The cop shop

Police work has long been rumored to be the most likely place for racial prejudice and the reasons for that are well known.

First of all, police work is attractive to a certain kind of person more likely than not to be authoritarian, expressive, and has a need to be in control. These are also the attitudes we find in prejudiced people. Secondly, police officers don’t deal very often with the good guys which clouds their judgment against people in general. When most every day is spent dealing with criminals and lawbreakers, it’s very easy to decide that’s the way the entire society is. That’s why many police officers are seen as distant by the average citizen. Police officers come to believe that there are two kinds of citizens; those who have committed crimes and those who are going to.

Obviously, this judgment is wrong and it’s wrong to a significant degree but when your daily experience is filled dealing with the dregs of society, it’s also understandable how that opinion develops.

All of us remember the police dogs, fire hoses and racist law enforcement officials during the early stages of the civil rights movement in this country. That’s when I was a cop in Tulsa, Oklahoma and I saw it too, although not to the extent that it was occurring in southern states. Blacks have always been more likely to be arrested than whites and are more likely to be stopped for moving vehicle offenses. In fact, there is a saying that accompanies this idea; driving while black. A significant percentage of our prison population across the country is black, much higher than their percentage in the population. Blacks are much more likely to suffer the death penalty than whites which suggests that our judicial system has some racism in it too. In fact, when a black is convicted of killing a white, the death penalty is almost certain to be applied but when a white kills a black, it’s not.

Police officers are also more likely to kill black suspects than white suspects. Whites are given the benefit of the doubt, blacks typically aren’t. That’s why we’ve seen a spate of killings recently in which the black suspect was shot dead by a white officer because he was perceived to have a weapon, only he didn’t. It was usually a cell phone he was holding but often he wasn’t holding anything. When a white man, police officer or not, believes that a black man is much more likely to be armed than a white man, then his personal safety comes into play and he acts first and thinks about it later.

An important point to make about police officers is that while some are racist, it’s been my experience that most aren’t. While some allow their power and authority to go to their heads, most don’t. And while some are actively looking for a black person to shoot, it’s the furthest thing on the minds of most police officers. Taking someone’s life is something you never get over, regardless of whether your actions were justified or not. If they weren’t, it’s a burden you have to live with for the rest of your life.

We don’t see any racism in McCook and the surrounding areas because there are few blacks living here. The problems arise when there is a large percentage of blacks living in an area enforced by a majority of white police officers. And by the way, black police officers are much more likely to take the side of other police officers in their behaviors than siding with someone of their own race. When there are large numbers of different racial groups trying to interact with each other, cultural and social issues are bound to intersect because one side doesn’t understand the norms and values of the other side and consequently judges them in a negative way.

I’ve known many blacks in my life that act, behave, and think just like I do. But it’s the young bucks in the street that join gangs, commit crime, and do drugs that most of our perceptions are built upon.

And, for the most part, those perceptions are wrong.