What I Want From Law Enforcement

Have you heard the one about how much liberals hate the police?  Liberals hate the police.  Depending on whom you speak to, liberals want to abolish the police and give hugs and therapy to all criminals.  Then there are also the liberals who are terrorist thugs who want to destroy law and order with their own arsenal of bombs and guns.

This is why being a liberal sometimes gives me an identity crisis.

In the din of angry voices we hear liberals trying to speak up.  "I respect law enforcement," they say.  "Police are heroes.  A few bad apples don't spoil the whole bushel.  I have friends who are police officers.  I have close family members who are police officers.  They are good people.  They only want to serve and protect their communities.  They aren't racists." Their social media feeds are filled with photos of police officers helping others and receiving hugs from civilians.

Not every liberal feels this way and that scares many conservatives (and I'm sure a few police officers).  There are angry voices out there who are tired of the militarized police forces, the racism that is swept under the rug, the domestic violence that isn't reported, and the policies that seem to target people of color.  This group of liberals (along with many self-defined libertarians) does seem to hate law enforcement and question its usefulness.  Do the police protect everyone equally and does our justice system punish wrongdoers equally?  These are the people who believe the police only exist to protect the privileged.

So where do my views fall on all of this?  Should conservatives hate me for hating the police, or should liberals hate me for not hating the police?

In a functioning society, the government provides services that could be difficult for the population to provide for itself.

For example, a bucket brigade is an inefficient way to put out a fire.  The government funds more sophisticated firefighting equipment and trains a group of brave men and women to use it.
This is why the government provides places where children can be taught by subject matter experts who are trained and certified to instruct them.

If my person or my property were ever in danger, I would like to protect them, but I'm not interested in buying a weapon and dishing out vigilante justice.  For this the government has provided me with a police force that is trained to de-escalate tense situations and handle firearms under stress.  It also has at its disposal a wealth of forensic science and detective skills to help find the perpetrators of crimes it was unable to stop immediately.

So now my anti-police friends are going to tell me I am part of the problem.  I want someone protecting my person and my property?  Isn't it nice that I have property to protect?  I'm what's wrong with the system.  We have an armed group who exists only to protect privileged people like me.

I am not asking for defense of my privilege.  It is true I want my property protected, but I also don't believe my property is more or less valuable than anyone else's. My condo doesn't deserve any more protection than an illegal tent city in the park. I should not be more protected from sexual assault than a sex worker walking home at night.  Everyone deserves protection.

This is the question we all have to address.  Is everyone receiving the same level of protection from law enforcement?  Right now, I don't believe that's happening, because we equate the worthiness of protection with how much one has to protect.

One could argue that I deserve more protection from the law because if you look at my condo, you will find electronics, valuable art work, several musical instruments, and a few nice pieces of jewelry.  If someone were to steal that, it would equal a huge monetary loss, and that's why police are needed to protect it.

Is a monetary loss the only kind of loss that counts?

Let's say someone steals my diamond ring.  Kevin would have wasted his two months' salary (or however much he spent).  I would be sad because of the loss of something highly sentimental.  In the end, how much would have been lost here?  Kevin and I would still be living comfortably.  The impact on our lives would be minimal. On the other hand, if the thief were caught, he would likely be punished severely in our horrific prison system. 

Now imagine someone steals a homeless man's coat or his spare pair of warm socks.  From a monetary standpoint, it wouldn't be a huge loss, but imagine the impact on that man's life on a cold winter night.  For the people who have the least, to lose what little you have can radically change your life.  Is law enforcement protecting those of use who have almost nothing?  How much punishment would the thief who stole the coat receive?  If it were a rich white kid who thought it would be funny to torture a homeless person, he would likely not receive more than a slap on the wrist and maybe some public shaming if the case were brought into the open.

Once again I know some of you are ready to chime in and say, "Well my cop friend (or brother or father or sister or cousin) isn't like that.  He truly believes in protecting everyone."  I believe you.  I know there are officers on the street who want to provide a service to the entire community, but they are operating in a system that allows officers who don't feel that way to also be on the street.

The problem is not the officers, but the system.  Why do we have a system that favors the rights of the privileged?  What drives police officers to target blacks as suspects (and this something many police admit)?  Why do we have a system that values one life over another?  The behavior of an individual officer is the responsibility of the individual officer, but the people in charge are responsible for what behaviors are tolerated and how bad behavior is dealt with.  Anyone choosing a career in law enforcement should be doing it for the right reasons.  If someone wants to be a police officer because she likes having a power trip over the weaker or less privileged, it needs to be nipped in the bud right away and that person needs to consider another career.  We are not doing much to prevent people like that from entering the police force.

There are so many other areas of the system that need to be changed and much of that has to happen at the societal level.  We need to deal the racism embedded in all areas of society.  We need to stop assuming minorities are more likely to commit crimes.  Law enforcement needs to stop targeting minorities.  I know this is easier said than done, but it's something we have to strive for and not sit back and assume it's impossible.

It can't end with crime prevention.   We also have to deal with what happens when crimes are committed.  We need to reform the prison system.  Right now we have corporate prisons that profit off warehousing criminals. There are corporations that profit from slave-wage prison labor.  It's more economical for the owners of the prisons and the companies that use prison labor to keep people locked up.  Prison doesn't teach convicts how to function in society.  It doesn't teach them useful job skills.  It doesn't treat them as human beings worthy of respect.  How does an ex-con know how to function on the outside without this knowledge?  Prisons aren't rehabilitating criminals.  They are keeping criminals in a cycle of crime and poverty.

Orange in the New Black fans will recognize this.  Think of how privileged, white, Piper struggled to meet her parole requirements.  She was lucky she had family to fall back on.  Compare that with the passionate and brilliant Taystee, who likely would have had a brilliant career if she had been given a good start in life instead of growing up black in the foster care system.  She was paroled in one episode and back in prison the next.  Once she was out, she had nowhere to turn and no money.  It was easy to slide back in with her "family" of drug dealers who took her in and got her in trouble in the first place.  Cindy had it a little better because she found someone willing to take a chance on her and give her a job she loved - but she was still homeless.  Did prison give either of these intelligent black women the skills and tools needed to survive on the outside, or were they victims of a system who wanted to keep them there?  This was television.  Imagine how many other Tatytees and Cindys there are out there whose stories are never told.

We need a way to realistically deal with the root causes of crime in this country.  In other words, we need to deal with poverty and disenfranchisement.

Most often people commit crimes because they don't have what they need.  If you're hungry, or your children are hungry, and you aren't being properly provided with the means to procure food, you will procure food any way you can.  I don't want my conservative friends piping up here and talking about how people need to get jobs and work harder if they want more money.  There are millions of hard working people in this country who still can't put food on the table.  Wages have been stagnant for decades while the price of everything has risen.  We need fair wages and affordable healthcare.  This isn't some ridiculous liberal-conservative debate about socialism anymore.  This is about life and death.

There are some people out there who commit crimes not because they don't have what they need, but because someone else has something they want and they must have it.  I'm talking about the embezzlers, the corporate hucksters, the white collar crime.  All too often these criminals don't pay  anything close the price the poor pay for their crimes.  There is a joke that goes, "If you steal a pair of shoes, you're a thief.  If you steal a million dollars, you are an entrepreneur." The community at large suffers from the effects of these crimes as much as they do from the crimes of the poor (if not more so) but the justice system doesn't treat them the same way.  Somehow their lives and their freedom are given more value.

Do you want to talk about drugs?  I grew up in the"Just Say No" 80s, so I'm well versed in the dangers of addiction.  I don't believe that across the board legalization is the answer to all drug crimes and feel the issues are far more nuanced than that.  When I was younger I thought a "War on Drugs" was a good idea.  We should be stopping people from destroying their lives and their families with addiction.  I didn't understand that a war on drugs was not about stopping addiction as much as it was about filling prisons and getting "undesirable" people off the streets.

It would take years for me to understand the War on Drugs was about racism.  Addiction is a real problem and it is often a response to despair and disenfranchisement.  Our government's treatment of drug crimes has done nothing to address that.  It is another way to unfairly punish the most alienated members of society.  If a  white kid in the suburbs is caught dealing a little weed to his friends, he is likely to get nothing more than probation.  If a poor black kid in the city is caught smoking a joint in the park, he goes to prison.  I don't know the best way to deal prevent drug addiction, but I do know the current system of sending poor people, particularly poor black people, to prison for life for the smallest drug infraction does nothing to curb addiction and it doesn't stop violent drug-related crime.  We also need to ask why so many poor people turn to dealing as a way to survive.  Why  does dealing drugs seem to be a better way of making money than having a legitimate job?  My guess is because it pays better, and that brings us back to my first point about poverty, low wages, and income inequality in this country.

The final point I want to address are the conservatives who love the "what-aboutism" regarding black on black crime.  Blacks are killed far more by their peers than they are by white police officers, right?  Why am I not concerned about this?  This goes back to what I said above about poor communities not receiving equal protection from law enforcement. What are the police doing to help prevent these crimes?  What is the government and everyone living in this society doing to prvent these crimes.  It seems these communities have little trust in the police as well. i can't blame them after decades of neglect and unfair treatment.  What are the police across the nation doing as outreach to gain their trust and confidence?  How can police prove they are on the same side as the residents of the neighborhoods they have sworn to protect?  They need to find out.

We also need to address the obvious when it comes to black-on-black crime.  You know who commits crimes against white people the most?  Other white people.  All of us are most likely to be harmed by people we know rather than by strangers.  The man statistically most likely to kill me sleeps in my bed at night.  Crime happens within communities.  Despite this supposedly rampant black-on-black crime, white people seem to be a bit paranoid walking in black neighborhoods and are uncomfortable being alone with black people.  They need their guns for protection too.  One would think police officers would know this as well and not feel the need to start shooting.

Law enforcement?  I'm all for it.  Police officers?  I'm lucky to live in a world where people are willing to put their own lives on the line to keep my life safe.  I also know that it can't stop there.  My life doesn't matter more than anyone else's.  This country needs a system that recognizes that.  We can't only pay lip service to equality. We need to believe in equality at every level.  We need law enforcement that believes in protecting everyone and we need to eliminate racist power tripping bullies from every police force.  We need equal punishments for equal crimes and those who commit crimes need the means for true rehabilitation.  We need to end for-profit prisons that have a monetary motivation to keep people locked up.

Unfortunately, the real change can't come only from law enforcement.  It has to come from all of us.  We need to be a society where poverty is not the default.  We need a society where everyone has access to a good education and the means to succeed.  We need a society where everyone's grievances are addressed and everyone feels empowered.  Until then, we will all keep on marching and we will all keep on kneeling.