POLICE, RIOTS, AND RIOT-GEAR
Justice Is A Verb!
©Wendell
Griffen, 2015
In
the latest exercise of cultural incompetence and pandering to the storm-trooper
mentality involving police interactions with communities of color nationwide, city
directors in Little Rock, Arkansas voted last night by a 7-1 margin to purchase
riot gear for most of the 551 members of the Little Rock police force.
The
vote to purchase the riot gear occurred despite pleas from members of the Little Rock black community who urged that directors study the
issue further to determine whether riot gear is even needed in Little Rock. As Mrs. Annie Abrams, a long-time resident of
Little Rock told the directors, “We didn’t even have a riot in 1957 and didn’t
have a riot when we had HBO [referring to the 1957 Central High School
desegregation crisis and the mid-1990s Home Box Office documentaries about gang
violence in Little Rock].”
The
Little Rock Police Department has what can charitably be called an “image
problem” with communities of color.
A
former Little Rock police officer, Joshua Hastings, shot and killed a teenaged
black youth, Bobby Moore III, less than three years ago. Although Hastings was fired and later charged
with manslaughter for killing Bobby Moore III, his prosecution was abandoned
after two trials resulted in hung juries.
There was no riot. There was no
threatened riot. There was no rumored
riot.
Eugene
Ellison, a middle-aged black man and father of two police officers (one who yet
works for the police department), was gunned down in his apartment by Little
Rock police officers. Mr. Ellison was
unarmed when the police killed him. The
officers who killed him were not prosecuted.
They are still on the police force.
There was no riot. There was no
threatened riot. There was no rumored
riot.
Little
Rock’s Police Department, led by Chief Kenton Buckner, doesn’t need riot gear. It
needs better cultural competence training, community relations, and better
recruiting, screening, selection, and evaluation policies and practices. Little Rock needs an independent civilian
review panel with authority to investigate and issue findings regarding
allegations of abusive and excessive force by police officers.
Chief
Buckner and Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore, both black men, could have
been instrumental in advocating for those changes. They chose otherwise.
So
a mid-sized Southern city with a long history of strained race relations
generally (albeit masked by the traditional notions of Southern “cordiality”)
and clear recent evidence of tension between its police officers and people of
color will now spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on riot gear for the agency
of city government with, arguably, the worse relationship with persons of color
to make that agency more culturally competent, accountable, responsible, or
competent in the use of force? Nonsense!
Bobby
Moore III and Eugene Ellison are dead. Little
Rock police killed them. No Little Rock
police officer has been injured, let alone slain, because of a riot. One would have hoped that Chief Buckner,
Manager Moore, and the seven city directors who voted for purchasing riot gear
would recognize that glaring reality.
One
would have hoped that the political leadership in Little Rock would understand that
riot gear doesn’t prevent or solve police-community tensions.
One
would have hoped that Little Rock learned from the deaths of Michael Brown, Jr.
in Ferguson, Missouri, Rekia Boyd in Chicago, Illinois, Tamir Rice in
Cleveland, Ohio, Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, Freddie Gray
in Baltimore, Maryland, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, that
communities don’t need police to have riot gear to avoid civilians being killed
by people sworn to protect and serve them.
The police need cultural competence.
They need better oversight, training, and understanding about human
relations and justice.
One
would have hoped that several other members of the Little Rock Board of
Directors besides Director Erma Hendrix would have bluntly spoken this truth to
City Manager Moore and Chief Buckner and rejected this latest exercise in
militarization of local police agencies.
But
as my father often said, “that would be too much like right.”
When
another tragic (and avoidable) incident of excessive force/homicidal conduct by
a Little Rock police officer happens, community tensions will intensify. The police will turn out in their new riot
gear as a “precautionary measure.” We
may expect the agency that demands riot gear without any historical justification
to deploy with riot gear, riot or not.
Police-community
relations in Little Rock sank to a new low last night. Thanks, Manager Moore, Chief Buckner, and the
seven city directors who voted for the riot gear, for making bad matters worse.
I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against. See the link below for more info.
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