Policing the Police Policies
Finding effective ways to help end hate and prejudice.
By now, we have all seen the heartbreaking video or at least heard the tragic news about George Floyd’s senseless death/ murder/hate crime that occurred here in the United States. We have mourned, cried and become scared as our faith in police officers plummeted, fear rose quickly and no one really knows how to make the changes needed to stop these incidences of police brutality.
What is failing within our system that is fostering hate? Where are the holes located that are allowing these kind of policemen and other state employees to slip in undetected through the cracks? Are they just a product of extreme stress due to their job and the daily violence they see and experience or are they actually full of hate for their fellow man?
I wonder if they were like this back when they first started policing or if this was acquired after many years of post traumatic stress and witnessing countless violence in poverty stricken areas? Regardless, change has been long overdue and has to happen and it needs to happen fast. We’ve had too many senseless deaths already and it’s time to make a change that will finally bring this nonsense to a stop. Changes that will, hopefully, end the racial profiling of black men and women for good.
I have thought long and hard about any viable solutions and I brainstormed with my family and friends and got into heated debates with coworkers. I have compiled a list of the best ideas that we could come up with based upon these interactions.
These ideas that we noted below are what we considered the best as an immediate course of action to start immediate and noticeable changes. Of course, we don’t have all the answers, but if we all put our heads together, maybe we can come up with something that works for everybody. The de-funding of the police department is certainly not an option. That would be like leaving a bunch of two year children unsupervised with an arsenal of weapons and chocolate.
Senseless, unprovoked, and racially motivated violence by the police has to end now. Our children are scared to call the police now when they need help. Some of them are wondering if they will die for calling the police to help them if they have to? I know many amazing police officers that I am proud to call my friends and I know they don’t want that stigma on them. Please see my list and keep in mind that I am just a normal citizen trying to help.
The changes that the government needs to make.
- Require anatomy and medical training for every officer, no matter their rank, so they know they are not killing black men or anyone when they have to take down or restrain someone. Have this training offered on a fairly continual basis.
- Demand that the partner of any accused, racist, or violent officer to be held accountable for not stopping excessive violence or racial profiling. I’m pretty sure that that’s the whole reasoning behind having a partner other than safety. They need to hold each other accountable. You can’t let people go around all willy-nilly doing whatever they want to when they are in a position of power. As someone once said, “With power comes great responsibility.”
- Impose stiff penalties, sentences, and reparations to family members of victims if any injuries or deaths occur during a take down that are non-necessary, proven preventable and occur while the accused offender is handcuffed, in restraints, or subdued.
- Cultural training and racial relations need to be mandatory and done on a regular basis to reduce racism and other prejudices. Our world, our diverse and beautiful cultures and our people are constantly changing and our leaders need to be evolving along side. No one is too old or too rich or too right to continue to learn and grow as an individual.
- Heavy fines and/or jail time should be immediately sentenced upon any officers that are convicted by a court of showing racial profiling, discrimination, and prejudice of any nature. Reducing ignorance in the uneducated is the first step that needs to be taken. Prejudices are learned behaviors and anything that is learned can be unlearned. Except, ironically enough, the childhood language, pig latin which has stayed with me forever.
- Allow the friends and family of anyone injured or killed to confront, in a safe setting, the officer or officers involved or accused in the crime. It will be uncomfortable but it is necessary for the grief-process. And I know I, for one, don’t care if it makes the offending racist uncomfortable. The family deserves to have this outlet.
- Implement immediate pay raises and enact a more diligent hiring process to weed out the aggressive, the unstable and the hateful.
- Require a minimum of 25+ hours of continuing education every year in relevant subject matters including, but not limited to, anger management and job stress counseling.
- Require monthly community service and/or monthly community outreach events where the officers and other public officials have to get to know the communities they serve in and the people of color they work for. This will give them a chance to get to know people one on one and to start changing racial biases. It will also give the black community a chance to start believing that all police are not the same.
Our shattered and bruised system will not get fixed overnight. But I hope and pray some of these ideas are a good head start. In the meantime, hug your neighbors and let them know you are there for them. Smile at strangers on the street, love every race and reassure the frightened children in our neighborhoods.
We have an obligation as the residents of the world and as children of God, if you believe in that, to let everyone around us know that there are good and loving and kind people of all races left on this planet. At this point in time, I think we are all starting to doubt that. There is actually more good than bad in the world and I refuse to stop believing that.
In the words of the Michael Jackson song, change starts with us ( I am referencing the man in the mirror). So today, as a white person, I am going to make sure I am my best self. I am going to sign up for any volunteer work I can and I will make sure to do my part so that all the members of the black community, and any one else mistreated, discriminated against or ignored, know I am here to help, defend, and support them in any way I can.
I will continue to take a stand in as many ways as I can against hatred of any form and I will also continue to defend the police officers that I know to be good and honest people. The time for action is now. We’ve sat around long enough. Will I be enough to make a difference? Probably not. Does it matter that I try anyway? Absolutely.
The person that does nothing while watching injustice occur is just as guilty as the person who participated directly.
