These are just some observations I made working both with black communities and police starting after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech to present. This was written as a comment and is not intended to be a well thought out blog or well researched blog, though I did do some research before writing it besides the observations I made while working in the communities. I may come back to this later, offer statistics and sources in regard to percentage of population if I can find it. I may then offer more suggestions on how to help improve minority / police relations.
Blacks commit more crimes in America than other races in spite of the fact that they're a minority. There used to be a reason for this. Blacks weren't given adequate schooling and were rarely given decent job opportunities so many of them committed crimes to feed their families. Since the 70s though, blacks have had equal opportunity for education and an edge in getting college grants and jobs. In 1975 my grant was revoked to give the grant to a less qualified black person because it was the new law. They've had preferential treat men in getting promotions once they got a job as well. They have no excuse to still be committing a higher number of crimes than whites any longer. In fact, fewer crimes should be being committed by blacks since they are still in the minority of the population. It is this fact that makes police more wary of blacks than whites. No matter what your race, you are more likely to be beaten or killed by police if you are belligerent and disrespectful to police. If you cooperate with them, they generally treat you much better. There is always an exception, but that's basically just common sense. Police are killed with their own weapons frequently so NEVER make a move for an officer's gun. They are shown films on criminals taking a policeman's gun and killing him with it as part of their training. Black people could help change the attitude that police have about them by taking responsibility and being more active in their communities to reduce the percentage of criminals in their race. Their leaders could join with the police in making a difference in their communities instead of making things more hazardous for police officers in their communities. Will it take time for attitudes to change? Yes. Each change starts with a single step though. Promoting more acts of violence against the police is just going to perpetuate the problem.
2 comments:
I don't know what the solution is.
I will make a couple quick points in response to your experience, though. Quotas have been unlawful for about a quarter century now. And since 1978, the Supreme Court has continually narrowed when affirmative action programs are allowed.
So hopefully, if there were abuses of these programs in the Seventies, that's been largely changed now.
Anyway, I don't have any answers on the police thing and most of what I say winds up sounding pretty ridiculous. I'll let it go at that for now!
I'm always happy to hear your views because they give me perspective. You sometimes see things that I don't. Feel free to express whatever you feel, my dear friend.
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