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i’m retiring this month after more than 24 years as a police officer. it’s bittersweet, especially given recent events. i’m disappointed that i cannot celebrate quite the way i might have wanted to, but my disappointment doesn’t measure up to the feelings of disappointment,
disillusionment, disenfranchisement, disgust, fear, and anger that i imagine many people of color (particularly african americans) experience when they consider their encounters with police.
a friend and former colleague, a middle-class black man, has described to me his worry for his kids especially his son as he enters his teen years. we all worry for our children but it is clear that a black person’s concerns for his/her kids are different than mine.
simply put my friend has more to fear. the reality he faces, that his children are likely to encounter hate and possible violence based on their race (from the police) is incomprehensible to me. how fucking terrifying that must be and how fucking angry that must make him.
my friend left police work 20 years ago to care for his aging parents and their business. he still misses being a police officer. he misses the good we did. he does not miss the pressure to make arrests and put people in jail for petty crimes.
many of my colleagues will argue against defunding the police, they argue with similar conviction to those who argue confederate statues are important to history. it’s bullshit. please please please divert monies to the programs that can address social issues better than police.
leave the police to investigate real crime, serious offenses, and high-level white collar crime that goes virtually undetected because it’s easier to conceal. remove the ability for police departments and their unions to protect/conceal the wrong-doing of officers.
civilian oversight of use-of-force investigations and other complaints is the key to transparency. a smaller and more professional police force focused on serious crime is exactly what good police officers should want. anyone who argues otherwise has something to hide.
i’ll end with this...i’m proud of my career but i’m not always proud of my profession. we can and should be so much better. change is overdue and it cannot come soon enough.
