Saturday, April 25, 2015

Big Game Hunting In the 'Hood: A Look at Pay-To-Play Po-Po

I’m tired of seeing this shit in the news every few days.
You know the narrative:  white cop, reserve or sworn, shoots black man. Black man dies, is memorialized as a hashtag on Twitter. In most cases, white cop gets paid administrative duty although lately some have been charged with manslaughter or murder and eventually acquitted, found not guilty, or his/her charges are dismissed.
It’s a broken system, that American criminal justice one. What makes it worse is how the public shows more empathy to the shooter than the grieving victim’s family – which is precisely what is happening with Tulsa reserve officer Robert Bates and the late Eric Harris. Why did Mr. Bates have a gun? I understand the badge and uniform, and even the Taser, but the gun in the wrong hands leads to tragedy all the way around.
You hear about the reserve deputies program that most cities employ – Shaquille O’Neal is perhaps the best-known reserve officer around, and you’re just not running quickly away from a 7’1”, 300-lb nimble giant who happens to be a first-ballot Basketball Hall of Famer – and shrug your shoulders because for a relatively nominal fee, anyone can get firsthand experience in the lives of our law enforcement officers. These volunteers generally are limited in scope regarding their roles:  providing a uniformed presence at events such as information tables and crowd control so the regular full-time officers are freed up to focus on street crime and investigations. Like the National Guard, these men and women give back to the communities by donating time, effort, and experience as well as changing the perception of secrecy within agencies. Pay a few dollars, attend classes to become certified, and maintain said credentials including emergency driving; use of force; critical-decision making; and less lethal and lethal weaponry:  Seems like a way to vet for hiring full-time staff when positions eventually become available.
Not bad.

So why did it go so tragically wrong for Robert Bates? Was he improperly trained – and wanted to do the right thing – or was he big game hunting in the ‘hood, with black and brown men as presumed targets? Let’s take a look at pay-to-play po-po and disseminate the known facts.
Fact #1: Bates was the CEO of an insurance company. That meant he was making a boatload of money and really good at his job.
Fact #2: For one year, Bates had been a Tulsa police officer. Perhaps becoming a reserve deputy, in his eyes, was the opportunity he relished to make a difference that eluded him in the 1960s when he had previously served.
Fact #3: Bates is 73 years old – well past the age of mandatory retirement in most local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Would age have been a deterrent in being effective? In most professions, no. Law enforcement, probably. From the photos taken, he wasn’t exactly in the best shape.
Fact #4: Bates was Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz’s re-election campaign manager in 2012. He donated cars, equipment, and at least $2,500 to Glanz. As with every county in the Sooner State, Glanz benefitted from a strong Republican Party and a conservative citizenry that considers law and order bedrock to maintaining certain privileges for the wealthy and/or well-connected along with a slanted appearance of being “tough on crime”. As one of the spoils of victory, Bates may have in theory bought his way into being a reserve deputy sheriff thanks to his fundraising prowess. It is within the flawed American psyche to equate dollars with good character despite having the ideology blow up in the faces of the advantaged.
Fact #5: After pleading not guilty to second-degree manslaughter (in Oklahoma, it carries a maximum sentence of four years), Bates left town for vacation in the Bahamas showing a tone deafness not uncommon within a certain segment of our populace. While it is certainly true that he apologized for shooting Harris, it does not erase the fact that a gun was excessive when other officers had already subdued him.
Fact #6: The sympathy tour Bates’ legal team has embarked upon landed on the Today Show where he initially called the killing the “second-worst thing” that has happened to him (after cancer) before amending that statement and conceding that killing this black man was indeed the worst.
Could Bates have been a victim of “slip and capture” – when a person intends to do one thing but instead does another in a high-stress situation – when he picked up and used his personal .357 instead of a much larger Taser? Or is he using a failed defense to justify murdering a man?
This is where justice can go terribly wrong. A few influential citizens who pay-to-play po-po think that they can shoot a man, plead a fake apology (#sorrynotsorry), and move on as if nothing ever happened are the reserve officers that should worry us all. Put the shoe on the other foot and I can guarantee the brother gets a long sentence – and no trip to the Bahamas. The closest he’ll get to an oceanfront view is in his dreams. To me, this situation smacks of an era where executing black men is the next best thing to lion hunting in the safari, and for some, it hearkens to a darker period when we could be publicly exterminated for being.
“Well, he was running like a man with a gun.”
Yeah, Harris was hauling ass – he sold a dirty Lugar pistol and ran for it because the customer was an undercover officer. If you’ve paid any attention to runners or sprinters, you notice that their arms pump to maintain a certain stride that maximizes efficiency. For people on the lam who are protecting a gun in the waistband, they are doing whatever it takes not to lose that weapon. Even if he were hightailing it with heat, there are a number of nonlethal ways to stop people. Therefore, why are black men are shot first before the questions are asked? Does it take only a few thousand dollars to engage in big-game hunting in our ghettos, barrios, and lower-income communities?
Nearly one hundred years ago, the Tulsa Race Riots set in motion some of the worst things Americans can do to one another when the successes of black Tulsans were bombed, shot with impunity, and imprisoned in droves by jealous whites with the help of the US government, specifically the Wilson and Harding Administrations. By only charging Robert Bates with second-degree manslaughter, white privilege continues in our legal system – and this makes no mention of the trip to the Bahamas after he pled not guilty to killing Eric Harris. All it takes today to play po-po are a few grand and well-placed connections to the political world even if the “actors” are vastly unqualified. If they make an “error” – Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz’s words, not mine – then the actors can go home to resume normal lifestyles, taking solace in prematurely ending a black man’s life after the obligatory fake apology to cover deep-seated racism.

At its most noble intent, reserve officers and volunteer cops bridge the gap between the general public and agencies unveiling the shroud of secrecy. For some men and women, law enforcement may eventually become a career, and the programs are a manner of dipping a toe into the water. When a few people buy their overzealous way into a badge and uniform, it can come at a cost far greater than anticipate, that which holds consequences exceeding the adrenaline rush. They treat the blue line as a legal method in suppression – and you wonder why N.W.A. released Fuck Tha Police in the early 1990s. Instead of the safari, poor black men – many with criminal records – are now prey in the urban jungle and pay-to-play po-pos are predators without leaving the comforts of their hometowns.

This shit has to stop.

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1 comment:

  1. Rickey GeeApril 27, 2015 at 2:41 PM

    Yes, this open season on black men mess has got to stop.

    ReplyDelete

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