Racism In America, Its Impact on Law Enforcement
SGT A - 12/31/2014 - UFP News
Well, I have decided that it is time to contribute a serious point of view on this issue of racism in America and the impact it is having on Law Enforcement and society as a whole. I wrote a more light-hearted piece on racism awhile back titled, “I’m a Racist” for those interested in a more comical perspective on the topic.
The sad truth though is that the issue of racism has gone beyond the point of much humor of late and it has begun to really disgust me. I do not consider myself a racist by any means, nor do I believe racism “was” an overbearing problem in this nation. That is changing terribly fast with the divisive politics of King Obama and Eric Holder the past few years though and it’s time for it to STOP!
I am not a black man, so I cannot profess to honestly understand racism in America from a black man’s perspective… I am Hispanic and adopted a black child when he was eight years of age… Unfortunately, I have experienced and been the subject of ignorance and racism, so I can unequivocally state and attest to the fact that racism is still alive and well in America…
While I will admit that it predates King Obama, but it has become worse than it has been in decades since he took office. I have heard things said and seen comments on social media the likes of which I have not heard since the 70’s, when the nation was climbing out of the dark days of the Civil Rights movement.
I will share a few of my more poignant encounters with racism in America, so those of you who believe it’s no longer an issue, can try to understand my perspective on the topic.
About twenty years ago I had surgery to remove a tumor that destroyed the left side of my face. It had to be removed, then the face was rebuilt with bone from my back side… Yes, I can honestly say that I speak out of my a$$.
Anyway, I was in recovery and could hear and see everyone around me, but I was having difficulty recovering from the effects of the anesthesia. They used something different from what they do now and I had previously had a difficult time recovering after surgery. Something I informed them of ahead of time.
They had the oxygen mask on me, but I was having difficulty breathing. After some time they started talking about taking me off the oxygen, something that concerned me since I was having trouble breathing, but I could not get myself to speak. When they removed the mask, I could hardly breathe, so I started grunting, trying to get their attention. After a few minutes of the nurse trying to unsuccessfully speak to me, she sent for a doctor.
When the doctor arrived they briefed her on the situation, telling her that I started grunting when they took the oxygen off, but would not talk to them. The doctor then grabs my wrist to look at my arm band as she ask me what’s the matter, then reads my name and slams my arm back down on me, as she said in a really obnoxious tone, “hell, he can’t speak English!” As she walks away, she tells them to put the oxygen back on me.
I still get livid thinking about that incident and if I could have stood up, I would have slapped the English language out of her so hard she would still be speaking gibberish! It still stuns me that anyone, especially an educated doctor, could be so rude and condescending toward another person, simply because of their ethnic background.
Fast forward ten plus years to 2002, and I find myself living in a rural community adopting a young black child. I would have never imagined that the child’s race would have been an issue in the year 2002, but much to my surprise, it was. What was really surprising is how blatant it was…
I first realized that it was going to be a problem when the young lady from the county social service office was doing her initial investigation. I was adopting from out-of-state and there is a rather lengthy process involved. I had met with the young social worker on several occasions and everything seemed to be going quite well. On about my third meeting with her I had obtained some pictures of him with his siblings. He is bi-racial and has brothers and sisters that are both white and black. The picture I had of him was with his mother and all of his siblings. I was also adopting his 14-year-old sister, who is white.
As the young social worker was going through the pictures, she asked me which one we were adopting. When I pointed to the black child in the picture, I could see the look on her face change, as did the course of the investigation and cooperation from the county.
On a subsequent meeting with a more senior county investigator from social services, they actually had the audacity to outright ask me if I thought it was a good idea to adopt a black child, and if I thought he would have a problem fitting in at school. My response to her was that if there were a problem, it would not be his problem. I then reminded the social worker that we were living in the 21st century and that I would not tolerate any racial discrimination.
The county initially denied the adoption, then on appeal after I got others involved, the county asserted that they did not have the manpower to monitor or investigate an out-of-state adoption. We ended up having to hire a private adoption agency that met the requirements to stand in place for the county and the adoption was eventually finalized.
The young black kid they were worried about adjusting to their predominately white rural community, stayed on the honor roll every semester he was in school, had plenty of friends, and is in his second year of college majoring in Electrical Engineering.
My son and I had a good laugh though when Mayor Bill de Blasio came under fire for his statement that he had spoken to his bi-racial son about being cautious when encountering the police in New York City. I had a very similar talk with my black son long before he mentioned that. Why? Because I am a realist… I don’t think I would worry about my son being stopped by the police in NYC, but in the rural community where we live, you bet your ass I worry about him having an encounter with the police. I’ve never seen a black deputy on the street in the 20 years I’ve lived in my county and only recently saw a picture of a black deputy that just graduated the academy.
Am I a cop hater? NO! Do I think all the police in my county are racist because the sheriff’s department is all white? Again, NO! But do I want my son to be so naive as to think the attention would not be directed toward him if he were stopped with a couple of his white friends in the area? NO!
While racism does exist in America, I do not believe it is, or should be a hindrance to anyone. There may have been a time when race could get in the way of a person achieving their goals, but that time is behind us! Racism today may cause a hurt feeling, or be a brief annoyance, but nothing can prevent anyone in America from achieving their goals in life… Nothing!
What’s so very unfortunate is that the nation’s first black president has manage to widen the race gap instead of continuing to close it as he should have. Instead of standing before the people and saying “look, America has a black president, anything is possible now!” He has stood before the people and said, “yeah, I feel your pain, the white man did me wrong too.” Add to that a supporting message from the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney’s General Eric Holder, who has taken his “police are racist” message around the country and you have a rejuvenated platform for the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to lead a new perceived civil rights movement.
There is a difference between recognizing the remaining racial issues in America and using them as an excuse for failure and civil disobedience, and recognizing the remaining issues and pushing through them! I could have easily let the racism I encountered trying to adopt my son become an excuse to give up on him, but instead I pushed through the ignorance.
Racism, right, wrong, or indifferent, has been and will continue to erode through attrition, provided ALL American’s allow it to happen. As each generation of children continue to enter school integrated with one another, racism dwindles. This naturally occurs because when we have the opportunity to interact with one another, we learn real quick that any perceived differences we may have had are BS… Something I learned real quick when I joined the Marine Corps and ended up in an open squad bay with 125 other men of all races and ethnic backgrounds.
How do we halt this reenactment of the civil rights movement though before we find the nation in total racial chaos? I think the first thing everyone needs to do is pause for a minute and give some intelligent thought to what’s taking place. I think if everyone would take a serious look at the facts and quit repeating whatever the daily mantra is they are being fed, they would realize they are being used as political pawns.
Take for example, take this common statement that the race baiters and wannabe spokespeople keep repeating… “It’s time we had a serious conversation about race in America.” Anytime someone is seeking attention, but has no clue what they are talking about, this is the response you get… Of course when someone takes them up on “having a conversation” and gives them the opportunity to present and discuss their issues of concern, they walk it in a circle regurgitating the “we need to have a serious conversation” mantra and never advance the conversation with any substance.
The truth is they never want to discuss the real issues we face as a nation and the problems that exist in the black community, which I would add don’t really differ much from the problems in the white communities with similar social and economic issues.
The minute someone mentions the seventy plus percent fatherless households, or the forty plus percent unemployment rate, the insanely high abortion rate with young black women, or the extraordinary high rate of crime committed by young black men, well… You’re a racist and it’s all the white man’s fault… The minute you suggest a portion of the onus falls on the shoulders of those in the black community… You’re a racist… You don’t understand because you’re not black… Or… You don’t want to have a “serious” conversation…
Then we have the issue with law enforcement… This is an area where problems have been brewing for some time and there are indeed issues that need to be addressed that I will discuss here briefly. The thing is though, contrary to the radical racist agenda being pushed by the likes of Obama, Holder, Sharpton, Jackson, et al., none of the problems between the community and the police have a damn thing to do with race.
I heard one self-proclaimed black community leader argue with a talking head on the news recently, that if the police would just leave the innocent young black men alone that are selling drugs in their community, there would not be so much trouble between the police and the black community. Innocent young drug dealers? This is the conversation they want to have?
The truth is an honest “conversation” is going to have to address the social issues that exist in the black community… Why? Well, the crux of the problem, or issue has more to do with social issues than the color of one’s skin. The same problems experienced in the “black” communities around the country are also the same problems we see in the “rural” communities, regardless of skin color. If you want to find the crime, regardless of where you are in America, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, find the area where the underprivileged live.
Education and a family structure, with positive moral values, is the foundation that all successful communities/nation’s are built on. The color of our skin has nothing to do with it! And I know there is always that group of people who can’t resist proudly stating that what’s moral in my opinion may not be morally sound for them. And right they are!
There are some moral values in a civil society that we should all be able to agree on though… For example:
- Don’t steal. If you are honestly of the mindset that it’s okay to just take whatever you want from someone without their permission, if you have anything of value, please message me your address and the best time for me to come gather your things up.
- Don’t kill, or do any physical harm to anyone for that matter. Your life is valuable, so is your neighbors.
- Don’t lie. If you have to lie to someone, then perhaps you need to consider how you are living your life.
Of course you can always adhere to the old adage of, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
The education issue is really no mystery… Get the children in school and keep them in school! Even if the parent is not well-educated, they can still emphasize the importance of education and work with the educator’s, to insure the children receive the education they deserve.
I moved to a rural community about twenty years ago and while I don’t mean to imply people in rural areas are uneducated, you do have those that fall into that lower social economic group, similar to what you might see in your inner city black communities. Anyway, during the years my kids were in school, I lost track of the number of times I heard parents tell me that they were no good at math, or English, or some other subject, therefore they couldn’t expect their child to be any good at said subject. Why not? I expected every one of my kids to do better than I did in school.
I once heard Dr. Ben Carson tell about how his mother required him to read a book every week and give her a written report when he was done. He openly admitted that his mother was not an educated woman and he even questioned if she could read the reports he wrote, but she insisted that her children get an education… If only all parents were that way.
Let’s face it, how many educated women do you see with half a dozen kids, all from different men, collecting welfare strung out on drugs? Or how many educated men do you know that have a dozen children, all from different women, hanging out in the park all day drunk? Education and family values are something that work best when they work together.
One of the most important things we can teach our children, that would have saved the lives of both Michael Brown and Eric Garner, even though I find those two situations entirely different, is to respect their elders, and authority… I’m not going to tell you that the police are always right, but I will tell you that you will NEVER win an argument with the police on the street! If a police officer tells you that you’re under arrest, you are going to be under arrest, you may as well cooperate!
There is a time and a place for everything and a right and a wrong way to deal with those things. Trying to fight with the police on the street will never end well for you and only make matters worse, especially if you are in fact in the right… In fact, especially if you are in the right! If you are in the right and the police have done something wrong, everything they have done wrong will be overshadowed by what you do wrong…
Being arrested in not the same thing as being guilty of a crime, lots of people are arrested and never convicted of a crime. The courtroom is an innocent persons friend… It’s where you have the advantage over the police… The police may be trying to convict you of a crime, the prosecutor may be trying to convict you of a crime, but the person wearing the black robe is there to protect your rights… They are the ones that know what your rights are and have an obligation to ensure they are protected… If you want to remind someone that you have rights, they are the one you want to remind… Fighting with the police while yelling at them that you know your rights will not help you at all!
There is a lot of talk about mandating better training for the police and all sorts of criticism about the way the police perform their duties – and that’s fine – but if we want to see the police stop shooting young men, not just black men, there are just as many white and brown men shot by the police as black men, then we need to raise them to respect authority and teach them how to properly address their grievances in court.
In regard to the police… Well, I used to believe, like many often say, that most cops are good… To be honest though, my opinion has changed over the past year or so, since I started reading postings on police oriented social media sites. I have found myself appalled by the majority of the attitudes and comments made by the police officers in the groups. They make me ashamed to admit that I was once a law enforcement officer.
The feelings expressed toward the citizens they are hired by and paid to protect, are just as bad, if not worse than the feelings expressed by the cop haters. Even in the Groups open to everyone, the typical response when a citizen questions something about police procedure or conduct, is “Until you wear the badge, shut up!” Or “Next time you need help, call a crack head!” I have even seen some Groups on Facebook selling T-shirts that say “Don’t like the police, call a Crackhead.” These sort of comments by police officers are uncalled for and do nothing to help the situation brewing between the people and police.
The other common position taken by police officers, is that no police officer should ever be arrested or criminally charged and they viciously attack any officer that seeks to hold one of their own accountable. That is exactly the sort of mentality that started getting the public so riled up creating this “hate the police” mentality sweeping the nation. Even if one argues incidents of police officers beating a citizen in handcuffs is the exception and a rare bad apple in the bunch, you can’t support the majority of police supporting that bad apple. Police officers need to start holding each other accountable and when one of them gets caught beating someone in handcuffs, they need to admit they were wrong, instead of trying to justify their actions.
The thing I would say to police officers too, is right, wrong, or indifferent, it is going to be incumbent upon them to change things. They are going to have to demonstrate the greater character, quit making T-shirts that say “Call a Crack Head” and instead of being defensive when a citizen questions their procedures, telling them to shut up if they haven’t worn the badge, be patient and explain things.
I do want to say one last thing in defense of police procedure though… If you are one of those people who always get upset because the police treat everyone they encounter like some kind of killer when they make contact, well… You might know your friend is an upstanding citizen and pillar of the community, but the police officer pulling him over in the middle of the night on a deserted road, or investigating a call some paranoid citizen made because he is exercising his right to openly carry a firearm, has NO IDEA what kind of person your friend is until he makes that initial contact and inquiry. Why not have some understanding and cooperate with the officer until he establishes who he’s dealing with. I feel confident is saying to you, that even the obnoxious police officer just wants to go home to his family when his shift is over…
It’s our country people… It’s “We the People”… I truly believe we can all get along and make this country great, but we have to respect one another and seek change in a civil, proper way. If you think the police in your community need more training, get involved with your local government… Attend local government meetings… Talk to your elected representatives about your concerns… If you don’t believe the concerns of the majority are being properly represented, then run for office, of find a candidate you can back and rally the people behind them. We all have the ability to impact our system of government at all levels, but have to approach it properly. We also have to accept the good and the bad. There is no way to make everyone happy all of the time. We have to accept that there will be some things we don’t agree with, but we should always do our best to make this world a better place. For everyone!
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