By Donald Bohanon —Friday–July 08,2016
The recent killings of unarmed victim Philando Castile, and Alton Sterling, are contributing to an atmosphere of rage and frustration against what many view as the racist practices of police officers.The fact that so many killings of unarmed black men,without any police officers being held accountable and or punished for these kinds of acts, is obviously contributing to an environment of anger and outrage against many in law enforcement.
Simply put, people are fed up and outraged. But this kind of anger and outrage against members of law enforcement really doesn’t have to exist, when and if the justice system begins to hold officers equally as responsible for their actions as citizens.
When you have the killing of unarmed black men captured on video, with police officers exercising very little restraint in those cases,…and with the outcome always eventually being the acquittal of those same officers, this is the kind of backlash you can ultimately expect.When you start allowing police officers, citizens, etc, to think they are above the law, they will eventually begin to act or behave like they’re above the law.
But let me emphasize strongly that I do not condone or support the killing of police officers,but neither do I condone or justify the slaughter of unarmed black men either.The solution to this escalating madness can only lie in the implementation of stringent measures against officers, who exercise zero restraint in cases like the killing of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.
The standard that applies to citizens must also apply to police officers. American law enforcement needs to embark on and implement new training standards and protocol, which emphasize and encourage exercising restraint when dealing with citizens who are not white, as opposed to the promotion of racial profiling, which creates unnecessary paranoia, which in turn results in a different police officer reaction to scenarios based on ones race or skin color.
The same restraint that law enforcement officers exercise with the white community, needs to be applied to citizens of other races as well. And if not, and officers continue to walk free after being caught in the act on video, you can expect the nation to continue to descend into chaos with more incidences of officers being killed.
And although I don’t believe all officers are bad or racist, I am of the belief that there is a racist element that exist within the ranks of law enforcement that’s growing and festering, because nothing has ever been done to address the issue.
In a nation that was established and built on racist practices, it would be naive and foolish to think otherwise. Racism still exists in the nation to some degree in various forms, so obviously there are elements of it in virtually every facet of American society in one from or another, law enforcement is no exception.
The problem of racism within the ranks of law enforcement exists and needs to be found and aggressively rooted out,………not swept under a rug. And if not expect more unarmed black men to be shot and killed, and more police officers to be ambushed and killed.
The sad thing about it is the officers killed may have been good cops, but when you don’t address the issue of corrupt, racist cops, within the ranks of law enforcement, everyone suffers.Unfortunately innocent unarmed black citizens, as well as good cops, both suffer from inaction. Stop cowering and being politically correct and deal with the issue head on, and deal with these corrupt officers swiftly and harshly,when they are found to clearly be in the wrong!
This is the only way you are going to prevent the steady progression and growth of civil and social unrest, because of the unwillingness to deal with racism in it’s many forms, including racism that hides behind police badges.
Because when the laws and circumstances for breaking those laws don’t apply to everyone (police officers included) all law and order begins to break down, because the broader public and common citizen begins to disregard and totally lose respect for those same laws, because it begins to become quite evident that those laws only apply to the common citizen, and not to corrupt leaders in positions of authority and power.
Historically this has always led to chaos and the breakdown of government and social and societal structure. And eventually the collapse of those nations that engaged in those destructive and unlawful practices.
America will be no different and will suffer the same fate(governmental,societal and social, and eventually national collapse) if it doesn’t deal with this corruption swiftly and harshly, with the objective being to send a strong message to those who engage in corruption of any form,wherever it may lurk.
I’m convinced that most officers are good officers, but the small percentage of racist cops who infect the ranks of law enforcement need to be aggressively rooted out, harshly dealt with, and used as examples for other officers who would dare consider the lack of restraint, or the use of deadly force when dealing with unarmed black citizens,when it’s absolutely unwarranted, and unnecessary.
We must also be mindful of the fact that racists on both sides of the spectrum will try to use this incident as a means to further and promote their racist and destructive agenda’s, to promote racial hatred and violence.But we as a nation must never succumb to such destructive,subversive and calculated schemes.
But at the same time we must never take the biased cowards position, who play down and don’t address or deal with the taking of innocent black lives, but are quick to condemn the taking of the lives of innocent police officers.
With that being said I would not allow any of this to undermine the unity of races and the nation,or allow love for one another to be replaced with hatred. The solution is love and communication, but more importantly justice applied to citizens caught in criminal acts, as well justice for officers caught in criminal acts.
Double standards, inaction,peace,national and racial harmony, simply cannot coexist as it relates to violent and disturbing issues of this magnitude, and will quickly descend into chaos if not quickly addressed and dealt with.. But we should never allow hatred and racism to take root and grow, no matter how shocking or disturbing the circumstance or situation.