I had a conversation with my young
teenage son reflecting on the 1960’s and the Black Panther movement. He asked me what I knew about it since growing
up very young in the South side of Chicago and remembering the Panther movement. He also was very perplexed that the core
mission that drove the creation of Black Panther Party for Self Defense was the
ongoing conflict between Law Enforcement and community, which is the same
conflict that the Black Lives Matter movement is focusing on today. For 50 years, this conflict has been going on
without significant resolution? He said that protests and riots happened after
these conflicts back then and still continues to happen today. He asked me why hasn’t this changed and why do
you have to talk to me about how to act if I am approached by Police? Why
should I have to act any different than some of my friends? Before I could
respond, he said “I guess it is what it is and it is not going to change – Dad”.
At
that very moment, I felt disgusted to the very pit of my stomach and my mind
raced on how I could respond to my son when the outcome of this conversation
will have a long term impact on his perspective. What has really changed and why should he have
to behave different than his friends, were the two questions that each Black
father has to contemplate when dealing with their young sons. There was another time that brought outrage to
Orson Welles in 1946 in his very popular radio broadcast. He responded and addressed the vicious
beating by Batesburg, South Carolina Police Chief of a Black solider named
Isaac Woodard that resulted in blindness. His stance created controversy with
some of his listeners, but created unprecedented awareness.
Since then, our
country has 477,000 sworn officers and roughly 12,000 Police departments. The country’s police departments are 12%
Black, even though the U.S. Black population is 13.2%. From 2002 to 2011 Police Officers had 32.9 Million
face-to-face contacts with White individuals, force or threat of force was used
to 445,500 (1.4%). Excessive force was used to 329,500 (1.0%). In contrast, 4.6 Million face-to face
contacts with Black individuals, force or threat of force was used to 159,100
(3.5%). Excessive force was used to 128,400 (2.8%). What is more troubling is that prior to
President Obama’s second term Police Departments were not required to submit fatal
police shooting reports (FBI Supplemental Homicide Reports). Florida departments hadn’t filed since 1997
and New York City last reported in 2007.
At least 1000 Police Departments filed a report or reports in 33 years,
compared to the 17,000 national police departments. The other side of this equation is what
metrics do Police Departments used to measure success? And do those matrices
drive certain behaviors? Michael J. Wood, retired ex-Baltimore cop seems to
thinks so. In an interview with Slate.com he indicated that, “The citizens just
become a statistic, a number that you are going after. I never feared the streets, I constantly
feared other officers.” Based on his
comments, the infrastructure places more value on statistics than community
policing. To achieve those statistics where is the easiest place to
pursue. The affluent neighbors or the
poorer neighborhoods?
Therefore,
I continued to wonder how many layers of issues have exacerbated this multiple
generational problem. There was not one
single issue, but multiple ones that have contributed to this generational
distrust. The one, overarching missing
piece is each side looking at the problem through the opposing side. How many people of color are actually taking
the time to attend the various Citizens Academies sponsored by local Law Enforcement,
DEA, ATF and FBI? To combat an issue,
you have to understand how Agencies think, trained and what their core guiding
principles of behavior. How often do Police use their professional training to
de-escalate a situation? Do the
individual Officers view the citizens as people, or become jaded and view the
citizens as suspects? How many
minorities are assigned to all white districts to protect and serve? Are there
similar problems in those circumstances?
The
only thing that I could share with my son is how we could take responsibility to
force change and never say, “It is what it is”. I told my son that what has changed is the
different avenues we can collectively take to reflect the desired change. What if every Black person understood the
training that Police officers received, how they are measured and could predict
what would trigger their behavior in an encounter? A Commander at Broward
Sheriff’s Office in Florida told me that respect is not given it has to be
earned. Was this a philosophy held
decades ago? I mentioned to my son that some Law Enforcement positions are
elected positions and some positions are appointed by Elected Officials like
Mayors. We have the collective ability
to grade them through our votes and hold each one accountable based on their
record. We can collectively go to our
Congress person, Senator and Governor express our concerns with solutions and
demand that they either support or provide alternative solutions. Lack of response means lack of votes for
their re-election. For example, the
Florida Governor won his re-election by less than 70,000 votes with a turnout
of 22%. What if every eligible Black
voter participated in the Governor’s race?
Would the outcome be different? Would the Zimmerman prosecution have
been the same? The Governor’s Office and Attorney General were responsible for
prosecuting or not prosecuting the Zimmerman case. In this case the people have spoken and the
State Attorney Angela Corey was out of office with her record on the George
Zimmerman, Marisa Alexander and other cases. Unfortunately, most people don’t
understand how to connect the state dots and pressure points for elected
officials and Law Enforcement. Protests
mean nothing without sustained political pressure and mid-term election voting.
Never feel that you as a Black person are helpless. Therefore, it never “is
what it is -Son”. It is what we allow it
to be.
Maurice Henry
is a seasoned professional in the High Technology industry and International
Business. He has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Rutgers
University and a MBA from Southern New Hampshire University in International
Business. He publishes a Blog on http://mauricehenryjr.blogspot.com/
Sources:
Amnesty International (2015).
Deadly force police use of deadly force in the United States.
Bekiempis, Victoria (2015, May 14).
The new racial makeup of U.S. police departments.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2015,
November 15). Police use of non-fatal force, 2002 -2011.
Gabrielson, Ryan, Jones Grochowski,
Ryann and Sagara, Eric (2014, October 10). Deadly force in black and white.
Neyfakh, Leon and Wolfe Aaron,
(n.d.). Why police are so violent towards black men.
