Normally, I post a reply on Facebook in regards to things that are bothering me or have gotten my attention lately. It’s been awhile since I’ve written a blog post, been working on the book I hope to publish before the year is out, This time its the recent shootings of Black men in Charlotte, North Carolina and Tulsa, Oklahoma that have me transfixed. As a recently retired 25 year plus career police officer and one of color as well, I feel these shootings very,very deeply, I already know that there are a group of people out there locally, regionally and nationally that will exploit these tragedies to lift their own profile and social relevance and will blame everyone else yet offer little or no real solutions to remedy the problem and when the emotion dies down they will disappear like they always do until the next time this occurs.Please don’t listen to them watch them during the downtime and you will see they offer little of nothing beyond words and are extremely self-serving.
I didn’t realize it at the time but I was a part of a renaissance when I became a Policeman in 1988,also I didn’t realize it then but young black men and women and other minorities were also joining this profession just prior to me coming on and going forward country wide. We are joining a profession that had been pretty much closed to us for centuries,until a few Strong Black men decided to take the job and advocate for more of us to get hired. Organizations like the Guardians and ultimately The National Black Police Association came on scene to defend and insure the rights of Black Officers that were being discriminated by Police Departments all across this country that did not want us and did not want to change.
When I was a child there were no Black Fireman so if you had a fire in your home The white fireman would destroy a black persons home putting out the smallest of fires and laugh about it because there were no blacks on the job the counter that behavior, It was the same way with the police again because there where no blacks on the job to counter that behavior by being in the system, being there to observe or speak out against the racism they were exposed too. These Black Police organizations sued these racist police departments into Hiring more minorities, changing their working conditions, allowed them to be promoted and be assigned to special and coveted positions within the departments , They held regional and national conferences in the spring, winter, summer and fall to educate , uplift, encourage,re energize and nurture the people in this profession from the daily racism they faced at work.
When I had about 15 years on the job I witnessed a chasm in the process that led to the eventual break up of that organization, several thing were lost in that process , mostly the national presence and power and even an opportunity to make itself know when a young Black man decided to run for the Presidency of the United States Barack Obama. During my career I witnessed Black police officers that fought for one another for collective reasons turn to fight against each other for individual reasons. At the same time police Departments across this nation began to hire less of us, When I became a Police officer there were over One Hundred of us male and female on the job as I was walking out the door toward retirement there were less then 50 of us and most of them didn’t even support the local organization that had been taken over by corrupt self serving people. Because most of us served 20-25 careers without the necessary back fill That renaissance is over and all the benefits of inclusion and positive contact are gone. The organization still exist but a lot less of a force that it had been.
The bottom line is that there are less of us on the job, so we aren’t even their any more to be the conscience of the department or are to busy worrying oneself to have any real benefit to the community.
You might say how do we fix it well. here we go, these sort of things ebb and flow, while we are in that ebb period we should be thinking about what is necessary to change things
for the long term. If you live in a city you should demand that the Police Department institute Community Policing Department wide Top to Bottom, You as individuals need to be more political astute. When you elect a Mayor you are giving him or her the ability to hire the police chief and the chief that he hires will shape the spirit and philosophy of the department, if he his against police brutality then the rank and file aren’t likely to offend, If he is soft then the department will view him as weak and do whatever they choose, You shouldn’t even consider voting for someone that doesn’t feel the same way as you on issues that are important to you. If you want a certain kind of cop serving your neighborhood why would you not try and be involved in how your city recruits, hires and trains officers as well , If you want a different kind of officer you should also be encouraging and supporting the officers that show you they have love for the community as well, waiting for these old institutions to change on their own will never happen and only begat more tragedy, Some of you will have the luxury of watching these occurrences from a distance but each person that falls will bring you or someone in your family closer to being one of the watched as well. Stand up my people or continue too fall……
David Daniels III Blog 