cops,
like citizens, are human and can err, but they always have the upper hand
because of their “military” status and their ability to kill and not be reprimanded
unless a judge rules otherwise. They can monitor themselves and investigate all
day long, but they will probably always get a bad rap. The power they weld is huge,
but the pen and the cell phone camera can level the playing field.
Our
safety and security are at stake. If we don’t know how to talk to one another,
to have lunch with or stroll down the street together, to have respect for one
another, to not be fearful of being stunned or incarcerated; of being tased,
lynched, or suffocated, or arrested on trumped up charges, then we are really
living in a police state where jail/prison time is profitable. Where the New
Jim Crow has created a slave system turned prison factory. Where inmates are
paid pennies an hour and make blankets and other merchandise, not just license
plates.
This
is the “LAW” state that we live in. And it’s getting worse.
Body
cameras may soon be eliminated because corporations making them are going out
of business and the local government’s deficits may not fund them.
And
what about cops who are selling drugs and guns out of the back of their cruisers?
Is that why so many cop cars are getting broken into, because petty thieves
know what’s inside and see a payday?
One
solution is to read The Art of War and Thick Face, Black Heart: The Warrior Philosophy for Conquering the Challenges of Business and Life. Then,
let’s continue our discussion.
