Who Can You Trust?
The Police Have a Deeper Issue to Grapple With
2009-07-27
By Eric Easter

There are those who think the arrest of Prof. Henry Louis Gates represents “racial profiling” and there are those who do not. Depending on which point in the incident you’re referring to, either viewpoint may be correct. But all of this talk about racial profiling detracts from a much more critical problem for all of us - black, white or otherwise. That is, very few people trust the police anymore.

Right now, many communities in the United States are less safe than they should or could be. The irony, of course, is that these communities are less safe partly because, from the perspective of the people who live in these communities, the people who were hired to serve and protect them simply cannot be trusted.

How did we get from Officer Friendly to this point?

How did we move from every little boy wanting to be a cop to my four year old crying for me to slow my driving down or else I’ll go to jail? Somewhere, somehow, the guys in blue have lost their moral authority, and we are all worse for it.

Incidents like the one Gates experienced are only one reason. The tough justice we seek and applaud when it is applied to the people who deserve it, doesn’t look so attractive when applied to us, especially if it’s accidental. Or in the case of profiling, not so accidental.

But there are many more things, some large and systematic, some petty but still damaging, that police departments across hundreds of communities must address if they are ever again be 100% effective.

In the Baltimore neighborhoods I grew up in, for example, we considered the police to be dangerous not because of what they would do to us, but for the trouble their lack of consideration and sensitivity could bring upon us. Individuals brave enough to call the police to report suspicious activity could almost guarantee that the  police would loudly draw attention to that call by knocking on their door, immediately tipping off to criminals who made that call. As a result, reporting a crime put your life in real danger.

You want to know the origins of the Stop Snitching mindset? That’s it.

The police created it. Only relatively recently have most cities adopted reliable anonymous tip lines to remedy that problem. In that time wasted, how many drug deals, petty thefts and domestic violence disputes went unchallenged each year because of the perception that the police are an occupying force and not the helpful service they are designed to be?

Certainly the downfall started decades ago, during labor strikes and protests and on college campuses for anti-war challenges, in the instances of brutality we never hear about and in the public ones like the Rodney King case.  And of course, on those days when the very vocal innocent and treated as guilty.

Add to that the downfall of community policing and the rise of the distant, de-personalized police cruiser. Add further the virtual deputizing of police forces as cogs in the wheel of local tax revenue growth and the assignment of cops to meet parking ticket quotas.  instead of learning neighborhoods. And while I don’t fault anyone for having a side hustle, it is still very disconcerting to see your neighborhood cop moonlighting as a nightclub bouncer.

All these things eat away bit by bit at the respect and deference required for a mutually beneficial relationship between the protectors and the protected.

A neighbor of mine has the dubious duty of being the person responsible for investigating all accusations of police misconduct in the city of Chicago. If you’re familiar Chicago, you know that a hell of a job description. I once asked her how and why she got into the business. Her response was that most cops are good people who provide an incredible service to the community, but there were rogues out there who damage the work of all the good guys. She busts the bad ones so the good ones can finally get their due.

It’s a laudable goal, and she’s completely right. In the normal course of a day, thousands of police officers risk their lives, save other lives, deter crimes and keep the peace doing things most of us will never see or hear about. We take it all for granted, until something happens to us personally.

But clearly, a few bad cops and a lot of bad policies are tearing away at the fabric of a relationship that is fundamental to making sure the laws we live by hold firm. If that relationship is allowed to  erode any further, the next step is total chaos.

Eric Easter writers about politics, culture and technology for EbonyJet.com.