It occurs to me that the vast number of police officers are not bad people.
It is highly possible that many of these young people, most of whom are white, grow up in environments where they are told that black people are bad, that they are to be feared. I thought of that possibility when I was in Palestine; a red sign appears in areas of Palestine that are under Israeli control and the sign says that the area is inhabited by Palestinians and that Israelis are not allowed to enter. These Palestinians, the sign says, are dangerous.
Let's face it: the narrative on black people in this nation is not good. It's not true ...but it's not good. The spin given is that white people need to be on guard with black people because they are bad. The assumption seems to be that black people are naturally and inherently bad. The best course of action is, then, subliminally shared: they are the "enemy" who should be taken out.
Police recruits are, for the most part, very young, some just out of high school. Many come from rural areas or suburbs where they have had little to no interaction with black people. They really are scared of black people because all they know is what they have heard from their families, their churches, the media, and television.
The line used by officers to justify excessive force is, "I was in fear for my life," and I would wager that for many, that is true, regardless of the circumstances. The killings of John Crawford and Tamir Rice - two young black men in the state of Ohio - came from officers who did not take the time to converse with them, which would have enabled them to understand that the "weapons" these two young men had were actually toys. The officer who killed Laquan McDonald, similarly, shot first and asked questions only after he had pumped 16 bullets into the child as he lay on the ground.
Some officers are not afraid; they use the phrase to justify their actions and in effect commit murders that they know they can get away with. Those are rogue cops who should be identified and fired. The silence of their superiors as these cops commit offense after offense is a travesty; these officers are no less worthy of staying on the force than were the priests who molested children and were allowed to remain in their parishes or be sent to new parishes, only to repeat the objectionable behavior. Leadership has to be brave and above societal prejudices, which is too often not the case. Leadership has been more interested in saving face than in admitting wrong and making tough decisions and choices.
But there are a fair number of officers who are sincerely afraid. They do not know black people. They do not talk to or with black people except in the worst of circumstances. Fear makes us all act in ways we normally wouldn't. Officers who are afraid approach black people like they are "the enemy," no less dangerous than an "enemy" in a combat zone, and the action demanded, based on the fear, is to take the enemy out before he or she takes the officer out.
If or since fear is such a big part of white American culture, and since the majority of police officers are white, it seems that police procedures and training ought to significantly change. It seems that leadership should see and understand what is going on and include in police officer training some cultural immersion, something, that mandates that officers get to know as human beings the people with whom they will interact once they get out into the community. There ought to be stringent requirements for the officers to meet, internships, if you will, with the young recruits getting to know black people by name, getting to understand African-American culture and values, before they get a gun and are sent onto the streets. There ought to be continuing education courses, so that the officers' community relations skills are constantly improved upon ...and so they can share with fellow officers and incoming recruits what it is like on the streets, what the people are like, as opposed to what they assume to be the case.
It is an unfortunate fact that the way policing is done in America, treating black people as "enemies" requiring a military approach, has a historical reputation. Black people were never considered to be "people," but, rather "objects" and pieces of property. When, during slavery, they managed to escape, "the law" went after them with the full sanction of government, to shoot to kill if they did not surrender willingly. The Fugitive Slave Acts allowed the hunting and capturing of African slaves in any way their hunters wanted because they were, in fact, considered to be property and not worthy of humane treatment. The added incentive was that if the captor did in fact catch an escaped African, he was many times deserving of a monetary award. Our history has bled mercilessly into our present.
But, history aside, the slaughter of innocent and unarmed black people needs to stop. There needs to be an acknowledgement that the justifying phrase, "I was in fear for my life," as maddening as it is, is a truism for many young officers...as much as it is an excuse for rogue cops to murder people in the name of law and order.
An examination of cases involving police shootings of black people reveals that that dreaded line is used over and over, and it has been the case that if an officer has perceived danger, and has said he or she was afraid, the case is closed and the shooting is ruled justifiable.
It is time for police policy and procedure to be examined and changed, with the result that these young kids can lose their fear and do the job they are called to do - to protect and serve - not to kill indiscriminately. And it is time for rogue cops - who are not afraid, but who know they can use that sentence and get away with murder - to be recognized and weeded out. We don't need legal murders any more than we need molestation of children done in the name of God.