This blog post is a reaction piece to a thought-provoking Vox article, “I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing.” You should follow the link below to read it and then come back to this blog post.
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
To summarize, the author claims that 15% of cops are good, 15% are bad, and 70% could go either way depending on the circumstances. His basic point is that the culture of policing needs to change and that police officers and police departments need to be held accountable. I agree, and I want to use this blog post to expand upon the concept and add my perspective to it.
I am approaching this topic from my religion of Christianity, specifically evangelical Christianity. Even if you are not a Christian, take a minute to consider the Christian philosophy of humans. First, God created all humans as good people. In fact, he made them like him, in His image. The second Christian tenant is that humans (starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) sinned against God and rejected him. Humans now have a sin nature. And yet they are still created in the image of God. This duality has been described by Francis Schaeffer as the Nobility and Cruelty of man in the book, He is There and He is Not Silent. It's kind of obvious when you think about it. I am pretty sure most of you can think of some good things you have done and some bad things you have done. Isn't that your experience with most people you have met? They have some good in them and some bad in them. I’ll continue to use the world Cruelty in this post; just know that I mean whatever word your belief system uses for bad, evil, ignorant, racist, or sinful.
One time while I was at work, a police officer walked by and my co-worker commented something to the effect of, "That guy is a complete jerk." It seemed strange to me then. I always had high view of police officers. Police officers couldn’t be jerks, could they? Why go around saying that? My co-worker actually knew the guy and as I found out later, he was correct.
Too often we have assumed the good intentions of police. Certainly, we should respect the position and authority of police. We understand that it is a difficult job and that police officers make many sacrifices to serve our society. And yet, we should not think that putting on a police uniform exempts someone from the Cruelty that exists in every human. And the title of “Police Department” does not exempt an organization from having structural Cruelty built-in to their everyday procedures. To someone like me, who has had very little interaction with police in my life, the point is that police officers and police departments are subject to many of the same problems and issues that Americans face at their school or job. If Cruelty exists in my workplace, I must assume that it also exists in the police department as well.
Now we can start to talk about the numbers. The Vox article claims that 15% of police officers are good, 15% are bad, and 70% are either way depending on the circumstances. If we go back to my belief that every person has some element of Nobility and some element of Cruelty in them, then this is an over simplification for me. However, it is fair to say that some people lean more to one side than the other. I am not sure how he came up with the 15-15-70 numbers, but if those are anywhere close to being true, that should really, really scare us. And it’s easy to point the finger at some police department in another state that might even be worse. However, every police department needs to take racism and the abuse of power seriously. Let’s assume we have a really good police department and over 90% of the officers will do the right thing every time and a few more will do the right thing if they are working with one of these officers. What you have left is a small percentage of officers who will abuse their power and authority, often in a racist way. Is it 5%? Maybe 3%? There is no percentage of racist police officers that we can find acceptable and this is why I say every police department needs to consider this.
In conclusion, every person and every organization needs to take a hard look in the mirror to identify racism in themselves and then take steps to remove it. And if you are a police officer or a police department, take a second look if for no other reason than the fact that you carry a gun that could kill someone.
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
To summarize, the author claims that 15% of cops are good, 15% are bad, and 70% could go either way depending on the circumstances. His basic point is that the culture of policing needs to change and that police officers and police departments need to be held accountable. I agree, and I want to use this blog post to expand upon the concept and add my perspective to it.
I am approaching this topic from my religion of Christianity, specifically evangelical Christianity. Even if you are not a Christian, take a minute to consider the Christian philosophy of humans. First, God created all humans as good people. In fact, he made them like him, in His image. The second Christian tenant is that humans (starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) sinned against God and rejected him. Humans now have a sin nature. And yet they are still created in the image of God. This duality has been described by Francis Schaeffer as the Nobility and Cruelty of man in the book, He is There and He is Not Silent. It's kind of obvious when you think about it. I am pretty sure most of you can think of some good things you have done and some bad things you have done. Isn't that your experience with most people you have met? They have some good in them and some bad in them. I’ll continue to use the world Cruelty in this post; just know that I mean whatever word your belief system uses for bad, evil, ignorant, racist, or sinful.
One time while I was at work, a police officer walked by and my co-worker commented something to the effect of, "That guy is a complete jerk." It seemed strange to me then. I always had high view of police officers. Police officers couldn’t be jerks, could they? Why go around saying that? My co-worker actually knew the guy and as I found out later, he was correct.
Too often we have assumed the good intentions of police. Certainly, we should respect the position and authority of police. We understand that it is a difficult job and that police officers make many sacrifices to serve our society. And yet, we should not think that putting on a police uniform exempts someone from the Cruelty that exists in every human. And the title of “Police Department” does not exempt an organization from having structural Cruelty built-in to their everyday procedures. To someone like me, who has had very little interaction with police in my life, the point is that police officers and police departments are subject to many of the same problems and issues that Americans face at their school or job. If Cruelty exists in my workplace, I must assume that it also exists in the police department as well.
Now we can start to talk about the numbers. The Vox article claims that 15% of police officers are good, 15% are bad, and 70% are either way depending on the circumstances. If we go back to my belief that every person has some element of Nobility and some element of Cruelty in them, then this is an over simplification for me. However, it is fair to say that some people lean more to one side than the other. I am not sure how he came up with the 15-15-70 numbers, but if those are anywhere close to being true, that should really, really scare us. And it’s easy to point the finger at some police department in another state that might even be worse. However, every police department needs to take racism and the abuse of power seriously. Let’s assume we have a really good police department and over 90% of the officers will do the right thing every time and a few more will do the right thing if they are working with one of these officers. What you have left is a small percentage of officers who will abuse their power and authority, often in a racist way. Is it 5%? Maybe 3%? There is no percentage of racist police officers that we can find acceptable and this is why I say every police department needs to consider this.
In conclusion, every person and every organization needs to take a hard look in the mirror to identify racism in themselves and then take steps to remove it. And if you are a police officer or a police department, take a second look if for no other reason than the fact that you carry a gun that could kill someone.
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