Paul Gutierrez
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Thank you for this series of articles detailing the corruption within the NYPD to apply internal pressure on officers to enforce racist policies the courts have already ruled as illegal. As Sgt. Edwin Raymond discussed in the interview, we need to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions and failures to act. They’re all paid by tax payers to serve us and not to enforce some warped shadow version of justice.

This is also an economic issue where law enforcement, the court system, and the prison system have all been shaped by whipping up the level of fear in the general public to generate public policies which magnify injustice and our safety rather than to protect and serve us. Targeting those who are perceived to have the least amount of money and therefore least likely to be able to defend themselves in the criminal justice system has become a way for special interests to profit from those fears.

Quotas seem like just another way to generate numbers to try and justify the need for a larger police force, court system, and justice system. When those arrested can’t afford to adequately defend themselves, they agree to plea deals which count as convictions which effects their ability to earn a living which predisposes them to go down the path towards getting money through criminal enterprises which leads to more jail time. As Sgt. Raymond pointed out, these crimes can be as simple as putting your backpack on an empty seat while riding the subway which the quota system encourages officers to enforce. This has nothing to do with safety or justice.

An apathetic public who chooses not to vote allows these corrupt institutions to flourish as the fearful continue to vote and support policy which only profit special interest groups.

I hope more officers and citizens throughput the nation take courage from these NYPD officers and start questioning what’s going on so we can have more justice, freedom, and opportunity in our nation where everyone can reach their potential rather than have their progress be undermined by selfish and immoral policies enforced through coercion and secrecy.

The most corrosive aspect of these policies is that it destroys lives while magnifying and reinforcing existing disparities which leads to more divisiveness, mistrust, and makes finding common ground more challenging. An awareness of how we’re consistently the target of manipulation designed to divide and conquer us is vital to obtaining our freedom.

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Paul Gutierrez

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Trying to listen and respond with aspirations for an improved quality of life if not in the short term, at least in the long run.