In recent months, America has had to see, deal with, and have many discussions about some very uncomfortable truths. In 2014, we have witnessed way too many killings of unarmed Black men at the hands of police officers, and we’ve watched those same police officers not face indictments for these killings. Black parents, over and over again, are having the same conversations with their sons
to prepare them for any possible encounters they may have with the police.
What has baffled me in the last couple weeks is the reaction the NYPD and its union has had toward NYC mayor Bill de Blasio. For those of you who may not know, de Blasio is married to a Black woman, and they have a son. What did he say that made the NYPD so angry that they literally turn their backs to him? Well, here it is :
"This is profoundly personal for me. I was at the White House the other day, and the President of the United States turned to me, and he met Dante a few months ago, and he said that Dante reminded him of what he looked like as a teenager. And he said, I know you see this crisis through a very personal lens. I said to him I did. Because Chirlane and I have had to talk to Dante for years, about the dangers he may face. A good young man, a law-abiding young man, who would never think to do anything wrong, and yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face — we’ve had to literally train him, as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him.”
de Blasio was also quoted to say, “I’ve had to worry over the years, Chirlane has had to worry: Is Dante safe each night? And not just from some of the painful realities of crime and violence in some of our neighborhoods but safe from the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors.”
I mean … can we use some common sense here? We all know that not all police officers are bad. There are countless numbers of men and women officers who put their lives on the line every single day to protect and serve the communities they are charged to police. But then there are those officers like Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo with questionable policing / use of force histories that are still on the job. Those are the “police” we are concerned about, and those are the officers de Blasio and his wife have had to educate their son about.
Perhaps you have heard the statistic that a Black person is killed every 28 hours at the hands of the police. I don’t know how true this is. In fact, I’ve read a few reports / articles / studies stating this statistic is not an accurate one. Accurate or not, we all know that racial profiling is real and poses a real danger to the lives of our young Black men. Instead of being upset at de Blasio for speaking the truth and giving a voice to the fear parents of Black sons have regarding encounters they may have with the police, stop turning your backs on the truth and start cleaning up your departments to make sure the Darren Wilsons and Daniel Pantaleos of the world don’t get to use their badge as a license to kill.
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