This Can’t Be Solved With A HashTag
So in seeing the reports of the shootings in Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights, followed quickly by the assassination of Dallas and DART Police officers hours later, the ideological tug of war had begun on Facebook and Twitter and elsewhere.
This whole situation feels reminiscent of 2014 when grand juries did not return indictments in the deaths of Eric Garner (NY) and Michael Brown (MO) and protests ramped up around the country. Then on December 20, 2014 NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were killed as they sat in their patrol car by a man who directly attributed the earlier killings as motive. This swung the pendulum back the other way with cops feeling that Black Lives Matter was clearly attacking them not only in words, but with violence.
And so the current monologues of “Stop Killing Us” and “I’m a hero. You have no idea what my job is” is where we are again today. And much like life, truth rarely lies in superlatives and absolutes. So we need to find a way to begin a dialogue. And not a dialogue between the leaders of Black Lives Matter and politicians, because they’re not the ones pulling people over. We need to start talking to each other and being honest with ourselves. So let’s get real for a second.
The Cop As a Hero
Putting on the uniform and going to work, does not make you a hero. Just like signing up for the military doesn’t make you a hero. (Don’t tell that vape shop that gives you a 20% discount with your ID) Hell, unless you’re a comic book character, you’re not a hero, but what you do in those uniforms can often make you a hero. But I’ve been friends with firefighters and police officers and plenty of military folks and I’ve never heard any of them say “I’m a hero.” I think those jobs give you plenty of opportunities to become a hero, but the badge alone doesn’t make you a hero. As a PT instructor told us in the academy when we were learning sparring, “If you got your ass kicked before you got this uniform, then you’re going to get your ass kicked in this uniform.” Same applies if you were an asshole or loser before you became a cop.
The police department has a culture. Indeed this culture has gotten a lot of attention as one of the great enablers of illegal activity. The culture is also a family, which brings with it all the pluses and minuses of a family. It can stay quiet about things it shouldn’t, but it can also support each other at time when that support is hard to find. Part of this police culture holds that if you acknowledge certain things, then it basically leaves you defenseless for everyone to attack you. I happen to believe the opposite actually. I think the wall and moat that the culture has built only stands to make us more at risk, even if we feel better.
Police need a safe space. Now before you start screaming at me, hear me out. Right now, there are no voices publicly for departments besides the agency itself, which usually says very little about its own internal investigations, much less anyone else’s. The other voice is the police union, which only has one message. Cops are right. It’s what your dues pay for. You don’t want to be represented by an organization that was constantly unsure if it had your back, ergo they feel cops are apple pie eating, baby kissing, justice warriors whose farts smell like freedom and sound like “God Bless America.”
And that’s the sum of the discussion you normally hear from cops. This makes sense because cops aren’t allowed to talk to the media without their department. But there are shootings that are wrong, or “bad” in the police vernacular. Walter Scott in South Carolina was straight up murdered. Abner Louima in NYC was sodomized by an animal named Justin Volpe. Samuel Dubose was killed by a University of Cincinnati police officer for driving off from a traffic stop. The officer said he was dragged, but he wasn’t. Akai Gurley was shot and killed when an officer accidentally fired his weapon and it ricocheted. In this last case, it was an accident. However he failed to administer aid or call a supervisor while Gurley’s girlfriend got instructions from 911 to stop the bleeding.
These were all bad shootings. Some of them were accidents, but accidents that happened when poor tactics were used. And we should be able to talk about this and admit this without being scared or ashamed. We gain credibility when we speak the truth.
How the Law Works
On the flip side of this, non-cops need to understand the law and how it works. Police brutality is a serious issue that gets diminished when people claim brutality after watching videos of legal and correct procedures. When affecting an arrest, I have the authority to use force, if necessary. If I am locking someone up and they say “No problem” then the cuffs come on and we’re done. And this isn’t like the movies. I don’t want anyone to fight. My day is much easier when things go smoothly. Let me also say that if you’re a good cop, you can get about 80% of your suspects to go with you this way. For the other 20%, see below.
But if people don’t want to be arrested, or start swinging their arms or start to run, I’m allowed by law to kick them in the nuts (A-Frame kick) or the nose (straight strike), or tackle them to the ground (takedown). Allow me to also say here, that even if executed flawlessly as shown in the Academy, these look bad in person and on camera. However force does not equal brutality. It can and sometimes does. But the vast majority of times, I’m simply trying to get this guy into handcuffs and then I’m happy.
Also, I need probable cause to make an arrest, which is a standard of proof greater than reasonable doubt and less than beyond a reasonable doubt. This means that when I have handcuffs on the person and am waiting for the transport to the cellblock, it’s not a good time to plead your case or tell me that I don’t have enough proof. People watching are more than welcome to film it as long as you’re not in the way. I don’t like being taped, but not because I’m nervous. It’s just annoying having to interact with a phone and not a human. But you can film my gorgeous ginger ass all you want. Not a problem.
I also want to get to an often overlooked issue of police interactions. We respond to 911 calls for service. Which is a fast and great way to get help when you need it. It can also be an extension of bias that we don’t own. For example, new folks move into the neighborhood and call 911 for suspicious people in the alley behind their home. It turns out that these are just folks walking back from work/school and taking a shortcut and have done it for years. But I have to drive over and investigate, which can cause a tension that I had no intention to start. People calling 911 for kids playing basketball in the street. I have to go and drive by and just ask the kids to move when the cars come by. I know this is dumb, but if I tell the dispatcher “No” then I get in trouble.
This doesn’t take cops off the hook for how they respond when called to these scenes, but people should know that a lot of this isn’t cops looking to hassle people. I mentioned on Twitter a few days back that in New York, we would get noise complaints and when I went to the caller’s door and asked if they had asked the neighbor to turn it down, I’d often get “No. That’s your job.” And so when the neighbor said “That bitch called the cops on me for my music” it was a forgone conclusion I had heard many times.
I was in a marked police car last night working and got a lot of waves and nods and “be safes” from people of all ages and races and it was nice. I posted about it on Facebook and a friend of mine who worked with me in NYC and now is in another department commented “Remember sympathy ends, but the danger doesn’t.” And he’s right. It was probably around December 2001 when I got my first “Fuck You” after 9/11. And it felt somehow like the city was getting back to normal and it felt good.
