MANSFIELD: Time for a Cultural Shift

A few weeks ago I was asked to serve as an evaluator to a group of bright Cleveland high school students that had prepared presentations on a number of topics, all focused on and related to social and criminal justice. The four groups of presenters had done their research which prepared them to speak knowledgeably about policing, the criminal justice system, mass incarceration, and the challenges individuals face once they return home from a period of incarceration. I was impressed.

While these mostly minority youth were 11th grade STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors, they nonetheless spoke with conviction and passion in regards to law enforcement issues that deeply affect everyone in communities of color. Indeed, as events of recent weeks prove, black and brown people — no matter their educational attainment level or business and financial success — are subject to being treated badly in this country, and not just down below the Cotton Curtain … it can happen anywhere. These young people seemed acutely aware of the world they are about to inherit … one in which they could be stopped, questioned, and potentially arrested for no other reason than being a person of color.

So when I got to address the students after their presentations, I made a suggestion to them that I’ll tell you about in a minute.

But just recently the Cleveland Division of Police released its plan to come into compliance with the federal consent decree, and the three documents (which were very well thought out and executed by the way) came to the same conclusion and solution that I — and others — have been clamoring about for years: The way to solve the problem is to have more minorities and women on the police force. Every credible study proves that if we want policing in America to be fairer, to have fewer incidents of brutality, to sharply decrease the number of officer-involved killings, we simply must have police forces that are reflective in racial and gender makeup of the communities that are being patrolled.

Now, back to the high school students. When I spoke to them, after commending them on the great research they did, I suggested that if they really want to solve the problems they presented on, then they should all consider becoming police officers … for at least three to five years. I knew that I was speaking to youth that is on track to be future scientists and engineers, but what I was suggesting they do is to give back to their communities by considering it a solemn duty to solve the policing problem in the only way really possible: By becoming one … at least for a short tour before going on to the careers of their choice.

I was not surprised when my suggestion went over like a fart in church. Like a lead balloon. Like … well, you get the point.

What’s going to have to occur is nothing less than a cultural shift. For most of our nation’s history policing has been the exclusive domain of whites. In fact, many police departments were initially organized as slave patrols. But all of that is changing now and we have to seize the time.

The door is now wide open for the inclusion of minorities and women on police forces around the country; what has to happen is members of these formerly disenfranchised groups have to now step up to the plate and be willing to devote at least three years of their lives to changing America into the kind of country we want it to become.

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.

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