A few years ago I was trying to find a parking place in a mall parking lot when I stopped to let a Black woman drive out of her space. As she drove past me she slowed, lowered her window and spat on the side of my car. I guess I had experienced some hatred and racism but did not know why. Growing up in a small town that was proud of being part of the Underground Railroad, many of my friends were Black and race was never mentioned. We were in school together and played together. We spent time in each other’s houses and thought that we were living a normal life. After leaving that small town, it became apparent to me that what I had grown up to know to be normal was not the same in much of the rest of our country. I went to Syracuse when Jim Brown became the first Black football player there, and we lived in the North. Through the years, I have seen the revolution of non-white people being more accepted into society. The sixties were filled with burning streets and marches to propel this promise of equality forward. Dr. King finally got his message across before being killed, and Congress acted to rectify the age-old problem of “All Men Are Created Equal” without rights being granted to some because of their race. President Johnson started the Great Society, which built government housing and granted welfare to many of those fleeing the South. The problem was that, after receiving the welfare, it was difficult to find a job that would allow the same standard of living. The freed slaves were enslaved again but without the chance of living the American Dream. A big problem at this time was the education system that never attained the ability to educate those living in the inner cities in the government housing. The poverty became generational. If a job was found, there was a loss of benefits, and without a good education there was little chance to find a job good enough to equal or improve the standard of living over that in the government housing and welfare payments. So with no job to occupy time crime and drugs became the main pastime with the formation of gangs to rule the streets. Here come the police to take the streets back and they are still trying to do just that.
Most of the police forces in the sixties and seventies were White, and it was White against Black and Hispanic for many years with the police brutality continuing through the years. The inner city neighborhoods would back the criminals and drug dealers against the police, which created the huge chasm between them. The police became the bad guys in these neighborhoods, and law and order never had a chance. It is still that way today in many areas of the country except the police are not a majority of White men and women. The New York City Police Department has about 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilians with the White policeman being in the minority. The department is 45% White, and 55% Black, Hispanic and Asian. There is no longer a reason to believe that all police brutality is perpetrated by white officers, and there are also many unreported occurrences of overreaction against White and Hispanic arrestees. Most of the reported problems with overreaction and use of weapons has been after a suspect has resisted arrest and tried to fight the officer arresting them. This is not a reason to beat or kill a suspect, but the sociologist will explain it in terms that many of us do not understand.
Many years ago I was forced to take a non-science or math course to graduate from college. I took a course in sociology and the law. I thought that it would be another of those filler courses to get a diploma, but to my surprise the course became very interesting. In fact, as I worked at a pharmaceutical company, I was aware of the constant vigil by the FDA, and this course talked about these relationships. One of the relational occurrences was with police officers and the public. For instance, their relationship with a prostitute was a love-hate one where they protected the girls but still had to arrest them when their actions were apparent. One of the most glaring items about the police officer was his or her reaction to the public or a suspect when they felt that they were being disrespected. The badge and uniform was the officer's deterrent to actions against them when making an arrest. When that deterrent was removed with disrespect, the officer felt threatened and usually became more aggressive. It made sense and explained to me why many times officers reacted with too much force.
Understanding why and when the reactions between police and the public are at odds has to be learned before any meaningful reforms can be made. Some of the things that can be started immediately would be to upgrade the education system in the inner cities and give the people living there a chance to improve their lives. Changing training methods to include more sociology and psychology would help the officer understand the reactions to his interaction with various groups in society. A drug dealer and a DUI are not the same even though both may be Black. The aggressive nature of some people is probably the same in the police force as it is in the general population; we see brutality in homes against wives and children by men who have anger issues and those same men could be and probably are police officers. It has been impossible to remove those overly aggressive types from police forces because of strong unions and the blue line that withholds evidence when officers are breaking the law themselves. One officer will refuse to testify or turn in another officer even though an egregious event may have occurred. Both of these situations will have to be remedied before any reform will work. Most of the unions are backed by the Democratic administrations to continue to receive reelection money, and they will not police the unions to allow bad officers to be fired. The unions are stronger than the administrations. One other thing is that the White man who died with an officer’s knee on his neck for 13 minutes is not and will not be reported by the media. Black Lives Matter when it is convenient. The 4 Black officers who were killed in the riots have been forgotten by the movement and the many Black lives killed in Chicago, Baltimore and St Louis every week are never mentioned as important. What is important is that human lives do matter, and when we as a nation start to recognize this in all situations there might be a chance to start loving each other instead of spitting on your neighbor’s car.
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