What a difference 6 years makes...

As you might have noticed, there was a bit of time between my last post and the one before that. Six years went by from when I last posted. As I looked through previous posts, I couldn't help but wonder how much has changed in our society.

I guess the simple answer is "not much." You might have noticed that the last post was a video of Birmingham police beating an unconscious man. Of course, you might even say the beating is justified, he had just led the police on a chase. But as you watch the man fly out the window of his rolling car, and see him land in the ditch, not moving...I hope you recognize that this man posed no immediate threat to officers who could easily have handcuffed him, then ascertained his medical emergency and called paramedics. That's not what happened, though. The officers ran down the ditch and began beating the man with their batons...even as he lay lifeless on the ground.

In later developments, the officers who were let go, were reinstated. (In fact here's one of them this year, demonstrating new body cameras!) In the excessive force trial, Anthony Warren (the unconscious man) and the city of Birmingham settled an excessive-force lawsuit for over $400,000. Of course, the majority of that money went to his legal team - Warren received $1000 and continues to serve his 20 year sentence for trying to run over an officer during the chase. I'm not trying to excuse the actions of Mr. Warren, who committed a crime and should have been arrested, I'm just not convinced that the actions of the police were warranted or professional. Still, one just completed his supervisor certificate, another has become a detective, and yet another (now a Sergeant) was active in a PoliceLivesMatter rally earlier this year. Whether their behavior was professional or not, they are still moving through the ranks in their respective careers.

Some folks don't realize that police brutality started with the slave patrols and evolved right into our current system. It is part of the fabric of law enforcement in America. The current #BlackLivesMatter movement isn't new...it's just better mobilized with the aid of social networks and smart phones/video.

Now people might want to believe that with dash and body cams, that there will be a significant change in how police operate when capturing black and brown people. But, I beg to differ. Rodney King's situation proved that to me. Even when there was evidence that the police had nothing to fear and were not under attack, juries still don't convict them. From the court decisions that have given police their power to justify almost all of their actions, to Implicit Bias in all of us, the status quo requires radical shifting to begin changing. Since I still do not see a sense of urgency in most communities - aside from my activist friends - I am not inclined to believe anything will change.

What I would like to see change is how our community looks at crime and social issues. Why do we continue to think that police officers are the ones to call in any crisis? They do not have the training to deal with many situations, but we send in folks with badges and guns to address them...then act surprised when things don't go well. In my opinion, we need community response teams that are not armed, to deal with many calls for help. In domestic violence disturbances, why are we not mandating that a counselor or therapist be included in the response? Why don't we have people trained in mediation and conflict resolution on the ground with officers? If the officers aren't going to be trained in appropriate ways to deal with the varied situations that they find, then we as a community have to do better in identifying personnel who can. We don't need hundreds or thousands of armed men and women responding to all of our conflicts. Why do we continue to buy this rhetoric? We need to address our systems of response, intervention, and punishment. Then, we need to take control over those WE have armed and entrusted to protect us, by establishing and enforcing clear roles and procedures.

While people think there are too many violent perpetrators in our community, the reality is that violent crime is at its lowest since the 60s and 70s. In fact, where we are seeing an increase is in police killing civilians. In 2013, the FBI reported that over 450 felony suspects were killed by police and that number isn't even accurate. The Bureau of Justice reports that less than half of law enforcement agencies are even reporting their numbers. So far in 2015, The Counted - a project of the Guardian - has reached 500 and the number is on track to be around 1000 this year. The Washington Post explains that you are 55 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a terrorist. Yet, where is the public outcry? Where is the 'war on police terror?'

My friend said the other day, they are just going to keep killing. In fact, the number will increase because they see how easy it is to get away with it. They will get a paid vacation and be reinstated in most instances. And really, no one cares. No one pays attention. So, why won't it increase? Prosecutors need cops to testify for them...so it is truly tough to get one who goes after cops who kill. Marilyn Mosby, is one exception and look at what is happening in Baltimore. Not only are police pulling back, but crime is on the rise. Think how that will look on her reelection campaign... especially if she doesn't get convictions on the officers charged in the Freddy Gray homicide. Her career is on the line for attempting to get accountability with the Fraternal Order. The system permits this level of violence and nothing/no one is in a position to stop it.

So what will stop the terror? The people are the only ones who have the power. And by the looks of things, they don't care. Usually, I'm an optimist. But in this case, I'm a pessimist. I don't see many people (besides the usual suspects/activists already involved) doing anything about changing the system: addressing why people engage in criminal behavior and the roots of poverty, exploring how our criminal punishment system became big business, or demanding that all people in our community have constitutional rights that must be protected. I can blame much of that on the power of media to distract. But, I won't. That just forgives people for their lack of personal and civic responsibility. If people don't explore their own implicit biases, including why they might feel the need to call police in non-emergencies, and if people can't talk to one another in civil ways about these issues, then we have much bigger issues than a distracting media. We're living in a culture that exhibits sociopathic behaviors and it will continue to act violently until it finally self-destructs.