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Aug 03, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
Taking into full and prolonged consideration the recent spate of killings in the U.S.A of unarmed Blacks by the police, it is apparent that there is a shift in the motto. Who are the police serving, and who are they protecting? PROTECT AND SERVE or Punish them in a manner they deserve.
There are more questions than answers. To borrow and slightly alter a few lines from the lyrics of a well-known song- Streets of London, “Let me take you by the scenes and lead you through the cities of America. I will show you many things that you will always keep in mind. Yes, Blacks are losing their lives for the most minor of offences.
In April, North Charleston resident Walter Scott was killed by South Carolina police officer Michael Slager, for the seemingly serious offence — a busted taillight. The media then completed the transmogrification of victim into super predator, with the cop fearing for his life, and also his wife ultimately becoming a widower.
Now two more deaths of Blacks, following a similar pattern to that of Walter Scott (again unarmed individuals) have imploded in the face of the media. Sandra Bland and Samuel Du Bose were both stopped for minor traffic violations (missing front license plate, failing to use turn signal) and both died – perpetrators of minor traffic offences.
When Darren Wilson was called to look into a robbery, the reason he initially stopped Michael Brown was for walking in the street—in Ferguson, an illegal act according to Section 44-344 of the local code. If this appears or seems troubling, between 2011 and 2013, 95 percent of the perpetrators of this mobile atrocity were African American, meaning that “walking while black” is not a punch line. It is a crime. Yes, digest it slowly, it is a crime. Now hold your anger, or tighten your reins, it is not just a crime but a crime that comes with fines that are strictly enforced.
In 2014, Ferguson’s bottom-line-driven police force issued 16,000 arrest warrants to three-fourths of the town’s total population of 21,000.
Stop and think about that for a moment: In Ferguson, 75 percent of all residents had active outstanding arrest warrants. Most of the entire city was a virtual plantation of indentured revenue producers. Last year I spent a month in Charleston visiting both North and South Carolina during my sojourn, and saw firsthand the existing level of amity between white and right and black and lack.
The question still lingers, like a bad hangover— why are so many blacks losing their lives over the most mundane of traffic infractions? Please it is not only about good cops versus bad cops, for the moment an incident of police violence comes to the forefront, along with it or on its heels comes the usual defense imploring us not to tarnish all the good cops just because of a few bad apples.
No one can argue with that. However, what is usually implied within the said phrase is that the “bad” officers’ intentions are malevolent—that they are morally corrupt and racist. While this may be true, they are also bad in the job-performance sense.
To bear out this point, Police Officer Timothy Leohman, who sprang from his car, like a bat out of hell and instantly killed Tamir Rice, had been labelled by his supervisor at a previous police department job as weepy and unable to emotionally function.
Of note is the fact that she further added, that she does not believe that time nor training will be able to change these deficiencies. Ferguson’s Darren Wilson of Michael Brown’s fame was also fired from his previous job—actually, the entire police force of Jennings, Missouri, was disbanded for being plain and simple awful. In Oklahoma Robert Bates a 73 year old Robert Bates, a millionaire insurance broker possessing limited law enforcement background.
So! One may ask! Nevertheless he was allowed to go out on patrol, because he had reportedly made donations of money and equipment to the local sheriff’s office. On April 2, 2015 he mistook his revolver for a taser and fatally shot Eric Harris in an undercover operation. In the days that followed, we learned (sadly too late) that other deputies had long resented this guy’s freelance incompetence. Why are cops such as these nevertheless armed and allowed to patrol the streets.
They must patrol the streets, because hidden behind the façade of policing is a fiscal threat. Evidence has resurfaced that the police are involved in a new form of revenue raising called policiteering, a term very proximal to racketeering. Policiteering has been around for quite a while, known by other names perhaps but has always managed to keep itself below the radar (no pun intended).
Small towns in urban areas have municipal infrastructure that cannot be supported by the tax base, hence it has to rely on ticketing everything in sight to keep the town functioning. Police departments are now being forced to assist city officials in raising revenue, in many cases funding their own salaries, redirecting the very concept of keeping the peace into underwriting the budget.
To the most severely myopic on examining the recent rash of police related killings of Blacks it can clearly be seen, and it’s no coincidence either that the initial offences for which the victims were stopped were preposterously minor. Sadly, they became victims of budgetary whims replacing policing as the main motivation of law enforcement.
So when poor blacks come to understand that they are likely to be detained and fined for comically absurd crimes, it cannot be a surprise to the Police that their representatives are viewed in an air of ever mounting distrust. Given the environment running away from the cop is not an act of suspicion but a display of common sense.
Yvonne Sam
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