In the mid-1970s, black communities all over America were petitioning police departments to hire African-American officers. Seattle did the same, and gradually over the last few decades, we have watched their numbers grow from a handful to representing nearly 40 percent of the police in America.
They came in with plenty of hope but very little direction on how to serve a community that had never been served and deal with a police department that reluctantly added black officers but had no intention of changing internally.
Fast-forward to 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., adding to the Eric Garner death and hundreds more deaths of black males at the hand of police. Now, we have police assassinated and others being shot at with impunity, and suddenly, white police officers have found themselves in a bind.
I say white officers because everyone in the black community is aware of one astounding statistic that never seems to make the rounds of kitchen tables or bars: You cannot find many cases of a black police officer shooting an unarmed white person in America. It is also difficult to find a case of a black police officer shooting anyone, and yet, policing does not suffer because they are on the beat.
Black officers rarely pull their guns because they believe they can physically and persuasively convince people to do the right thing. So, on the streets of America, regardless of the neighborhood, no police officer has more credibility with the public than black police officers. Ironically, the only place some of them have an issue with is in their own community, when they try to persuade some white officers that they are more “blue” than black and they abuse their own people.
An unbalanced system
Most police departments are controlled by the police unions, and most of them are controlled by white males. The police union is an organization more racially polarized than any in America. At its very inception, it was anti-black because the modern police force was created after slavery to protect whites from the newly freed slaves. Our jail system also has its roots in slavery, so these institutions were racist at their very core.
But those black officers, who themselves constantly face racism and also have been shot by their fellow officers while out of uniform, now offer the best hope for America. Our police unions have lost their way, and what they are doing in New York City demonstrates that it is an organization that is badly in need of revamping.
In police forces all over the country, black police officers are left off the narcotics and other crime units that specifically are targeting the black community. These are also the area of the most abuse.
People have stories of police stopping black males, confiscating their money and their drugs and letting them go. This has resulted in unnecessary stops and ticketing.
So the issues are deeper than just a police shooting of another unarmed black male; it’s how do we reform a system that is unbalanced toward the black community before we end up in a mini civil war? This is far worse than what white settlers in America went through with the British in the 1700s, and they started a revolution.
Time for changes
It’s time to empower these black officers and give them a far greater say on how policing is being done in the black community. Black citizens need their assurance that the officers can handle the racism within the department so that we can discourage those who believe vigilante justice is our only recourse.
Police departments all over America have a valuable asset in black police officers if they stop playing the racism game within their departments. Decisions on promotion and leadership should factor in the racial makeup of the communities served.
While police are being maligned all over America, the black police officers are the only group that still has credibility in the streets. They should be given credibility within the force and within City Hall. I think and fervently hope we may have hired a police chief that understands that.
CHARLIE JAMES is co-founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. County Institute (mlkci.org). To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.