This past Thursday as I was wrapping up my shift driving a cab I began to hear reports of a standoff between police and protesters in Ferguson. As someone who has covered issues in Ferguson as a citizen-journalist from day one, I feel it is my duty to be on the scene.
Within minutes of my arrival, I was filming the back and forth between Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and protesters. After an exchange, Chief Jackson walked into the crowd to march upon being invited to do so. Unprovoked, within seconds members of the Ferguson and other police departments ran into the crowd and began pushing and shoving people.
The video evidence is quite clear: there was no violence from protesters. The police were the only violent actors on the scene, and it was the police who caused all of the chaos. I myself was slammed to the ground face-first by police while filming activities.
Activist and rapper Tef Poe and live-streamer Bassem Masri, who observed the events, said that I was singled out and the police came directly for me. Breaking no law, causing no harm, I was both the victim of police violence and police-targeting. Within seconds of my arrest, officers were peppering me with Islamophobic slurs and I was taunted repeatedly by officers telling me they knew who I was and that I deserve special treatment.
Social media, live-streaming and YouTube have changed the game, and over the long haul they will change police culture. The wall of silence is collapsing under millions of little small cracks.
Men like Chief Jackson and those like him have built careers based on lies. Police lie for one another, and whatever story they want to be true is true and the courts believe them. Technology is making it harder and harder for police to lie and get away with it. Just as the police version of the events of Thursday night is a blatant falsehood that live-streaming and social-media exposed as lies, so are many other police lies.
When you criticize police, people always counter with two knee-jerk arguments: not all police are bad; and what would you do without the police?
Almost no one alleges all police are bad. Even on a department as problematic as Ferguson, I’m sure there are some decent individuals. The problem exists within police culture in America and the peculiarities of specific departments.
In North St. Louis County, you have majority-white departments in majority-black cities. These departments are designed to cater to the needs of the white minority, who themselves are the remnants of the old white establishment from the Jim Crow Era.
Instead of a culture of serving and protecting, what you see in North County is a culture of occupation from militarized police forces.
The historical example being followed in North County isn’t the fictional town of Mayberry, but rather Apartheid-era South Africa. A culture has emerged where the people are seen as enemies by the police, and the whole system – including the courts – is designed with that attitude. This system has, at its foundation, the degradation of the humanity of African- Americans, the poor and others whose humanity they don’t respect. Is it possible to be a good person within this system? Yes; but now is the time for these good men and women to turn in their badges and join the people in the street.
As for the necessity of police authority, consider how much better our community would be if we had a police culture that respected humanity and didn’t see people as enemies. If we had police who lived in the neighborhood and not those commuting from St. Charles, Lincoln, Franklin and Warren counties into North County. If we had police chiefs who didn’t lie and manipulate facts.
Until there is substantive change, the people will remain on the streets. No amount of police violence, arrests, online death threats and leaking of information will stop that. I am prepared to give my life in order to secure a brighter future for my children and grandchildren, and I am far from alone in this struggle.
Umar Lee is an independent-journalist and community activist. His writings may be found at umarlee.wordpress.com or at his Amazon author page.
