I wonder if being married to a African American women has anything to do with what is going on in New York and the police showing so much disrespect to Mayor Bill DeBlasio. New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said it was "very inappropriate" for officers to turn their backs on New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio at the funeral for slain NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos. It was the second time officers had done so since the slaying of two NYPD cops.
"That funeral was held to honor Officer Ramos, and to bring politics, to bring issues into that event I think was very inappropriate and I do not support it. He is the mayor of New York, he was there representing the citizens of New York to express their remorse and their regret at that death," Bratton said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"At the same time it is reflective unfortunately of the feelings of some of our officers at this juncture about not just the mayor but I think about some of the many issues that are afflicting the city at this time and this particular police department," he added.
Tensions have been running high between DeBlasio and some of the city's police officers since Ramos and another officer, Wenjian Liu, were shot and killed in their patrol car earlier this month. Police union officials blamed DeBlasio for their deaths, in part because of his public support for people protesting grand jury decisions not to indict police officers who had killed two black men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
The tensions running through our nation is deeply rooted in quite kept derogatory racist practice. The Fraternal Order of Police was supposed to be organized to serve and protect us taxpayers not judge and kill us. Racism is such an ugly practice and detrimental when that practice becomes the fuel that creates self centered laws. Racism creates the us and them mentality. There are good people and bad people, good police officers and bad police officers. Black New York City Police officers often think that they are being racially profiled by their white colleagues, according to a shocking new report by Reuters.
The wire service interviewed 25 black male officers, ten current cops and 15 retired. With just one exception, they said that they have been victims of racial profiling by police, both when wearing the uniform and while off duty. For its article, Reuters identified racial profiling as “using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.”
In the article, Reuters equates what they experience as the same type of racial profiling that cost Eric Garner his life after he was swarmed by police officers and one applied a choke hold to him.
The black police officers said their experiences included being pulled over by police for no reason (multiple times for most), being stopped and frisked, thrown into prison vans, and being physically assaulted and threatened. Black cops say that they’ve had their heads slammed against vehicles and guns brandished in their faces.
“The black officers interviewed said they had been racially profiled by white officers exclusively, and about one third said they made some form of complaint to a supervisor.”
“All but one said their supervisors either dismissed the complaints or retaliated against them by denying them overtime, choice assignments, or promotions. The remaining officers who made no complaints said they refrained from doing so either because they feared retribution or because they saw racial profiling as part of the system.”
Sick how rules and expectations change based on skin color. I support Mayor DeBlasio for being a leader of the people who elected him. The disrespect he is going through is the direct result of him taking a stand against the quite kept racist icebergs haunting our great country. As the funeral for Rafael Ramos, one of two New York City police officers killed Dec. 20, was winding down in New York. Rally leaders decried those killings and said demonstrators were focused on improving policing practices and police-community relations, not on protesting against police per se.
Imam Abdul Malik, who delivered an impassioned call for community empowerment in taking charge of education and economic development, called the New York killings evil.
"We have to recognize that life is sacred in all of its forms, and that killing men and women in uniform is a crime, it's unacceptable, and it's evil. And shooting unarmed civilians . . . is also unacceptable, and evil, unless it's justifiable, and that's, of course, in the sense of self-defense," Malik said in an interview. "I'm not for putting the police against the people and the people against the police. We're all one people." Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20141228_Muslims_invoke_activist_Malcolm_X_at_rally___quot_die-in_quot__at_City_Hall.html#yuJqWE7eoSxzTLru.99
I hope that Mayor Michael Nutter takes a stand along with Commissioner Ramsey and opens this conversation up Philadelphia Convention Style, allowing the citizens of Philadelphia to meet in a central location and create an accountable police force in our city. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey was one of two people appointed by President Barack Obama today to chair President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, according to a news release from the White House.
The task force will include community leaders and law enforcement representatives. It will examine how to build public trust and how to effectively promote crime reduction, the release said. Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/dncrime/Ramsey-to-chair-presidents-Task-Force-on-21st-Century-Policing.html#ZXeWIomvcsTFHE0I.99
I hope our District Attorney Seth Williams is also included in this justice reform. He has not turned a blind eye to the corruption going on with some of our elected officials and judges. Our D.A. Seth Williams meets with the community and is building relationships that produce safe and productive communities. "Everything we do in the Philadelphia district attorney's office … is to ensure that the public respects what we do," Williams said.
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-kane-philly-lawmaker-sting-20141216-story.html
We all have a role, i hope we all get to have a say!!
