Meh.....

In a follow up to yesterday's post about the never-ending cycle of stories about the way the police treat minorities, particularly black folks, I thought I'd talk about how minorities within the police department often are treated.

I've seen several recent stories, including one out of Philly and this one out of Los Angeles where minority officers have complained of racism and discrimination within the department. In addition, I've had the pleasure of hearing some of these complaints firsthand in my regular life.

It seems that many minorities are denied opportunities for advancement, are subjected to bigotry and are generally treated like second class citizens within police departments. Apparently there are police officesr and then there are minority police officers. They are not all on the same team, all of the time.

I just have one thing to say about that...

Meh.

Y'all know I like to call out racism and I think it's an important task. But, when I hear about minority officers getting shafted by white folks, I can't really work up too much outrage. My reasoning is simple. If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas...

What do I mean? Well, I wouldn't be so stupid as to claim that ALL police officers are evil. However, from what I've seen and heard, becoming a police officer seems to imbue folks with a certain sense of superiority that does not respond well to being challenged. Yesterday's story about Professor Gates was a prime example of that, but I've seen it on multiple occasions in my regular life. Many police officers expect everyone to obey them immediately and to meekly submit to having their rights violated. Period.

Minorities who join police departments have this same attitude. More importantly, they often tend to apply racist standards to other minorities who are not a part of Big Blue. To a certain degree, being a police officer overrides all other considerations of race and class, that is until minority officers are forced to confront their own subordinate status within the hierarchy of Big Blue.

I find it ludicrous that the same folks who turn a blind eye to racial profiling and other abuses would expect the general public to be outraged when their rights are violated. In the story I linked to, the Asian officer bringing the lawsuit worked in the narcotics unit. If there is one thing I know, it's that officers in those units bend or break rules all the damn time, and have no problem violating the civil rights of "bad guys" to make an arrest. Yet, this officer has the nerve to be upset that the same folks he regularly allowed to mistreat others would turn around and mistreat him?

That's just stupid.

I don't have sympathy for folks who are wronged if they've consistently wronged others, or watched while others have been wronged. I don't feel bad when minority police officers are mistreated because they knew the organization was rotten in so many ways, but they allowed it to continue to discriminate against other minorities, particularly young black males, unabated. They are complicit in every act of wrongdoing, and any abuse they suffer at the hands of their fellow officers is likely deserved.

I don't care.


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