It is not the color of your skin, your occupation or your Religion.
We engage in compartmentalization thinking when it comes to groups of people like Muslims, Police Officers or African Americans. We assign them certain attributes often based on “reported” behaviors of individuals within the group by the media. Once we get to know an individual within the group on a personal basis, we shift our opinions based on their individual behavior and character; their color, religion, or occupation, is no longer used to identify them.
For example, once we got to know Barack Obama as an individual, the color of his skin no longer had any influence on thinking. His character, speech and individual attributes determined our opinion of the man. He was elected president with the support of millions of white Americans to destroy the notion that the majority of Americans were too prejudice to elect a Black person.
Americans seem to be overly obsessed with sex and the color of one’s skin. In terms of sex, we constantly talk about the sex lives of celebrities, particularly politicians. Depending on our political leanings, we can understand and forgive the sexual proclivities of men like Kennedy or Clinton if we are democrats while condemning the same faults in republicans like Trump and Jefferson.
We tend to blame the color of one’s skin as the cause of most racism which is much too simplistic to have validity. My best advice to people of any skin color if to accept what you have since you can’t do anything about it anyway.
Science tells us that only about ten percent of our judgement about people is based on skin color initially and the rest, in my opinion, is based on the behavior of the skin you’re in. It is perfectly natural to be comfortable with people that look like you and to be cautious of everyone else. This is true in all of nature. Crows do not hang out with Turkeys.
Go to any college campus or prison cafeteria and you will most likely see black students with other black students and Hispanics with Hispanics etc. This is perfectly normal behavior. Most of us would like to see more integration but it should always be voluntary. In some setting like prisons, segregation is the norm but it is not enforced by the authorities but by the inmate population. Self-segregation is enforced by racial and ethnic gangs with much violence against anyone who violates their unwritten codes.
Color is a big issue and the cause of much community unrest when a white officer shoots a black suspect even if the investigation determines that the officer was legally justified. One example was the infamous William Brown shooting by Officer George Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Although the officer was cleared by three different investigations, the first by a local Grand Jury, one by the State and one by the Department of Justice. The African American community has refused to accept these determinations mostly because the suspect was unarmed and the officer was white. The behavior of the suspect does not seem to matter and racism is almost always raised as the cause of the incident.
Prejudice against the Police.
Perhaps one of the best examples of behavior of some members of a group being the primary reason for prejudice against the entire group is the resentment exhibited by liberals and many African-Americans against the police in general. Although the controversial shootings constitute a miniscule number of the total encounters the police have with minority groups, they are magnified beyond reason by the media and by groups like BLM wanting to create issues by which they can gain power resulting in distrust against the police in many communities.
One of the largest studies of the use of force by the police revealed that of the 12-14 million arrests made by the police in a given year, only .0419 percent involved the use of any force whatsoever. This included physical force like the force necessary to get the suspect under control or put handcuffs on the person.
Anthony Pate and Lorie Fridell, Police Use of Force: Official Reports, citizen complaints and legal consequences (Washington, DC: Police Foundation.
In 2019, there were over 1000 people shot by the police. 75% of those shot were white people or races other than black. In 99% of these incidents, the officers were absolved of any culpability after the investigations were completed. Only a handful of these have been controversial and made the national news.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officers-killed-surge-28-year-point-civil/story?id=71773405
10 questionable shootings a year make the national news. That’s 10 out of 12-14 million arrest incidents and 1 percent of all fatalities involving the police. Even though the number is extremely small, the behavior of these very few officers in these events caused bias against all officers.
89 officers have been killed in the line-of-duty in 2019. 48 of these were shot and the rest of the officers died in accidents while on duty. Some of the shootings were officers killed in ambush without any preceding incident or cause; some of these officers were killed by pure hatred of the police engendered by criminal elements within the community supported by black politicians and some BLM leaders catering to the worse elements of the Black community. One example is the March in protest to the tragic death of Earl Garner down Broadway in New York City with some well-known Black national leaders at the front of the crowd which was chanting, …” What do we want, Dead Cops, when do we want it, Now!” The very next day, two innocent NYPD officers sitting in their patrol car were shot in the head. In my opinion, the leaders of that group should have been arrested for inciting the murder of these officers but no one was arrested. One of the black leaders at the front of the march was reported to be the “Reverend” Al Sharpton. In 2020 there has been a 28% increase in officers being killed mostly by black perpetrators.
https://nypost.com/2014/12/21/there-is-blood-on-hands-of-those-who-demanded-dead-cops/
When an officer shoots an unarmed Black suspect, the suspicion is that he or she is racist because of the difference in skin color. The behavior of the suspect seems to be of secondary consideration by many in the community, if the officer and the suspect are of the same color under the same circumstance, community unrest is unlikely to happen. Color seems to be the deciding factor within the minority community regardless of the behavior. Situational factors always determine the outcome of these confrontations and not Racism.
African-Americans have reason to be defensive about color given the past few hundred years of being subject to rampant racism in America. That does not justify violence in the form of criminal behavior by large numbers of protesters after these events and even before a final determination is made by lawful authority as to whether the shooting was legal and justified under the circumstances of the individual case.
The violent protests that follow the incident do not target the individual officer but instead condemn the entire Police Department or law enforcement in general. It is as if the protestors believe that the entire Police Department must have a department policy of shooting African Americans. The truth of the matter is that each incident is determined by individual situational factors that have very little to do with color. If an officer is a racist, it could have a bearing on the officer’s action just as the African American’s behavior might be influenced by his attitude toward the police. However, by and large, the situational behavior of the officer and the suspect determine the outcome. Possible racist beliefs on the part of the officer do not pull the trigger, fear and the survival instinct does.
Protests against s particular department or Chief of police are justified when the chief has ignored past disciplinary procedures against officers who have exhibited racist or violent tendencies in the past. Departments must rid themselves of officers who have engaged in police brutality or who have verifiable racist tendencies. I had to order the arrest of more than one officer while I was with the NYPD. I remember more than one year where the department itself arrested more than 100 officers for various criminal offenses rang from Murder to larceny. The NYPD does a great job in getting rid of the bad apples but remember the NYPD has over 40,000 employees. All Officers are not necessary saints.
As I remember my time on the NYPD, if an officer shoots anyone or even fires his gun, an investigation is launched. The Captain on duty submitted what was called “An Unusual Occurrence Report” which had to travel up the chain of command and be on the Police Commissioner’s desk ASAP. The Captain could make recommendations such as forwarding the case to the District Attorney’s office if a crime was involved; he could also determine that the shooting appeared to be justified or the officer could be referred for further firearms training. On top of that the shooting could be subject to a Grand Jury investigation. I have been to several of these types of hearings in my career. As some point in time, the department instituted a “Firearm’s Review Board” which handled some of these incidents forwarded by the various commands involved. Things have probably changed considerably since I retired.
Each jurisdiction in the country has a different protocol when an officer fires his gun. Many departments are required to have an outside agency conduct the investigation so as to eliminate possible biases by the Police Department involved. This is absolutely necessary when the shooting is questionable or the community feels that the shooting was not justified.
Common Factors observed in controversial police shootings:
Here are some of the more common situational factors from my own experience and research:
- An offense of some kind is believed to have been committed. It can be a major crime such as Robbery; it can be the pettiest offense or a suspected offense, such as the selling of loose cigarettes in the tragic Eric
Gardner case in New York City. It can even be a mistaken belief on the part of the officer that the offender has committed an offense or possesses a gun when there was no weapon and/or no chargeable offense.
2. The suspect/victim resists arrest, acts in an irrational manner or disregards the verbal commands of the officer(s).
3. Almost always, drugs are found in the suspect/victim’s body at the autopsy. When a person is under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, he or she is extremely difficult to control. Force is necessary to make an arrest.
4. The officer is likely to be white and the suspect/victim is likely to be a minority citizen. If the officer is black and the suspect/victim is either white or black there are no protests. With whom does Racism reside in these cases??
5. The community is dissatisfied with the police action or investigation.
6. The media magnifies the event with their very presence and often exacerbates and prolongs the unrest.
7. The politicians (community representatives) and activists of all kinds like Black Lives Matter come from out of nowhere and everywhere to see if they can get some publicity for their causes. They tend to inflame the situation until it is out of control and the police call for state and federal assistance.
8. Damages are usually in the millions of dollars as businesses are destroyed and looted. Many of these businesses never reopen. Many are minority owned.
9. Many people are injured or killed by criminal elements in the community in these incidents. 54 people were killed and hundreds injured in the Rodney King incident.
Ask the average person what they know about the Rodney King riot and they will only remember the video of two officers beating Mr. King. This video was played hundreds of time over and over the entire time of the rioting and served to prolong the mayhem and killings. Most people are oblivious to the 54 killings perpetrated by the black rioters because the main street media glossed over these killings and emphasized only the misconduct of the two white officers. Some of these innocent victims were white people who were dragged out of their vehicles and beaten to death. Only one of these incidents was caught on video. If the media had concentrated on the mayhem and killings committed by the rioters, the riot would have ended much sooner saving many lives in the process.
The liberal media need to be held responsible for supporting radical elements in the African American community like BLM that seem to support rioting, looting and attacks on the Police.
Conclusions: The few taint the many.
Your color, occupation or religion is not the cause of things; it is the behavior of some people within a group that causes prejudice against the entire group. It does not take many individuals to taint the many. When we get to know an individual within a group, “group think” no longer applies and we think and treat the person on his/her individual merits. For example, without the vote of white Americans, Barack Obama could never have become president of the United States. Many were able to put aside any racist feelings they may have had, whether conscious or unconscious, once they got to know Mr. Obama.
This Article is edited and taken from the book, “How Not to Get Shot by the Police” by this author and can be found at:
https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-Beatty/e/B07M7MHFKK?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000
Gerard Beatty 