By Captain Black
As a community policing advocate I occupy the No Mans Land ‘tween liberals yearning to pull every Black community combatant to their heaving bosoms while also standing athwart conservatives who reflexively assume EVERY traffic stop or officer-involved use of force involving Black subjects is justified.
I’m not a law enforcement groupie nor a cop hater. Being Black, male and a concerned citizen means falling outside time worn, narrow roles in pubic safety.
Prevention works in my view so long as you aren’t saying those who are Black and shoot/addict and otherwise negatively impact victims mostly resembling them get a pass because of assumed lower African-American social status. Building a viable Black infrastructure has to include deprogramming thug culture-abused youth alongside Black enablers of selective enforcement who act as if Rodney King’s tormenters deserve the NAACP’s Spingarn medal.
Our long discussed infrastructure has to offer a counter culture that makes popular anti-social trends like ” Stop Snitching ” and encouraging fratricide as unpopular as joining the Ku lux Klan. Our music; plays and neighborhood culture have to punish the destructive behavior that stacks causalities up like fire wood.
This reenergized internal hierarchy would also tackle what could be called the Stockholm Syndrome among Black conservatives strangely silent about big government excesses involving Black people and law enforcement. Conservative ire toward law enforcement excess shouldn’t be confined to Waco; Ruby Ridge and the New Black Panther case last presidential election.
It’s almost like a gag order exists where political excommunication is the penalty for falling on the “wrong” side of police brutality allegations for Black coservatives.
A looming Cotton Curtain exists between police and Black America, brothers particularly. These disparate elements usually converse under the worst set of circumstances: traffic stops; field interviews and arrest. Neither side wants to make the first move to initiate non-adversarial communication.
My proposed Brothers & Badges dialogue with Black men and police was greeted by my hometown’s former city manager as heresy. You’d think I was trying to host convicted child molesters at a local elementary school. Talking to Black male tax payers minus authoritarian overtones seems to terrify politicians and police executives. How’s that for a “post-racial” country? lol.
Here’s a hoot from Capt. Black’s Real Life Adventures. The scene was a police precinct. The occasion concerned a fugitive. An announcement of the suspect’s location was greeted by a skeptically asked ” Do you have a beef with him? ” from the White male officer taking the report. Just what a brother needs to stoke the flames of civic duty. What’s sadder still is buddy didn’t even realize how he’d butchered a real community policing moment with someone from the ‘hood actually trying to make his job easier.
I put that episode right up there with a Crime Stoppers program director I know who cheats Black tipsters out of rewards. Arrogance like this enforce every stereotype we have about law enforcement.
Conversely I work with brothers to replace scowls with waves as patrol cars cruise by. A simple enough act that alone won’t usher Detente but lessens mutual suspicion. Relationship building reduces confrontations-at least in theory.
My friends and I promote internal management of situations to reduce law enforcement intervention. Where a serious crime has occurred, our promotion turns toward encouraging those reluctant and/or hostile to nonetheless call 911 on behalf of an inner city that can’t afford to let serious crime go unaddressed.
Self-policing Black America means telling community liberals and conservatives that business as usual should end. Somewhere between enabling what blogger ally Constructive Feedback calls ” street pirates ” and enabling racial profiling stand an alternative where we hold serious Black criminals and law enforcement accountable.
Otherwise the crime spree on both sides of the law continues.
NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT BLACK promotes crime prevention and self-development http://www.capblack.info
