WaPo | I won’t say all, but many of my peers were deeply racist.
One
example: A couple of officers ran a Web site called St. Louis Coptalk,
where officers could post about their experience and opinions. At some
point during my career, it became so full of racist rants that the site
administrator temporarily shut it down. Cops routinely called anyone of
color a “thug,” whether they were the victim or just a bystander.
This attitude corrodes the way policing is done.
As
a cop, it shouldn’t surprise you that people will curse at you,
or be disappointed by your arrival. That’s part of the job. But too many
times, officers saw young black and brown men as targets. They would
respond with force to even minor offenses. And because cops are rarely
held accountable for their actions, they didn’t think too hard about the
consequences.
Once, I accompanied an officer on a call. At one
home, a teenage boy answered the door. That officer accused him of
harboring a robbery suspect, and demanded that he let her inside. When
he refused, the officer yanked him onto the porch by his throat and
began punching him.
Another officer met us and told the boy to
stand. He replied that he couldn’t. So the officer slammed him against
the house and cuffed him. When the boy again said he couldn’t walk, the
officer grabbed him by his ankles and dragged him to the car. It turned
out the boy had been on crutches when he answered the door, and couldn’t
walk.
Back at the department, I complained to the sergeant. I
wanted to report the misconduct. But my manager squashed the whole thing
and told me to get back to work.
