Many aphorisms come to mind when assessing the probability that the consent decree recently entered into by the City of Cleveland and the Department of Justice will prove successful in producing the kinds of outcomes most residents desire.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink,” and “You can’t teach an old dogs new tricks,” are but two phrases that speak to the difficulty in bringing about real, sustainable change in regards to how Cleveland, and indeed the entire country, is policed. “Circle the wagons” is another expression that comes to mind.
But with that said, the goal should not simply or exclusively be an attempt to transform hard-nosed cops into warm and friendly servants of the public … the goal should be to prevent them from acting out in an overly aggressive manner; to prevent them from creating situations where they can claim they had no option but to fire their weapons.
But changing culture is indeed difficult. And those cultures that involve one group of individuals having an inordinate amount of power over another is at the top of the difficulty scale: Prison culture immediately comes to mind. It’s a culture that’s tucked away (usually in a rural area) but always hidden behind high fences or walls topped with razor wire.
Second on the difficulty scale is police culture, due to the fact departments are paramilitary organizations whose members are armed with the power of life and death in their holsters, and are backed up by a criminal justice system that clearly has said “… no matter how egregious, outrageous, or illegal their behavior … they will be backed to the hilt.”
The problem lies in the statistics: While whites comprise 37 percent of city residents, they account for 67 percent of the sworn police officers. And, while statistics on the frequency of shootings by black officers are somewhat difficult to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests black officers are far less prone to fire their weapons. Still, these black officers manage to go home to their families safely at the end of their shift, giving lie to the reason given most often by white officers … that their lives were in danger, and they had to shoot someone in order to prevent themselves from being killed.
Los Angeles — which had one of the most notoriously bad police departments in the country, and a decade ago was comprised of mainly white officers — was only able to bring about change by recruiting (and retaining) more minorities and women to work on the force. Today, the LAPD is majority minority, with over 8000 of the officers on the 12,000-plus-member force being non-white, and the number of women in uniform more than doubling in the last decade. This shift in the race and gender of the officers patrolling the streets of Los Angeles has resulted in fewer police-involved shootings, and has had the added benefit of producing falling crime numbers. The LAPD is no longer an army of occupation.
By comparison, a sign in a police precinct house in Cleveland called the facility a “forward operating base,” which is military speak for a “combat zone.” With this kind of mindset, there’s little wonder the “us against them” mentality is so pervasive on the Cleveland force.
However, change of this magnitude is difficult because many folks in the country sincerely believe positions on police departments should be the sole province of white males. Many white cops feel that being on a police force is a birthright for them, and an exclusive one at that.
What needs to happen long-term is for the message to go out to young men of color (and women also) that, as part of giving back to society, they should step up and join police forces, and remain on them for at least five years. Yes, put their real careers on hold to do this for their communities.
Also, if Cleveland is serious in regards to changing its police department, Mayor Jackson would send recruiters out to every branch of the military, seeking out minorities and women about to exit their tour of service, and offer them a sweet deal to come to Cleveland … a deal that includes a house at a great price. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. It’s far cheaper in the long run than paying out these multi-million dollar settlements we’ve become accustomed to, and in the end, maybe the only way to really change the department — is by changing the race and gender of many of the cops on it.
[Photo: Scott Davidson (Flickr)]
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.