Our modern means of communications — the Internet with its emails, and cell phones which facilitate text messaging and instant videos — that were rightly credited with the success of the Arab Spring (the wave of revolutionary demonstrations, protests, riots, and civil wars that rocked the Arab world beginning in December of 2010) is also playing a role in forcing America to come to grips with the subject many in this country would like to keep on the taboo list: Race.
Indeed, as more and more incidents of bigotry surface, reactionaries and protectors of the status quo are increasingly accusing anyone who points out these ugly occurrences of “playing the race card.”
As more videos of frat boys acting badly (not only in terms of racial incidents but engaging in sexual misconduct as well) surface from across the country, and investigations of police departments revel racist messages by some white cops who evidently have not learned to leave their prejudices at home when they don their uniforms, it’s becoming increasingly clear that a certain segment of Americans seemingly cannot and will not leave our ugly history behind; their outdated views cling to them like bad credit scores.
In San Francisco, a corruption case against one cop has revealed a slew of racist and homophobic text messages he exchanged with four other officers that has forced prosecutors and defense attorneys to review an estimated 1,000 criminal convictions for potential bias.
“In order to ensure our criminal justice system is fair and equitable, my office is conducting an immediate assessment of every prosecution within the past ten years where these officers were involved,” said San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon. Public defender Jeff Adachi estimated that his office has identified more than 120 tainted cases involving the five cops in just the last two years alone.
“We pride ourselves on being a progressive city, yet we have active officers who are engaging in not only racist banter, but they were talking about killing people, referring to an African American as a ‘savage,’” Adachi said. “A person does not become a racist overnight. These were officers who in some cases had over a decade of service. We need to look at all of them.”
Allegedly the cops referred to blacks using the N-word and suggested they be spayed like animals, and used a derogatory epithet for homosexuals. Other text messages insulted Filipinos and Mexicans as well.
How could these cops harbor such racist views without other cops and superior officers knowing their feelings? The answer is, others had to know, but kept silent, rationalizing that personal views on race are private … and they are, until someone puts on a uniform and carries a badge and gun.
While a shrinking percentage of Americans still cling to their racist views (which they certainly are entitled to do, since, after all, it is a free country), in most cases such modes of thinking don’t negatively impact others — except perhaps in employment situations — but, when someone is authorized to act for the state in a law enforcement position they simply cannot allow personal prejudices to color their work. But that’s exactly what happened in San Francisco, as well as Ferguson, MO, where six people no longer hold the jobs they once held due to the feds publicizing their racist banter.
Which brings me to Cleveland. Given the contentious nature of police/community relations here, does any reasonable person believe that some of the cops who are fighting hardest against reform of the police department don’t have some messaging skeletons hanging around in their closets, and, further, that the feds won’t be able to unearth them if indeed they do exist?
I can virtually guarantee you that if some Cleveland cops are not whistling past the graveyard by now (as they should be) the only reason they’re not is because they’re too dense to comprehend to what extent they’re in harm’s way, hung by their own tongues.
Change is coming to policing in America, and those who are wise enough will realize this fact and alter their behaviors; as Bob Dylan sang: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Or do you?
[Photo: Melina Sampaio Manfrinatti]
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.