OK, now that the funerals for the two assassinated police officers are over, and the burials complete, its time to resume the challenge to have a balanced critical debate of the abject failures of police community relations. I listen today to Mayor DiBlasios poignant tribute to the second assassinated officer. (Mind you, it is correct to use the term assassinated, because that hugely disturbed, mentally insane assassin explicitly announced his intentions to nearby bystanders right before he committed this cowardly act. Mind you, this killing was not an act of protest in support of Black Lives Matter, but was provoked by years of struggle with police and this clearly criminally insane man who had killed several family members before he continued his rampage. These two outstanding officers were not killed in the line of fire during some criminal activity.) I also listened to all the blathering of TV prognosticators talking from the left (MSNBC), the supposed middle (CNN) and the right (Fox), plus heard snippets of Meet The Press and the other Sunday talk shows. Everyone was trying the to be objective and fair-minded, correctly referencing all the risks of urban community policing. There was much talk of 100-plus police officers killed in the line of fire this past year, or so. What I find most striking in all of this conventional media chatter is the total absence of any reference to the most salient data that propelled all the mass mobilization of Black Lives Matter. That is the astonishing daily, and per annum, rate of fatal shootings of unarmed Black and Brown men by police officers using excessive force during arrests, and doing so with impunity. Not one single TV talking head, NOT ONE, made any reference to this egregious killing rate. Meanwhile there is debate about how many police officers disrespectfully turned their backs on DiBlasio during his appearances at the funeral of both officers, that even when Commission Bratton correctly reminded officers funerals are time for grieving, not for expressing grievances. The emotional callousness of those defiant officers who want the public to perceive of them as heroes and much worse, alleged victims, of Black crime, speaks volumes of what is so profoundly wrong with too many of our police officers. Yes, these officers are only a minority, but they are not a silent minority. Meanwhile, I keep referring to how much comparative progress the Cambridge Police Department has made since I first becomes an activist in the early 70s. Back in the early 70s while teaching at the radial Group School, I was organizing with project kids, enraged at the death of Larry Largy (sp?) who died in the jail house after a police beating and arrest. Largy had been drunk, and drugged, and allegedly assaulted police officers who tried to arrest him for disturbing the police in front of Roosevelt Towers! There were literally street riots, when parents and youths demanded that the City Council take over the Cambridge Police Department, that many regarded as replete with racist and otherwise abusive police officers. Then a few years later, three of my Black Pilot students (juveniles non-deliquents) were wrongly arrested and jailed at the police department overnight without informing the parents. Community organizers, parent activist (Sandra Graham, Dotty Lee among many others), student activists, community activists protested stormed City Hall and the Cambridge City Council and eventually succeeded in getting a Police Civilian Review Board in Cambridge, mind you, one without subpoena powers, but nonetheless, CPD is far ahead in community policing practices. The differences between the CPD then and now is greater than the difference between night and day, thankfully. I am so grateful to all the civil community organizers that pressured the city to make this all happen. I keep reminding folks that the CPD is even more pro-active fighting the school-to-prison-pipeline than is CPSD, which hopefully is now addressing the issues, since the State DOE and the Legislature have mandated that all public school departments in The Commonwealth directly address and alter the gross racial and gender inequities in detention, suspension and explosion rates. In all of this the City of Cambridge is not without serious equity problems, but it is far ahead of most cities. It has used its enormous wealth to invest heavily in its public schools, public library, public parks, public housing, and public safety officers. We Cantabridgians, live in a bubble! We are surely blessed. Not perfect, but surely blessed. That must be acknowledged. In fact, I submit we ought to be a beacon of hope for all those protesting that Black Lives Matters.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:50:21 +0000
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