By Mansfield Frazier
As much as I absolutely abhor violence of any kind, it just may be that the rioting and looting in Ferguson, MO, is serving the useful purpose of focusing world attention on the long-standing and seemingly intractable problem of excessive force against young black males by white police officers.
Would U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder have taken the time to journey to the troubled town if the demonstrations had remained peaceful? If history is any indication, absent outside intervention (from the federal level), little, if anything, will change if the pressure is kept at a fever pitch.
Perhaps making the killing of unarmed individuals by over-aggressive and trigger-happy police officers a national calamity (and priority) is the only way in which change will ever come about.
The issue really is larger than just young black men dying at the hands of white officers. Poor whites, the mentally ill, immigrants, and those who embrace an alternate lifestyle can also suffer the same ill fate at an astonishingly high rate in this country. We simply must engage in a national dialogue about how police interact with the citizenry … a conversation that’s long overdue.
But that’s a conversation some in this country feel is unnecessary, and they will avoid at virtually any cost. Indeed, some police agencies will have to be dragged to the table kicking and screaming … and only the federal government can make that happen.
One way to jumpstart that conversation is for President Obama (who allows the federal government to supply rocket-propelled grenade launchers and tanks to police departments across the country) to use his bully pulpit to strongly encourage every police department in the country to outfit every officer with a body camera, and every squad car with a dash cam … and insist (under penalty of law) that they be used in every encounter with a citizen.
Of course the cry will go up that departments can’t afford to do so … but they think nothing of getting sued for millions of dollars for bad behaviors — which would dramatically decrease if cameras were in use.
If every time an unarmed person is shot and killed by a police officer in the country riots break out, you can bet your sweet ass that solutions will soon be implemented. Proving once again that something good can sometimes come out of something bad.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
3 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Senseless Violence? #Ferguson”
bob
SOME SURE took advantage and got a TV or whatever…OTHERS LITERALLY ALMOST died for Cause… like LONG dreadlocks with green T shirt… THAT IS A HECK of A THING to FACE.. what? SIX COPS WHO LOOK like IRAQI US Army vets coming towards one…?!… yeah had media or SOMEONE with a cam behidn Him..ASSUMING mr.Green T shirt knew that..and HOPED THAT would ‘work’ (APPARENTLY did)
VETS said COPS have more gear THEN THEY had IN a warzone… LET me RE THINK what I JUST said in light of… SAD has come down to THIS…. COPS fear ANYTHING could occur at any time,etc. and it just ‘feeds’… THOSE Glocks unload SO fast not even funny…
WORST DUMB thing… ‘another incident’. MR. GUN instructor giving a U Z I to a NINE YEAR old tiny white girl and then after SOME training He tells HER to go AUTO…. OMG . W G W… W T H… WHAT was HE thinking (moot issue NOW…except for survivors)…. SOMEWHERE out west…Nevada I THINK… I WOULD be leery of handing a BB gun to a little girl MUCH less THAT… NEVER had privilige of a uzi but HEARD CAN be fired one handed…
bob
WAIT… ’16 Convention…EITHER MUST TIGHT LID BUTTONED DOWN DEAL EVER SAW OR… suspect the FORMER… I CAN NOT pic a 1968 Chicago Caper Conundrum… I COULD be wrong…I have mixed emotions about conventions and protests… FIRST! is this bizarre rah rah fest and REAL winners are hotels,etc.thou MAY have to subtract out for damages,etc. LATTER? I HONESTLY dont know… MAYBE MOST peaceful with just banners… NO idea WHO may get funky ideas and WHY and do deeds for WHO again… ENOUGH CRAZY actors out there…OUR history FULL of people made to look like enemies of the…
BETTING CPD to rest DONT WANT ANY ISSUES,leeway,etc. GONNA more uniforms then people… REST take vacations,etc. Bistroes sell MORE COFFEE,DONUTS to cops,’agents’etc.then fancy meals…NO idea how gonna handle German shepherds… CAN IMAGINE WHAT ALL THIS will look like from higher up window areas…QUITE frankly RATHER STAY AWAY from windows…LAST thing want is some legal sniper to see this glar off MY coffeepot or whatever and think WEAPON and let loose…
WITNESSED circuses when G W B 43 ‘visited’…. BLUE thunder overhead and black and whites ALL OVER the place…SAW ‘black’ SUV UAV APC by CPD rolled out to PB Lewis bldg back in like 2003… THAT had to feel like some bizarre fest going thru THAT building…PROBABLY FEARED wild richochets,etc. HAVE to admit mr. Whitey army suprlus refugee with Saturday Nite non working special was ALMOST comical if not for fact HE HAD killed poor slob in lobby who I AM SURE NEVER expected THAT….
bob
Body and dash cam thing…works for the COP AS WELL….2 way street… We are not agree 100% on lot of stuff but CAN appreciate when people feel railroaded,etc. I AM a white mid aged unassuming NON threatening guy who giggles thru life doing mundane stuff OTHER then laissez faire decadent pining on here on COOL C…. usually worst that occurs to me is traffic tickets and some cop getting all whatever about some minor thing…to be HONEST I TRY to avoid cops and THAT is a sad commentary… Cleveland itself? SORTA reaching point UNLESS “SPECIFIC” reason NOT a whole heck of a lot of reasons to whatever… I just dont feel like handing $25 over for being 8 minutes late on meter or..Orrr…all THAT kind of stuff…watching out for EVERYTHING… every sign way up high,behind a tree,etc.
MAYBE went overboard on Convention Commenting here but ALL I SEE is SOME bizarre rah rah stick it in face of DEMS who ALMOST deserve it CONSIDERING all the bohunk biz stuff pulled over time which dont have enough time,ink to contemplate……COUNTY CREW SURE went to ground… THEN AGAIN HEARD,READ A LAWYER in charge of THAT gig…SURE VISIONS of orange jumpsuits,etc.comes to mind….