When unmitigated violence has been perpetrated against your people for over 400 years by racists with badges and guns, there’s little wonder that so many black voices (and some white ones too) have for years been calling for drastic changes in regards to how America is policed. Now, with the brutal ground lynching of George Floyd in Minneapolis with the whole world watching, the time has finally come to enact systemic changes to police forces across the country, and here in Cleveland too — especially here in Cleveland.
However, the conversation is becoming muddled with some folks basically calling for the shuttering of police departments in some cities all together. I can guarantee you anyone who thinks that’s a wise thing to do have never been inside a prison. As the great comic Richard Pryor once said “I’ve been going into the joints around the state, visiting the brothers, and, THANK GOD WE GOT PENITENTIARIES. Amen to that, since there’s some dangerous people out there who really need a time out.
Need I remind you, the only way someone gets to a prison is by first getting arrested — by a cop. So while we certainly need to radically change how we police in this country, we, like every other country in the world, have to have law enforcement officers.
The difference is, in places like Canada, they have “peace” officers, while in America we have far too many cowboy cops, who simply love getting their jollies tearing around black communities wreaking havoc and taking lives.
A huge part of the problem, as everyone knows, is the culture of “us versus them” that cops established back in the ’60s. Too many of them see themselves as warriors — an occupying army — rather than people dedicated to “Protect and Serve.”
And the only way to change this paradigm — to stop the unnecessary violence — is to change the culture of policing, and, as history has shown us, that’s virtually impossible to do, unless those protective union contracts are changed. Nothing else will work until that is accomplished.
Cities around the country are talking a hard look at what Camden, NJ did over a decade ago: they disbanded the police force (in order to get rid of the union contract — yes, I’ve written this before) and started off fresh with an entire new peace force, and by and large, it’s worked.
Can we do that here in Cleveland? Of course we can. All it takes is for our elected officials to make Steve Loomis and his boys an “offer they can’t refuse.” Either they agree to radically alter the union contract, or the department will be disbanded and we start from scratch.
But for that to happen, we have to elect city officials at every level who buy into this new way of thinking, and if they don’t, we should not vote for them next election. In other words, only vote for candidates for mayor and city council who promise to finally reform the Cleveland’s department. Period.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: To Defund or Not to Defund”
Union Busters
Nope, sorry. That gives Loomis and his myrmidons the opportunity to strike and create a crime wave, which is what Baltimore cops did after they murdered Freddie Gray. The best way to kill the cop union is the way Advance Publications killed the Plain Dealer union. You create a second, peace officer force. Base them on the Violence Interruption Movement. Make sure they have equal pay and benefits to cops. Heck, make sure they also have a union from Day One.
Then spend money on the Peace Officers and starve the Police Officers. Do that for ten or twenty years. The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PatrolMEN? In 2020? Really?) will then become a smaller and smaller organization as more and more young officers choose the better force. Then finally, when they are down to a membership of only 50 old, fat white guys, offer them all early retirement. They will be happy to move down to Fort Myers Beach full time, and Clevelanders will be happy to never see those guys again that roll through neighborhoods on a beautiful, spring day with their windows up, and their AC on.