Columnist Jamala Rogers
The recent acquittal of NYPD undercover detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper can be likened to throwing a Molotov cocktail in a room full of powder kegs – and missing this time.
The incendiary cocktails are the legal justifications by the U.S. courts of state-sanctioned abuse and murder; the powder kegs are the innumerable acts of injustice, neglect and violence heaped upon communities of color. It is inevitable that one of those tosses will land squarely on its target.
Such was the scenario 40 years ago when over 100 urban centers went up in smoke after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When the Kerner Commission looked into why black folks responded in like manner across this country, the conditions were the same. The recipe for the combustible disaster was poverty, unemployment, poor housing and the lack of health care in a gravy of racism.
Those conditions are again reaching their tipping point. The most common inflammatory ingredient on a smaller scale has been an act of police abuse. Subsequently, cities like Los Angeles, Miami, Philly, Washington, D.C. and Detroit have gone up in smoke over acts police aggression.
In New York, where the most notorious and egregious examples of police violence has been exposed, the powerful Blue Wall of Silence seems to be impenetrable. Whether it’s the sodomizing of Abner Louima with a toilet plunger or using black men for target practice in the cases of Amado Diallo (41 shots) or the most recent cases of Sean Bell, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman (50 shots), the victims are often portrayed as causing their own demise.
In the Sean Bell case, Judge Arthur Cooperman referred to the actions of the N.Y. undercover cops as careless and incompetent yet still acquitted the trigger-happy trio. Newly appointed N.Y. Governor David Paterson claimed he was “surprised” about the verdict, given the number of rounds fired, but stated the justice system had worked. They continue to hold up a system rife with flaws and one in which the average working-class person, regardless of color or nationality, has little confidence.
Most police departments have been shielded by the law, regardless of their acts of violence and misconduct. Time after time, there is no justice for the individual citizen or the community. How do we explain to Sean Bell’s children and other young people how police occupy our communities, disrespect our property and lives, ignore their own procedures and protocols, but seem to always come out smelling like a hero?
Community organizers, elected officials, clergy and other concerned citizens must take this bull by the horns. It is time to ratchet up our efforts and adjust our strategy. It is a fact that we cannot rely on local prosecutors to mete out justice to law enforcers; they must rely on these same entities to help them prosecute cases. The demand must be for independent prosecutors. We must also make cold-blooded murder by a police a truly punishable offense.
It will be interesting to see where Congressman John Conyers, chair of the judicial committee, takes the Sean Bell miscarriage of justice. His involvement is admirable and whatever he does, it will give national attention to a chronic issue. But it is clearly a problem too big for one man; it must be taken on with bodacious resolve by caring communities. One day, we need to be able to tell our children they are safe from all forms of lawlessness.