This Is What We Want

I have internally struggled with writing this piece concerning the latest case of police brutality perpetrated on a black person. I am a middle-aged white man from a middle class family and with an advanced education in the areas of Social Science and Criminal Justice. To most I would appear to be a fairly privileged white man whom society protects from police violence. However, my experiences with police run contrary to my skin color and social status. In my young adulthood, I was brutalized by the police on several occasions. Some of this physical abuse occurred while being placed under arrest and the worst of it happened while I was already in custody. This does not remotely give me insight into what it feels like to be black in our current world but it does give me a unique educational and experiential perspective on law enforcement and the abuse of power by police. So while my intellectual reaction to the latest atrocity is one which searches for solutions and change, my emotional impulses are angry and vengeful. Hence the struggle between what I know and what I feel. As time passes and the fire of impulse subsides I become driven to influence the demise of the status quo of our current world. My intellectual self does not want to just act out in a fit of anger only to be dismissed. I want change. I want to know in the end of all this racial discussion the answer to one simple question, “What do we get?”.

When a group of people, united by a cause, feel a need to assemble and protest, what is it that they wish to accomplish? The short answer is change. But how can a small sampling of the population create change? The essence of successful protest is to use a small, organized group of people, to shed light on an injustice or flawed government policy, so that those who are either not directly affected or unaware of the particular societal malady become enlightened. By providing an awareness the protest can become a movement of large numbers of people in this newly enlightened state. The inclusive movement of people of conviction will gain strength by sheer numbers. This large group will now have the power to influence policy. They will now have gained a platform and a voice to ask for specific change.

We have seen these atrocities committed for hundreds of years. We have witness the subsequent riots play out in the aftermath of these events. Each time people rage and scream that they will take no more but as time passes public attention shifts and nothing changes. The reason for this is that in the moments of outrage and the subsequent protests that follow, tangible demands are not put forth by the movement to the public. To ask for the end of racism and for racial equality is a gigantic abstract which must be achieved in smaller pieces. We must as a society demand very specific change. That is why non-violent protest is so essential to the process. Organized and peaceful protest is the embryonic beginning of a movement. If it remains non-violent it allows the unaffected and even the complacent to become supporters. If the protest is marked by violence only the most fervent of believers will remain and a movement will never materialize. In the current situation with the focus on police brutality, rioting will not only cause people to turn away and withhold support it will cause many to become allies with the police whom they will look to out of fear to restore civil order.

The collective rampage that now has overtaken this country is understandable. The killing of George Floyd has caused some to reach a tipping point in which violent protest is the only avenue of venting. This form of expression is somewhat understandable but non-productive. I applaud those who take to the streets to peacefully voice their outrage and opinion. If we force ourselves to look at current events as a tragic turning point rather than a reason to act out, it is possible to make change. The tragedy of a man being murdered by a police officer in broad daylight is beyond words. The disturbing part of the event is the fact that three other officers stood by and watched. In every organization, a small percentage of rogue operators will commit horrible acts under the noses of all others or at least behind the conveniently turned heads of their superiors. There will always be coaches who abuse players, priests who molest children, doctors who take advantage of patients, and husbands who physically torment their wives and children. This small corrupt faction can only be stopped once they are discovered by others. The officer who killed George Floyd while in custody is easy to categorize and in doing so understand. He is a morally bankrupt killer of a defenseless person. The glaring problem to be solved is the inactivity of the other three officers. We must create an institutional environment of zero tolerance that motivates the next three to immediately act to stop the brutality and report the behavior of the future rogue one.

When I am deeply entrenched in the emotion of my memories of being victimized by the police, all those connected with law enforcement become my enemy. But as the moment subsides and the clarity of thought takes precedent I return to the knowledge that most police officers are just regular people doing their job in the middle of an uncertain world. It is then that I become empowered to make change with them and not in spite of them. Yearning for a time of racial equality is an exercise of the heart which is impossible to implement in one bold comprehensive move. Slogans are a great way to unite people under a banner of cause but they do very little to encourage actual evolution of an abstract thought into a state of reality. There are those who are so upset by the current situation they want to abolish the police department entirely. This is an understandable emotional reaction but it also shows a lack of understanding of the role of law enforcement and countless hours of unnoticed work they engage in to keep us safe. It also reveals the heart of the problem. We as citizens do not know the role of police and the police do not have a clear mandate from us on how we want them to act. We must now demand a specific reconstruction of law enforcement. This overhaul needs to occur in terms of qualifications, command structure, public accountability and expectations. Here are a few examples of redesign that could have a dramatically positive impact on all of our futures. 

The qualifications to become a police officer are shockingly low. Going forward we should raise the age and educational requirements to try and insure a higher level of maturity and intellectual exposure of the rank and file police officer. To support this commitment, we should raise the level of financial compensation for those who choose to serve as a police officer. By doing this we make it harder to be part of law enforcement and thus make it a career choice not a job of resort.

The police department is a paramilitary entity. Law enforcement often looks to the military for guidance in terms of tactics and for instruction with military inspired weaponry. What law enforcement ignores is the command structure that the military builds its discipline and accountability around. There should be two tracks of service in the police department. One academy that trains those interested in a career in patrol mirroring the enlisted men of the military and a second officers academy for those trying to become a member of command. These two groups should train and arrive to the force separately. This would allow for the discipline and handling of patrol by command without the bias of familiarity or friendship. Collaterally by adopting the “education for service model” which all branches of the military employ we could quickly and positively impact the racial and cultural diversity of the command structure of all police forces. As a secondary level of transparency and behavioral control, all citizen-officer complaints should be handled by an independent branch of the District Attorney’s office.

As a community, we must provide explicit expectations of how we want our police to act and how we want our laws enforced; not an easy task and one which as a society we have left to chance. Most people are not victimized by criminals and because of this they opt for a soft and enlightened response to crime and incarceration. However when the pain of crime finds its way to us personally we want an aggressive approach to apprehension and harsh punishment of those responsible. Going forward, the reaction by police and dispensation of criminals must become uniformly applied and universal in all respects. Society at large must now take a firm hand in the creation of consistent policy of action by police and thus produce defined procedures of enforcement and specific consequences for deviation. 

1951 in Topeka Kansas, Oliver Brown sued for the right for his daughter to attended a public school. 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus. 1960 in Greensboro North Carolina, African American students staged a sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter. Each of these moments of defiance of segregation had a very specific goal. Ironically, each protest was taken up by people who just want the right to sit; on a bus unchallenged, in a school desk to learn, and at a counter to eat. Seemingly small things to achieve and yet each of these narrowly defined acts had a major role in the end of segregation.

So here we are again in the aftermath of another black man slain by a police officer while in custody. We can make speeches and write articles with clever analogies and stark comparisons. We can attack each other over the meaning and importance of a slogan. We can riot and burn down some buildings, turn over some police cars, loot some stores and temporarily scare those who usually lord over us. We can be satisfied with our flash of rage and our moment of release, cathartic but fleeting. Or we can rise as one in organized defiance of a condition we abhor. We can stand fast and demand very specific change. Perhaps if we can stay focused on specific change and remain solid in our peaceful but doggedly determined coalition we will gain the respect of those who currently decide for us. Now it is up to us to put forth our wants. Like the civil rights pioneers who came before us we can demand and be granted a seat. A seat at the table where future decisions regarding racial equality are going to be made. The change we seek all starts with being able to specifically say, “This is what we want and we are not going away until we get it!”.