OPINION – There are good cops and there are bad cops. Just like there are good citizens and there are citizens who are corrupt, mentally ill, deranged or misguided. Police Officers have many names — law enforcement, overseer, Sheriff, Deputies, pig, the man, 5-0, Johnny Law–the list goes on. Regardless of these facts, Eric Garner should not be dead today.
When I asked my students ‘why is Eric Garner dead’, the answers were simplistic. One student stood up and said, “Because the police killed him.” Another rose and deduced, “Because a bunch of cops put him in a choke hold and strangled him to death.” I explained to them these answers were correct about the action that killed him, however my question was aimed at encouraging them to think more critically about the social systemic reason why Eric Garner is dead today.
Standing at 6’3″ and weighing 350 pounds, Garner was a 43 year old, African American man who was seen as a threat to these particular police officers, not because he was selling single cigarettes illegally, but because he was a Black man who chose to defy the officer’s request to obey the law; a victimless crime he engaged in to support his livelihood. Eric Garner is dead because these particular police officers chose to make him a martyr and prove a point. They were determined to show him who was the boss by abusing their authority.
That act was not necessary. They were not afraid of Eric Garner. He was clearly not fighting back and he did not have a weapon. The video images were vivid. The world saw what happened crystal clear, so excuse me for being critical Mr. President but a body camera isn’t the only solution.
One recently elected official, formerly a law enforcement leader in the Sherriff’s department told me his solution is to hire more African American police officers. As a victim of a beating at the hands of 3 police officers, one of which was Black, I like the fortitude of consideration, but that’s not the answer either.
For that matter, this Black man too has been accused, wrongly or rightly, of questionable law enforcement tactics against African American citizens.
The answer is a wholesale attitude adjustment. We all need to re-evaluate how we perceive one another. There are good cops and there are bad cops. The good cops need to break the blue code of silence and implore the bad cops to temper their anger, rage and abuse of authority when the perpetrator is clearly not the aggressor. The bad cops need to check themselves and utilize their training to determine and adopt the real reason why they are signing up to join the force. They should recognize busting heads and choking Blacks to death is not the reason for their existence. And if they don’t realize this, they should be indicted in the court of law, punished and sentenced, just like all citizens who break the law.
_____
By Simeon Gant