From Missouri to New York, from Georgia to Baltimore; this has been a tough year for interactions between police men and young black men. I can't remember a time in recent history when there has been so much "over policing" resulting in the deaths of young black men. Perhaps in not all the cases, but in most, the police have over stepped their bounds and taken lethal action when it wasn't necessary. There should not be this many deaths at the hands of police men. Two of the most recent that I have heard of that stick out as outrageous are the deaths of the man in Atlanta and Baltimore. In Atlanta, as a man ran away from a police officer who was trying to subdue him over a traffic stop, he was shot 8 times in the back. That was a completely unnecessary action that resulted in his death. What's worse is that the police officer initially tried to cover it up. It was only the fact that a video was taken that revealed what actually happened. The other incident, from which there is not as much information, is the case in Baltimore when a man was taken into custody and somewhere between the point of his arrest and his transport to the police station, his spine was severed resulting in his death a week later. That, to me, should never have happened, arrested or not. There seems to have been a confluence of events this past year which has resulted in police brutality finally being recognized. (Don't get me wrong, I understand that there are times when the police must use force to either subdue an unruly subject or to quell protesters that have gone berserk. However, there have too many times this past year of police officers using excessive force that in most circumstances was probably unwarranted.) This confluence of events it seems is the ability for anyone with a smart phone to shoot a video of events that are transpiring in front of them and brazen police tactics that have taken on a life of their own and gone past what is acceptable and reasonable in terms of enforcing the laws. Each side has their own version of events and yet when there is a video available, the stories that both sides tell are irrelevant.
Yet, despite the fact that the police have become more brutal and lethal in the way they operate, especially in regards to young black men, there is a flip side. It is a Catch-22 that has perpetuated itself up until this point and it seems only now must there actually be conversation has to how things can change for the better. Being a white male, I will never understand what it is like to live a life in which I am targeted by police simply due to the color of my skin. I can understand the sentiments that drive people to riot, and yet, when you take a step back and look at what effect rioting will actually have, perhaps its not the best option. If a community wants to stop being harassed, rioting will only serve to help the police throw up larger internal barriers and be quicker to go on the offensive when something happens. The only way to truly affect change is to tackle it in a peaceful manner, to show the police that despite their brutality, a communities actions will not be incited to violence based upon that brutality. That is easier said than done. There have been peaceful efforts for years to try and affect change that have gone no where and have had little to no effect. With repeated efforts to change the way police officers treat young black men and their perceptions of them, situations in many areas have only gotten worse. So what happens, riots, which only circle back upon those rioting later as police have less trust. I wish it were a simple, cut and dry, answer that could be brought forth to rectify these situations that are occurring across the country. But if it were a simple answer, we probably wouldn't be where we are right now, dealing with riots in Baltimore, and talking about these issues on a national scale. Every life matters, black and white, and yet, there are many who have been prejudiced in both directions based upon their upbringing, previous cultural norms that have been wrongly passed down through generations, and a deep seated mistrust that has permeated communities for so long that it will take enormous effort to eradicate.
So how do we proceed? I wish I knew. My hope is that questions of race will be addressed not just on a level between police and communities, but on a family level. That is ultimately where it must start if meaningful change is to happen. There must be conversations held between larger groups, but unless we change perceptions in families starting with little children, those large conversations will go no where. I for one, have never had those prejudices, at least I don't think I have. There are larger forces at work beyond the family that also need to change, such as how the media reports events, that ultimately create unwitting bias in people. In this day and age, you would think we would have overcome race issues, and yet, it persists. Unfortunately, maybe it needs to take this long for the pain of past generations to be healed. In the United States, there has been racial bias either in the form of slavery or in simply the way minorities were treated, for well over a hundred years. The process of healing and progression to a state of complete acceptance will take a long time. It started decades ago, and yet still persists. I hope it doesn't take as long to recover from these issues as it took for us to realize that slavery is horrible, but only time will tell. In order for anything meaningful to happen, however, the rioting needs to stop and we need to sit down at the table and figure out how to change this. I for one, am at a loss, but I know there are those who have very good ideas out there who aren't being heard for one reason or another. Its time for everyone to bring the love and get rid of the hate. We shall see how long this takes, I just hope no more lives are lost due to police violence.
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