We live in a ‘sound-bite’ world and frankly I’m getting sick and tired of it. Everything these days, no matter how momentous, is reduced to a catchy slogan that juices up proponents and enrages those opposed while leading to absolutely nothing but more argument.
The slogan ‘defund the police’ is a good example. The events that led to the creation of this provocative little ditty were deadly serious; a series of police shootings of often unarmed, often minority men and women under questionable circumstances and for which they were not punished in any meaningful way.
I won’t repeat the incidents. They’re pretty well known around the world by now, and frankly, something should be done about them. I just don’t think defunding or getting rid of the police is not what needs to be done.
What’s needed is reform of police organizations and redefining what constitutes proper policing in our societies. Now, I’m talking about the United States, but the same is true anywhere in the world. We need to ensure that those hired to carry guns and badges are stable, intelligent, and dedicated to protecting the public as they enforce the laws.
We should have oversight of their activities to hold individuals accountable for violating rules of conduct. We should pay them adequately to remove the potential for misconduct for monetary gain. We should stop militarizing local police forces, and we should stop asking the police to do things their training does not equip them to do.
First, though, we need to sit down and acknowledge that there is a problem. To those whose knee-jerk reaction is to defend the police whenever there is an incident, I offer a case that happened in Dallas, Texas in 1973 as an example that underscores the compelling need for reform.
After two young Hispanic brothers, one only 12-years old, were accused of stealing $8 from a gas station vending machine, police pulled them from their beds in the middle of the night and, despite them pleading their innocence, one of the white officers tried to extract a confession by playing Russian Roulette.
The cop’s second shot hit 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez in the head, killing him. He was later convicted of murder but served only half of his five-year sentence. Now, break that down. He was sentenced to only five years for the murder of an unarmed 12-year-old, and only spent two and a half years in jail. This in a state that is near the top of the leaderboard for executions of convicted murderers. To add insult to the pain and injury, it took the Dallas Police Department until 2021 to apologize to the boy’s mother for his death.
If that story doesn’t make you angry, there’s something wrong with you. Let me be clear, we need the police. There are a lot of bad people out there who would like nothing better than to see some of our poor neighborhoods without police protection. But those neighborhoods need real police ‘protection’ not police persecution, and that requires a new way of thinking about policing.
Time to stop trying to reduce issues to sound bites or slogans. Let’s roll up our sleeves, pour a cup of coffee, and get down to the serious business of looking for real solutions to real problems. – NWI
