I don't agree with everything that he says, and I'm unqualified to address some of it (hard for me to really say anything about racism when I've grown up white middle class, and live in a city that's 95% white). But there is a definite echo to what I've been saying is the problem for quite some time now.
I know a lot of cops. I have a lot of friends who either are cops, were cops, or have family/spouses/etc. that are cops. I went to college at Western Oregon, where the police academy for most officers in the state of Oregon is based. I can say without a doubt that 95-98% of all the officers I've ever known not only are great at their job, but they're great people. They got into that career because they truly wanted to make a difference, and for the most part, they have. But I've also known that other 2-5%, and they are NOT good people, and did not get into it for the right reasons. I've known a handful of terrible cops, and another handful that were just bad at their jobs.
I think that most of the heinous acts that have been committed in the past year are done by those handful of officers that fall outside of the norm. But I don't think that the problem is the actions of those officers. What they did was terrible. Anyone who can watch the uncut video of Tamir Rice in Cleveland (which you can find easily on the web) and tell me that the shooting of that child was wholly justified is completely unhinged. But the problem is not the officer that pulled the trigger. The problem really isn't even the lack of sufficient training provided to that officer. No, I truly believe that the root of the problem is The Blue Shield (a.k.a. The Blue Code, The Blue Wall of Silence, The Blue Curtain, etc.).
When was the last time you've heard of an officer coming out and publicly saying, "Yeah, Officer X really fucked up"? Rhetorical, because you don't hear that. It really doesn't matter how egregious the offense is, cops don't turn on each other. But worse than that is what you're seeing now in regards to the cases in Ferguson, MO, and New York City.
The old saying is that a district attorney can indict a ham sandwich. That's because a grand jury is basically just a rubber stamp. District attorneys have so much power in a grand jury. They can manipulate that vote however they want. Usually, they want an indictment, and they present enough evidence to get one. However, the grand jury system can also be used as a shield. DAs don't want to indict cops, because they NEED the cops to work with them in the future. They can't afford an antagonistic system in which they are butting heads with the police department. So, unless the case is so egregious that they can't possibly fail to prosecute (I know, many of you think that Ferguson and NYC should have been that way--but really they weren't; Tamir Rice in Cleveland is another matter), they're going to present a minimal amount of evidence, fail to get an indictment, and then sit back and say, "Hey, we did our job trying to bring justice, but the grand jury just didn't see it that way." That's B.S. If they wanted the indictment, they would have gotten it. They didn't want it, because it would have made a headache for them in the future.
The culture among police and the district attorneys that they must protect their own at all costs is what has caused the breakdown of trust in this country between the citizens and the police force. There are a handful of bad officers, and a handful of bad decisions made. But this is an age where there are no secrets. Everyone is a reporter, because everyone has a video phone. There are cameras on every street corner. When 10-year old Tamir Rice is playing by himself in a park with a toy gun, and an officer pulls up and shoots him in under two seconds (!), AND it's on video, there shouldn't be a wall of officers jumping up to say "Nope, totally justified. Nothing to see here, move along." There should be a wall of officers jumping up and saying, "We need to do better, because that's unacceptable." The problem is that the good officers, that 95-98% who are good people and good at their job, aren't saying anything. They are holding up that Blue Shield, and protecting the officers that need to be held accountable. Until that changes, the divide in this country is only going to grow larger.
