A powerful heart-felt comment from police officer Jay Stalien:
As time went by in my law enforcement career, I quickly began to realize something. I remember the countless times I stood 2 inches from a young black man, around my age, laying on his back, gasping for air as blood filled his lungs. I remember them bleeding profusely with the unforgettable smell of deoxygenated dark red blood in the air, as it leaked from the bullet holes in his body on to the hot sidewalk on a summer day. I remember the countless family members who attacked me, spit on me, cursed me out, as I put up crime scene tape to cordon off the crime scene, yelling and screaming out of pain and anger at the sight of their loved ones taking their last breath. I never took it personally, I knew they were hurting. I remember the countless times I had to order new uniforms, because the ones I had on, were bloody from the blood of another black victim…of black on black crime. I remember the countless times I got back in my patrol car, distraught after having watched another black male die in front me, having to start my preliminary report something like this...Suspect- Black/ Male, Victim-Black /Male.
I remember the countless times I canvassed the area afterwards, and asked everyone “did you see who did it”, and the popular response from the very same family members was always, “Fuck the Police, I ain't no snitch, Im gonna take care of this myself". This happened every single time, every single homicide, black on black, and then my realization became clearer.I woke up every morning, put my freshly pressed uniform on, shined my badge, functioned checked my weapon, kissed my wife and kid, and waited for my wife to say the same thing she always does before I leave, “Make sure you come back home to us”. I always replied, “I will”, but the truth was I was never sure if I would. I almost lost my life on this job, and every call, every stop, every moment that I had this uniform on, was another possibility for me to almost lose my life again. I was a target in the very community I swore to protect, the very community I wanted to help. As a matter of fact, they hated my very presence. They called me “Uncle Tom”, and “wanna be white boy”, and I couldn’t understand why. My own fellow black men and women attacking me, wishing for my death, wishing for the death of my family. I was so confused, so torn, I couldn’t understand why my own black people would turn against me, when every time they called …I was there. Every time someone died….I was there. Every time they were going through one of the worst moments in their lives…I was there. So why was I the enemy? I dove deep into that question…Why was I the enemy? Then my realization became clearer.
I spoke to members of the community and listened to some of the complaints as to why they hated cops. I then did research on the facts. I also presented facts to these members of the community, and listened to their complaints in response. This is what I learned:
Complaint: Police always targeting us, they always messing with the black man.
Fact: A city where the majority of citizens are black (Baltimore for example) …will ALWAYS have a higher rate of black people getting arrested, it will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting stopped, and will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting killed, and the reason why is because a city with those characteristics will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks committing crime. The statistics will follow the same trend for Asians if you go to China, for Hispanics if you go to Puerto Rico, for whites if you go to Russia, and the list goes on. It’s called Demographics
Complaint: More black people get arrested than white boys.
Fact: Black People commit a grossly disproportionate amount of crime. Data from the FBI shows that Nationwide, Blacks committed 5,173 homicides in 2014, whites committed 4,367. Chicago’s death toll is almost equal to that of both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. Chicago’s death toll from 2001–November, 26 2015 stands at 7,401. The combined total deaths during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2015: 4,815) and Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan (2001-2015: 3,506), total 8,321.
Complaint: Blacks are the only ones getting killed by police, or they are killed more.
Fact: As of July 2016, the breakdown of the number of US Citizens killed by Police this year is, 238 White people killed, 123 Black people killed, 79 Hispanics, 69 other/or unknown race.
Police may kill more Whites than Blacks in any given year, but erroneous or suspicious killings by the police are less likely to be investigated when the victim is Black. At least, that appears to be true in Chicago.
Black men here are frequently stopped and shot by the police under questionable circumstances. Investigations are less than satisfying: the cops are exonerated 98%-99% of the time. (It would be worthwhile for the Feds to check some of those more outrageous cases from the past to see if those assessments were accurate---that's what BLM should be trying to achieve.)
Add to that the complacency of the nightly news reports about the endless stream of innocent victims of drive-by shootings on the South and West sides, and you start to appreciate that Black Americans are justified feeling less importance is placed on Black lives. If they had that many victims of drive-by shootings in White neighborhoods, they'd call out the National Guard.
Blacks killed by police are less frequent than death by bee stings in America. FDWIT.
More people ought to see this article.
Sometimes people just want to fight. It's a default setting for men, especially, but wimmin will fight if you don't watch out. Be prepared.
Posted by: Casey Klahn at July 11, 2016 5:19 PMThe FBI has exonerated FBI killings 100% of the time. Waco anyone?
Posted by: indyjonesouthere at July 11, 2016 7:18 PMSeems simple, just go out and shoot enough whites to balance the scales.
Oh! Wait, the whites aren't as stupid and would leave the city and the whole place would go Zimbabwe in a New York minute.
This article puts a clear face on the data gathered by Heather MacDonald in her new book "The War on Cops".
Posted by: Chuck at July 12, 2016 5:34 AMBoy am I conflicted. I know that humans, being the way they are, that if you put many of them in a position to do harm... they will. Power is hard to handle.
But...most cops are trying to do a hard job with more or less success. I hate to think of not having them.
Did you guys know that police forces are a fairly modern thing? I was surprised to find that they didn't exist until like the seventeenth century or later or something. Gotta recheck that.
All black cops for all black areas would be interesting, if only they could find enough black men without a record willing to take the job. Why Ferguson if still a white force.
Black cops are multiple times more likely to kill than white cops. Black women are worse, but all female cops are far more likely to shoot then men. So that's the ticket, all black female cops. They raised 'em, they can plant 'em.
Black cops for black areas is apartheid, segregation, racism, and whatever else the grievance mongers can devise. I say let 'em have their Black Muslim wish, those that hate cops, and go live in the Muslim communities with Sharia Law. Behind a wall.
Posted by: Joan of Argghh! at July 12, 2016 3:36 PM"Black cops are multiple times more likely to kill than white cops." - james wilson
Mr. Wilson, Would you please provide a link to the study that revealed that "fact"? Thank you
Posted by: RM at July 12, 2016 3:38 PM
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