For years I have been trying to convince people that it is part of the African-American culture to believe that blacks are targeted by the police because they are black. YOU CAN’T CHANGE THAT THINKING. I would estimate that about 90 percent of all black people I arrested or cited claimed I did so because they were black. It didn’t take long for me to learn to just not argue with them about it, eventually I learned just to say, “Yeah, your right. It’s not because you just robbed that store, I’m arresting you because you are black!” That attitude has contributed to the current movement of anti-police sentiment amongst the black community that has been fueled by the recent deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers. I don’t care how hard anyone tries to convince the black community that race has absolutely nothing to do with any of those deaths, the overwhelming number of blacks will be convinced that the police deliberately target blacks for arrest, and in certain circumstances, will kill a black man if they think that can get away with it. I worked in a city that was part of a larger metropolitan area that boasted the largest crime rate in the state. I investigated crimes from simple assault up to first degree murder. I worked with thousands of other officers from my own city and other areas in the county. I have talked in length with officers about the problem of race relations and the perception by African-Americans that they are targeted for enforcement more than whites. Every police officer I have ever spoken to has concluded one thing. We will never fix the problem. That’s correct. We will never be able to fix the problem. When the slaves were shipped to this country in chains, you have ot admit that the black man’s perception of the white man was less than positive. When the slaves were emancipated, the white man’s attitude towards the black man was less than positive. Anyone who thinks that the blacks in this country don’t have extra hurdles to overcome in order to succeed is an idiot. I wouldn’t want to be black. Would you want to be black? I doubt it! I realize that things are different today. There has been an effort to level the playing field, and in some circumstances, blacks have better opportunities. But that doesn’t change the past. And the past is what has been taught to black children for years. The story about grandpa being beat by the police back in the 30s is part of mentality of the 15 year old black male who doesn’t trust the police today. So all of law enforcement has concluded that we can’t change the attitude of the black community towards police officers. It is engrained in their minds, and there is absolutely no way to convince them otherwise, no matter what we say. So we have to deal with it. During my career, I tried hard to understand how the black suspect I was arresting was thinking, and attempted to modify my approach accordingly. But I still had to deal with the fact that no matter what I said, I was looked upon as being unfair, and part of the white establishment that just wanted to suppress the black man. I fear what could happen in this country in the coming months. Our leadership has done nothing to help calm the storm that is brewing over the recent deaths. The people in charge, from president Obama, to our city’s mayors, to our police chiefs, have done nothing to support our police officers, and have instead, supported the “protestors.” These mobs have been allowed to get completely out of hand. I’ve saw a video of a protestor poking a police officer in the chest and screaming obscenities in his face, and the cop just stared ahead and did nothing. Who gave this cop the order to put up with that? That protestor should have been eating gravel and complaining about how tight the handcuffs were. People have the right to air their grievances in a peaceful manner. They don’t have the right to BREAK THE LAW. At the very least, a lot of people should become familiar with the Disorderly Conduct statute. Someone better take charge. Quickly. The only thing a mob understands is force. And it will take some real force to bring this anti-police movement under control. And I don’t care if anyone thinks they are being “targeted” because of their race. We’ll deal with it.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:08:26 +0000
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