Defunding Law Enforcement and Police Reform Not Enough: Systematic Racism Stems From Lack of Leadership
After a catastrophic pandemic, record-breaking unemployment, and civil unrest against ongoing police brutality, one has to wonder, where are the true leaders in America?
As a black male, entrepreneur and retired Navy SEAL, I am appalled by the lack of authentic and forward-leaning leadership in this country across the board. We have to look no further than the ongoing police brutality and the systemic racism that has plagued our nation’s police departments, which has been allowed to happen because local, state and federal leaders have failed to hold them accountable.
However, as the nation examines fundamental changes to American policing, defunding law enforcement agencies is not the best answer. To get to the real root of police brutality against black Americans, we need to dig deeper into top leadership, or lack thereof.
Prior to founding Vigilance Risk Solutions, I served 20 years in the U.S. Navy as a military police officer prior to 9/11, and as a Navy SEAL post 9/11. As an active duty Navy SEAL, I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan six times and earned various military awards for valorous actions during combat, including the Bronze Star Medal with a distinguished “V” (valor) device and a Navy Joint Commendation Medal with a distinguished “V” device. During my military career, I learned a lot about human beings and how we should aspire to lead one another. I led and managed hundreds of service members throughout my time as a Navy SEAL, and was responsible for more than $1 billion worth of sensitive military equipment and weapons, with 100% accountability.
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Three of the most important lessons that I’ve learned regarding leadership include, 1) Leaders aren’t really tested until they are made extremely uncomfortable, and this discomfort typically comes in the form of some type of operational, moral or financial adversity; 2) How leaders carry themselves during times of extreme hardship will define them in the eyes of their followers; and 3) Over time, a leader’s followers will eventually begin to impersonate her or his behavior. So, if a leader is accustomed to behaving poorly and making irrational and emotional decisions, his/her followers will likely begin to do the same.
Regarding my own personal trials as a leader throughout my professional career, I can honestly say that nothing has ever tested me as harshly and as intimately as leading SEALs into combat, which I have done hundreds of times all over the globe.
However, back home, I faced the harsh reality that regardless of all my distinguished medals and my time in combat leading troops, the color of my skin can still determine how I am treated in the civilian world.
In September 2007, while on leave from the Navy visiting my family in East St. Louis, Illinois, I experienced firsthand what it’s like to be stopped, harassed, falsely accused and arrested by the cops just because of the color of my skin. After playing billiards one night with friends, I was stopped by the local police, who said I had a tail light out, which wasn’t true because the rental car I was driving was new. After running my driver’s license and finding nothing, the officers came back to my vehicle and asked me to exit the vehicle so they could search it. I complied and told them that I was an active duty Navy SEAL, home on leave visiting my family, and that I had nothing to hide. They called me a liar, handcuffed me, and sat me on the curb while they searched the vehicle. My mom, who was still an active duty police officer at that time, had driven my rental car earlier that day. And unbeknownst to me, she had forgotten her service revolver in the glove compartment of the vehicle. Once the cops found it, I told them immediately that it was my mom’s and to run the serial number. Again, they told me that I was lying, and that the gun was mine and they could tell that I’d fired it recently. (My mom hadn’t fired the gun in as long as she could remember; they literally made it up).
I was put in a cell for 16 hours without food and water. I was not allowed to speak to anyone, not even my mom. For the first time in my life, even after serving overseas, I was truly scared — scared for myself, and my future. Sitting in that cell, I realized that it didn’t matter who I was, or what I had accomplished in life, it could all be thrown away by a couple of racist police officers. Sitting in that cell I questioned whether I would even be allowed to continue to serve in the Navy; I worried about what my leadership and teammates would think of me. Would they believe that I had been wrongfully accused or would they always wonder if I was guilty, and undeserving of being in the SEAL Teams because I couldn’t be trusted? Those two racist police officers placed my entire Naval career in jeopardy, and while I had everything to lose, they did so without fear of being punished for their own immoral actions.
Even though the charges of unlawful discharging of a firearm against me were dismissed, that night was proof that I am far from being equal to white folks, no matter how much I loved and served my country.
My mother is a retired police officer of 27 years, and in my family we had always been taught to respect law enforcement. But the racism and horrible treatment I experienced left a permanent stain on my psyche. I still face racial discrimination on a weekly basis, right here in the land that my ancestors were forced to build, and I volunteered my life to defend.
Today, in 2020, racism and police brutality have hit a tipping point. And while sweeping reform needs to happen, let’s take a look at some effective alternatives to defunding police departments.
- Diverse Leadership
We need more people of color in leadership positions at local, state and federal levels, as well as in law enforcement. Creating this stronger diversity will allow us to start breaking down the layers of racism and violence against blacks. For example, while I witnessed racial discrimination against African-American SEALS, I was extremely fortunate that I never personally experienced racism due to the fact that I always had great leadership during my military career. I know they protected me. One thing that I always noticed about my immediate leadership when I was in the SEAL Teams was that those individuals were especially concerned with the lack of diversity in the Teams. They made it their mission to foster and promote diversity and they weren’t afraid to be public about it. Those individuals set the example for other non-minorities to follow, which benefited me personally. Diversity in leadership provides more value to your diverse team because it can make them feel more “protected” and understood. Having a diverse leadership team also helps unroot systemic racism in the workplace by upping the game on racial equality.
- Action & Accountability Tracking
A lack of leadership induces panic and unrest, as is evident in this nation’s current state of chaos. Anti-racism policies alone are not sufficient to solve the core problems in our law enforcement agencies. We must also place a greater emphasis on action and accountability. While not all law enforcement is corrupt, law enforcement as a whole will continue to lose the trust of the American citizens, and further alienate our minority communities if we don’t see some leadership and accountability, and fast. We need leaders who are willing to make sweeping changes to weed out the bad apples and to properly train officers to interact responsibly and lawfully with the public.
The law enforcement community demonstrated some leadership and took a brave step when they began initiating technology initiatives like dashcams and body cams for their officers. But now it’s time to take things a step further. They must find a way to identify their rotten apples, so that they can be systematically removed from their roles immediately, whether that be through internal investigations and/or a tracking and measurement system.
As a Navy SEAL, accountability was a big part of my daily routine, which made me strive to always do better. When executed properly, accountability in an organization can have a positive impact on morale, efficiency, and even success of an organization.
2. Internal Communications Monitoring
The law enforcement community must find a way to better monitor the internal communications of their police departments, at least at some levels. Because racism is organized within the law enforcement community, the community as a whole has to acknowledge this type of monitoring to show progress in the eyes of the public. At this point, leadership within the law enforcement community needs to be fully aware of the conversations their employees are having with one another and with the community. They have to be fully aware of the information that’s being shared by their officers via email, text, and chat on government devices. Leadership within our police departments has to be completely aware when officers are, for example, using 10-codes and brevity words that weren’t taught to them in their training, or that aren’t standard with that department, even within special activities. Like I said, racism in the law enforcement community is organized, and it’s making the community as a whole look bad. Something drastic has to be done.
Think about what this could do in rebuilding trust with our communities. A part of the reason why we’ve lost trust in our police officers is because we feel as though they don’t even police themselves. Where is the oversight for them? An internal communications monitoring system that also has the ability to measure for negative sentiment and keywords and phrases that are related to racism, bullying, sexual harassment and even increased levels of mental fatigue would not only be a monumental strategy for the law enforcement community to regain public trust, but it would also be a fantastic way of increasing professionalism among police officers. If our law enforcement community really wants to make a change, this is what needs to be done — because it will be nearly impossible for them to regain the trust of the public when they can’t even fully trust themselves.
3. Bring Back Community Policing
It’s very important for the law enforcement community to redefine their image in the eyes of the public by spending much more time interacting with them. I think that it should become standard policy for every police and sheriff’s department in the country to reconvene daily foot patrols in every city and town during daylight hours. This is an opportunity for every officer to become one with the community. This is their chance to interact with local citizens, and because they are genuinely interested when they ask, “How are you today?” They should leave every conversation knowing the first names of the people they were engaging, and they should smile. This is an opportunity for every law enforcement officer in our country to practice intrusive leadership in their community.
The solutions I’ve suggested are absolutely massive initiatives, but complex problems require complex solutions. In order to dramatically shift the way police officers are trained, held accountable, and interact with the community, our nation’s leaders must get behind this movement 100 percent.
America is the greatest country on the planet, and the world looks to us to lead. What message are we telling our citizens if our leaders look the other way regarding injustices like the death of George Floyd? What are we saying to the world, if in the greatest country on the planet, our leaders allow 17-year old’s like Trayvon Martin to be racially profiled and gunned down in the streets by grown men because he was black and wearing a hooded sweatshirt?
As a former Navy SEAL and one who has served six missions, I can confidently say we the American people are tired. We are angry. The time for leadership and accountability needs to be now. We the people are tired of false leaders using our faith in God against us, in the name of politics and war. We the people are tired of this country’s priorities being completely upside down. We are tired, and we are ready for real change, now. And until we start to see some authentic and forward-leaning leadership take control of this volatile situation, this country will continue to burn.
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