41 Bullets
There is really only one answer to the unsettling history of racial violence by police.
In 1999, 23-year-old Amadou Diallo was shot and killed by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers. The incident stood out in a city somewhat desensitized to violence because 41 bullets were fired at a man who had nothing on him but a wallet.
He was also black. An immigrant from Guinea.
I was working at McCann-Erickson. We were asked to urgently help create a campaign to address the fallout, focusing on how the NYPD could recruit officers who better reflected the neighborhoods they would serve. (An ambitious idea given that New York City is home to people from 177 countries around the world.)
As I listened to the presentation which felt more like a press briefing, my initial distain for what seemed like crisis management began to thaw into an appreciation for the elegance of the idea. Not only did it seem right, it seemed smart.
I scribbled some thumbnails of what I imagined would be kickass portraits of African American, Hispanic, (fill in the blank) police academy graduates in uniform with the large letters: MYPD.
I squirmed a little at the potential cornball factor, but the more I thought about it — and how well it could be executed — the more it seemed like a good idea. Tentatively, and with a preemptive dismissal that it was just a concept, I showed the idea to a colleague. He thought it was (expletive) good. So I started to create layouts when I got back to the office.
Before we were able to get back to City Hall with our thinking, word came to us that things would be handled by a PR agency and the NYPD would not be needing our help.
Glad that I hadn’t put much time against the project, I filed it away, physically and mentally. But every time I hear of another incident where a cop uses excessive violence against a black person, MYPD comes to mind. Not because it’s a brilliant creative idea, but because it’s a brilliant idea; the only way to stop the endless chain of incidents.
I know cops feel at times they are in a war zone. And residents — especially African Americans — feel they are targets of hate. Both sides stuck in an Us vs Them paradigm.
I believe the only way to break this pattern is to change the police force. But not through training or initiatives or reform, but by changing the force period. It should actually represent the people it serves — know them, understand them, empathize with them. This can’t be trained into a white guy. It needs to be part of who you are.
This is more than a good will initiative. This is a transformative approach that is so obvious it has been overlooked. Or undersupported.
I’ve never seen a black officer with his knee on a black civilian.
I hope I have not offended anyone with this article. (If I did, you are welcome to email me at brian@bemeaningful.co) My goal is to be present in an issue that affects us all and fight through the inhibition, political correctness and fear of my own racism to speak about it. If we don’t talk openly about this, it will keep happening. That can’t happen.
