The internal police investigation that was looking into “accusations that a now-retired police officer sexually assaulted a woman” made another discovery by happenstance: It found that John Kraynik, a Cleveland police detective, repeatedly “used the ‘n-word’ and another racial epithet when talking about Ohio State football players and specifically used the word when addressing black quarterbacks,” while texting another officer, Aaron Pettit, who also used racial slurs.
The question has to come to mind, are there only two racist cops on the Cleveland police force, or are they the only two that have been caught? Statistically, the odds of there not being others are a million to one. Of course, there are more racist cops in Cleveland, just as there are on police forces across the country. That’s why so many unarmed black youths are killed by cops.
The fact is, the best training in the world cannot reform the thinking of a police cadet that brings racist tendencies to the job with them. If anything, becoming empowered with a badge, gun and a license to kill will only heighten such tendencies. It’s foolish to think otherwise.
Kraynik, who works in the virtually all-black Fourth District, was issued a “written letter of re-instruction” and ordered to get sensitivity training. Yeah, that’ll teach him. One has to wonder will he be required to stay awake during the sensitivity training sessions. Or will it be simply one session for a half hour? What a joke.
But the real kick in the teeth to the black community is the fact the police union is thinking of filing a lawsuit claiming that the rights of the two cops were violated. In other words, they have a right to be racists. The thing is, they might very well win such a lawsuit since, after all, this IS America where racism remains the order of the day.
The question is, why are blacks supposed to respect the law when officers of the law don’t respect them? This is why more women and minorities need to become police officers.
Thankfully we do have one elected official, my representative, Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones, who sits on the city’s safety committee and has stated that he is going to take up the issue with Police Chief Calvin Williams. Thank goodness someone is fighting for us.
From CoolCleveland 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 in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.