According to a Reuters article by Ian Simpson dated 4/27/2015 entitled ‘Police: Seven officers injured, one unresponsive in Baltimore riot’, Black Guerrilla Family, Bloods and Crips gangs allegedly threatened to “…’take out’ law enforcement officers.” Those of you who read my posts in politicalpawnsandpuppets.com probably recall an article in which I said that a young Black male who had experienced a number of encounters with the police made the statement that “the police are just a gang with badges.”
How would it look and how accurate would it be if the line above instead of reading “Black Guerrilla Family, Bloods and Crips gangs allegedly threatened to… read; Black Guerrilla Family, Bloods, Crips and Police gangs allegedly threatened to…?” My opinion is that it would look terrible and it would also be either unfairly skewed favoring those who are either anti-police or totally blinded by their anger about how the police treat people of color – in particular Black people, if one assumed that it was accurate or the inverse would apply if one assumed it was inaccurate. In other words, the skew would favor those who were either simply pro-police no matter how the police conducted themselves or totally blinded by their bias – realized or unrealized – toward people of color, in particular Black people.
Just like all Black people are not the enemy, outlaws, thugs or rabble-rousers simply because they are Black, neither are all police officers ‘gang members with badges.’ But just like some Black people are the enemy, outlaws, thugs or rabble-rousers, some police officers are – in essence, ‘gang members with badges.’
The gang in police departments across the country consists of those dirty police officers who do exactly what gang members do; steal, commit armed robbery, embezzle, bribe, and in other ways bully crooks and other hardworking citizens who many times have done absolutely nothing wrong. Because regular citizens – in particular Black people (young Black people are still struggling to comprehend and accept this) have figured out how to game the system by subordinating themselves to all police officers (this should not be necessary) and conducting themselves in the manner of a child being addressed by their parents, gang member police officers see this as respect just as all bullies do. The truth is that this is not respect but raw fear! How sad a situation this has become for all involved; clean police, dirty police, crooks and everyday innocent hardworking citizens!
Even honest, well-meaning top-level police officials seem to be afraid to even make an effort to correct this problem. Are they afraid that this type of behavior has gone on for so long that it is so engrained into their police departments that it cannot be removed without totally destroying the departments themselves? Could they be right? Does this culture go all the way to the very top and the only way for the country to rid itself of it is to rip it out root and branch and start over? That’s a bit of an overstatement but I’m sure that you get the gist of what I mean.
As a result of the recent death of Freddie Gray at the hands of Baltimore police, Baltimore has erupted in flames. And although at this point the current situation is a long way from being like the riot that occurred there in 1968, the comparison is already being made. The police and local, state, and national politicians began immediately to pontificate and publicize how the actions of lawless people like those who were looting, destroying property, and attacking the police and innocent citizens would not be tolerated. Then they immediately took action to back up their rhetoric.
It is a shame that they refuse to show this same kind of determination when it comes to lawless police officers who are doing to citizens what basically amounts to the same thing that these lawless looters are doing. Because justice is so one-sided in this particular case as a result of the refusal by these officials to address this problem, many people are frustrated and feel that they have no avenues available to them to have their problems and concerns addressed; therefore, they resort to violence. It is a shame that they have come to believe that this is what it takes to shed the feeling of being invisible; but from their perspective this is when the media’s cameras begin to roll and they are noticed. I make this observation to neither excuse nor rationalize their behavior but simply to state the reality of the situation.
As long as the police are so afraid to tackle this problem that many of the police departments around America refuse to even admit that it exists and our elected officials refuse to touch it because it is a political hot potato, then we will continue to have the Florida’s, New York’s, Ferguson’s, Cleveland’s, Oklahoma’s, Alabama’s, South Carolina’s and Baltimore’s.
The list of places immediately above where police have used unwarranted excessive or lethal force is by no means exhaustive. As American citizens we must continue to keep the pressure on all of the officials who are a part of this problem because they must also be a part of the solution. They must be a part of the solution even if as a part of that solution includes removing them.
Whether we are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, we must use our voting power to let our elected officials know that we expect equal justice under the law for all people. Gangs trying to ‘take out’ law enforcement officers are not the answer. Many gang members are either already outlaws because they have broken the law and if they are not already outlaws, they are well on their way to becoming such. This includes police officers who are members of the ‘gang with badges’ who under the guise of enforcing the law are greater enemies to it than are those who openly – and some who proudly, claim the title outlaw or crook.
Despite our color identity or any other terms that we use to identify ourselves, as citizens, we have to step up and speak up. Gangs that evoke the names of those innocent and unarmed Black men who have fallen at the hands of the police and then commit violent acts in retaliation against the police for having killed them amounts to nothing more than breaking the law. It is not the right thing to do! They should be held to account and punished if they are identified and caught.
Let’s focus our energy in the right place and take steps in the right direction to fix the problem by pressuring those who have the ability to fix it but refuse to do so for whatever reason. Among the right places to focus that energy would be efforts to come together and have reasonable discourse on the problems that exist in the justice system in our country. It is obvious that policing the citizenry is one of those problems and our inability to even agree that this problem exists highlights the fact that it indeed does exist and is demanding a solution.
Eulus Dennis