This is why it doesnt matter that there might be a few good guys in law enforcement: Carol Baker: Herein lies the problem: There is no recognition on the part of the police department that there is a problem with race relations. There is no recognition by the police department that people of color are statistically proven to be targeted by police when theyve done absolutely nothing wrong. There is no recognition that the people on the streets protesting the murders of Mike Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice arent responsible for the murder or those two police officers. Mayor DeBlasios comments were measured and sensitive to both sides. He never told those protesters to kill the police. He recognized there was a problem. This was not a revolutionary act - it was a senseless murder committed by a deeply disturbed individual. Resources are finite. Empathy for everyone is not. The President of the Police Union believes that any criticism of one police officer is tantamount to a declared fatwah against all police officers. That is a lie. Its a big lie and the words he spoke were completely irresponsible. When young unarmed black men are killed, regardless of the circumstances, we blame the black community, we blame their parents, we blame lazy n*****s who just want free stuff. We blame 14 year old black girls having babies. We claim black people are just as racist against white people as white people are against black people. Thats a willful ignorance of the basic understanding of racism. Racism implies an institutional prejudice with a power structure to oppress the people victims of the racism. White people are the ones with control of the power structure. Empathy for the victims of police violence and empathy for the two murdered cops is not mutually exclusive. Empathy is not a zero-sum game. Its time to start speaking more responsibly about the problems at hand and look for solutions.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 21:10:37 +0000
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