Racism

There are 23 posts filed in Racism (this is page 1 of 3).

Earlier this week, Ken Smith wrote about redlining and segregation in South Bend, Indiana, where he lives. I have started reading a book about the history of the Black Panthers in Portland, Oregon. There is a section which describes the same practices, and how the Albina neighborhood and the former town of Vanport were the only places where Blacks could live.

I’m now a cop in my hometown, Savannah, Georgia, and I don’t want to fight another war — our “war on crime.” But I’m not going anywhere. I’m just speaking up, to propose that we end what never was a war to begin with. We need to change our mind-set about what it means to “police” in America. At this moment of maximal national tension and outrage, when national leaders are calling the streets of America a “battlespace,” with police officers as warriors who should “dominate” and give “no quarter,” I am telling whoever will listen: Police are not warriors — because we are not and must not be at war with our neighbors.