Ok, we understand that we need to change this, but how?
With the aid of hindsight, I can’t believe we didn’t see this one coming. Police brutality wasn’t invented a few years ago. Black American anger didn’t just begin to simmer a few weeks ago. This isn’t ALL a Covid thing, but that certainly hasn’t helped.
Personally, I think we need to immediately dismantle law enforcement and rebuild something that works for everyone, but if that’s not going to happen, I’d like to toss out some proposals for police reform. State-sponsored Racism cannot be allowed to stand in a land that proudly proclaims itself as a place where ALL men are created equal. America has made great strides in ending personal racism. I’m not saying it’s totally gone, but it’s better than it used to be. It may not be easy to see, but I was in South Georgia last year and I couldn’t help but notice how no one batted an eye about interracial marriage. Hell, it was everywhere. Think about that for a minute. Something that would have gotten the black guy lynched a few generations back is now so common that it’s largely ignored. That’s real progress. If that keeps up, we’ll end racism in a few generations, and we’ll do it through sex.
Now that many of our hearts are in the right place, we have a foundation of good will to build on, but as we were indeed making personal strides to end the most insidious part of our past, we failed to remove the REAL PROBLEM. The real problem is that The System is set up for the benefit of the already wealthy: tax cuts benefiting the wrong people, black protests ending with bullets and white ones ending with winks and nods (and smiles and slurs), and of course the match that lit the flame, cops murdering black people. Far too many rich people don’t care about poor people. They do like to keep poor people fighting amongst themselves, and the easiest way to do that in America has been to use race. I don’t think it’s working anymore.
In the past, when protests rose up after egregious moments of police brutality, nothing big has really changed. Even the “reform” after Ferguson, adding police body cameras to police uniforms, was nothing but a Band-Aid, and an ineffective one at that. Unless we’re going to live stream this footage directly to the Internet, that’s never going to work. And we shouldn’t do that because law enforcement will find a way to get around that one too, and I wouldn’t blame them. I don’t want to be watched constantly, to the point that I can’t act human. And that’s the issue. The cops are humans. Black people are humans. We’re all humans. Perhaps it’s time to start behaving humanely to each other.
IDEAS:
1) Police need to reconfigure their basic mission. Police officers aren’t the military, nor are they supposed to be. The military kills the enemy, that’s what they do. But when the police see the people AS the enemy, we end up where we are now. The cops need to know their neighborhoods, know the people they are around all day. Right now, they’re mainly protecting and serving rich people, but that can change. Community policing. Look it up. Then do it.
2) Cut the number of police in half. This may seem counterintuitive to some, but when you see a line of riot-gear-clad cops that kills the Barney Fife image that cops need to recreate. When police feel threatened, they call for back-up and soon it’s a situation where it’s twenty versus one or two, and those twenty don’t live in the same neighborhood as the one. They’re “invading” a foreign neighborhood. Wouldn’t it be better if they were in their own neighborhood? If they knew the people they were, theoretically, protecting and serving, wouldn’t everyone behave more humanely?
Give the good cops raises. If there are fewer of them, we can target the money to where it does the most good. We’ve long underpaid them, and that hasn’t helped anything. Most police need second jobs to make ends meet. We hold parades for them, but don’t set their salaries based on anything resembling morality. Make them earn money through good works.
3) Get rid of all surplus military gear. When the W. Bush administration started their fantasy war, they gave away old military gear to local police departments. This was a terrible idea, but we can turn it around. Policemen need to look like fellow human beings, or else nothing they do will change anything.
4) Go back to the one little red flashing bulb on top of the cars. It’s just friendlier looking. Perception matters. It matters a lot. Perception can lead to real human interaction. According to TV, police code for black is #1. Maybe consider a new numbering system. Perception matters.
5) Peace officers make sense, law enforcement officers, not so much. No rational person is against the idea of keeping the peace. But enforcing laws is a different matter. So many of the laws the police have to enforce are inherently wrong control mechanisms. Enough with the concept wars. End the Drug War. Just end it. Anyone who looks into it realizes it’s about power, money and control. The war’s over. The drugs won. Let’s just do what America always does…declare victory, ignore reality, bring the boys home, and move on.
Also, anything that presupposes criminality based on appearance, in any way, needs to go bye-bye. Any policy that smells remotely like “Stop and Frisk” needs to be retired. Anything that doesn’t jibe with “Innocent until proven guilty” is, theoretically, un-American, right?
6) Protest is as American as apple pie. America was founded on a protest. There was a bit of a racial tinge to it even then. The Sons of Liberty, somewhat ironically, dressed like American Indians for the Boston Tea Party. Nobody thought actual Indians cared about the tax on tea. There’s a place for statesmen and for political agitators in America. There were statesman AND political agitators in the 18th century too. Look at the John and Sam Adams. When police treat white protesters differently than black ones, then it’s obvious they aren’t concerned with keeping the peace, as much as they are with keeping the status quo.
We need to reign in state power and control in many areas, but since the police are the front lines of state power, they get the brunt of the anger directed at them, even the ones who aren’t murdering teenagers. Obviously, this is a bigger issue than police reform, but the first step, which we HAVE TO TAKE, is to reform policing. If we just try and put another Band-Aid on it, this is going to happen again…and again.
Are these good ideas? I have no clue. What do you think?