Ferguson, Missouri, once a sleepy backwater town of African
American refugees from the St. Louis slums, has been much in the news in the
last decade. Unknown to American before the Michael Brown shooting, it had a
budget based entirely on robbery. Starved of any tax revenue, the town’s
municipal authorities had the following arrangement; the police would stop cars
under any pretense they could, write as many tickets as possible, and the
judges, in prior agreement with the prosecutors and police, levied outrageous
fines. Traffic tickets that would normally be dismissed by a judge were not
only ruled bona fide, but got you a $300 fine for not using your turn signal.
If you didn’t have the money, too bad, it was pay the fine or go to jail. If
you told the police officer he was mistaken, he’d arrest you for it and write a
bunch of lies in the report. The judge would be notified about the arrest
before the case got to court, and he’d be sure to disregard your story. When
Michael Brown was killed by a cop in Ferguson, and his body left in the street
for too long, it the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Yet it was
happening all over the USA.
The Black and the Blue explores the bad
relationship between American police and the Black citizens. The author, a
Black American police officer, does not let the Black cops off the hook,
because he includes a chapter on the corrupt New Orleans police. The NOPD, as his
example of the worst, required that officers come from the inner city (which
created a very small talent pool) and paid too little (so cops took
inappropriate side jobs.) Because it was impossible to find anyone who wanted
to be a police officer, the NOPD had to hire Antoinette Frank (currently the
only cop on death row for murder). Officer Frank was Black, just like Officer
Len Davis (doing life for murder), but they abused the Black citizens of New
Orleans, especially the ones living in the worst part of town.
The author has
very little sympathy for police officers who can’t control themselves. Yet he
recounts an incident, from his first year in the blue line, when he was faced
with a “should I use force” problem. He was responding to a domestic
disturbance, and one of the residents was rather large, too large for him to
physically subdue. So what would he do, use the taser? Drag the man out the
door? It’s the kind of dilemma that I’m sure a lot of police officers get into,
and one that gets a lot of cops in trouble. However, he spent most of his
career in law enforcement at the Federal level. He wasn’t patrolling the
streets in a bad neighborhood all day and night. He wasn’t dealing with rowdy
teens in the playground. He didn’t have to deal with (what psychologists call)
relational aggression or the stress it induces. A lot of his time probably
involved detective work, so he would rarely be in a position to have to chase a
fleeing suspect.
My problem with
this book is that the author doesn’t offer a lot of workable solutions. He
discusses the problems, like poor training, but doesn’t really discuss what’s
wrong with the training. He criticizes police for having generally poor
interpersonal skills, but doesn’t try to uncover the reason. Is it because the
police have terrible interpersonal skills from the start? Does police training
turn you into a bully? He recounts a White police officer pulling him over, and
the officer’s reason was “I’d never seen your car before.” Race may have been
an issue, but I also have to wonder if a lot of it was paranoia. Do police
officers become afraid of things that others would ignore? The author isn’t
clear as to whether it’s bad training, fear of Black men, or just being a jerk.
He also doesn’t go into the qualification aspect, or whether having a college
degree really makes any difference. He’s a Delaware State University graduate,
so he himself is educated, but I bet that most NYPD officers who have
complaints against them are college graduates too.
I also wonder if
the idea of respect for law enforcement is a little skewed in the USA, at least
compared to other countries. I’ve seen countless Youtube videos of British
police being called names, ordered away from peoples’ doors, and generally told
to “f-off.” Now look at how it is in terms of American events; if a police
officer knocks on the door with no warrant, and you open the door, the US
police officer can push his way in, but the British cop can’t. In the USA, if
you tell the warrantless cop to get lost, you’re asking for trouble. But in the
UK, you can be as rude as you want and you’ll get away with it. I suspect that
the cops in the UK are under pressure not to pack the court’s docket,
especially not with silly cases that can’t be proven. The Bronx courts, with a
notorious backlog, probably have hundreds of cases where the only real crime
was saying “don’t put your hands on me.”
Years ago, I took
the test to get into the Chicago PD, and I remember the words of the training
officer word for word. He said “When you’re a police officer, you’ll have the
power to take a man’s freedom away, and sometimes, you’ll be in a position to
take his life away.” Then he paused, and asked “Would you want that power in
the hands of a guy who’s an asshole?” We all said NO in unison. Now here’s the
problem; the training officer was an ex-marine, and most of the prospective
cadets had never served in the military. Were they deficient in self-control,
self-discipline, and the rules of engagement? Secondly, this man had spent his
entire career in the training department. He was rarely in a position to deal
with nasty people out in the street. Did it give him the luxury of being able
to always mind his manners?
It remains to be
seen if policing in the USA will change, but I won’t get my hopes up. Here in
NYC, the police are getting fatter, response time is taking too long, and I
consider them the epitome of cowardice. They won’t stop taxis that run red
lights, but they knock cyclists off bicycles for riding in the wrong lane. They
tolerate open-air drug dealing, but stop and frisk men in building
superintendent uniforms. The NYPD pay is low, but I’m starting to think that
maybe it’s all they deserve. I also wonder if they don’t understand how the
other half lives? When Detective Patrick Cherry went on a tirade against a cab
driver, and it was caught on camera, he was punished with desk duty. But did he
have any idea what it’s like to be verbally attacked by someone who you’re not
allowed to stand up to? My solution is this; take away his badge/gun, suspend
him from the NYPD for one month, and force him to live in a housing project in
the Bronx. Make him live among the underclass, in a crime-infested community.
Let him see what these people go through. We’ll soon see if he’s really that
tough.
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