President Obama, please address police brutality!

Dear President Obama

I am sure many of us are getting ready for Obama's inauguration or by the time they get to reading this blog they've already watched Obama get sworn in as our 44th President of the United States. During the time between Nov. 4th and now, Pres. Obama has asked the people to come up with ideas so that we can create a better tomorrow. Although my main concern with this blog is to discuss marijuana, there was already tons of support for that cause. In fact, marijuana policy was the absolute top cause on Change.gov. So, I decided to try to throw some wind behind an issue that devastates primarily the Black community: police brutality.

Brave my ass

For far too long, police officers from coast to coast have been able to hide and escape punishment while innocent young Black men are murdered mercilessly in the streets by those same officers. They hide behind advocates that claim police are underfunded, underpaid, or undertrained as if that truly is a reason a group of young Black men should fall victim to a barrage of bullets. They hide behind district attorneys who's only interest is to protect the city from lawsuits seeking money. They hide behind judges who could care less about anyone or anything. They hide behind politicians, mayors, and governors who succumb to illegal police unions that have the audacity to pressure an entire city into putting them above the law with special conditions and rules that ordinary citizens will never benefit from.

Stop Rewarding Criminal Cops

It's time that police officers around this nation be placed on absolute notice that their attitudes, tactics, and special rights are unacceptable in the United States of America. It's time that finally individual police officers be held accountable for their crimes against ordinary citizens. While, I am not against all police officers, I am against all criminal police officers. Unfortunately, I haven't met many decent police officers. So, I do believe police officers deserve special rules. However, those rules shouldn't be favorable for all police officers regardless of performance as it is now. There should exist rules and penalties that will be twice as detrimental to criminal cops while at the same time twice as gracious for a job well done.

Hold Them EQUALLY Accountable

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

-Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

I've always felt that all police are bad in some way. When a police officer commits a crime, it's rarely a crime committed without the knowledge of another officer. For one police officer to get away with a criminal act, the other officer (or officers) must be an accomplice to that crime. It is my belief that with the responsibility given to, and willingly accepted by, police officers, they must be held accountable equally for the crimes they allow to occur.

If a group of police officers can be awarded equally for a job well done, so should that group of police officers be charged equally for any crimes committed, even though not all were equal in activity. Why should one officer be held accountable, if at all, when the others allowed a crime to be committed? I ask this question because it's their sworn duty to uphold the laws. This is a duty they sought and accepted, an oath of position. When a police officer chooses to ignore criminal acts or go along with the criminal group, he turns his back on his community, his family, and himself. The penalty of breaking that oath should be equal to the crimes allowed to take place. If an officer murders a man in cold blood, so should every officer who bears witness to that crime be accountable for murder, if they could have done something to stop that murder from taking place.

Solutions

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men"

- Plato, The Republic

In New York City, when a young Black man is murdered by the NYPD, we can count on Al Sharpton to be there to denounce police tactics. The most important thing he does is ask for a person that is independent of the current system. The problem is that the people of New York City can not rely on the current system because there is an absolute conflict of interest. The same attorneys that try cases against do so at the will of the police departments that are directly responsible for filing charges against an individual. Therefore, it conflicts with their interests to try cases against police officers that they once worked with. The next option is to rely on Internal Affairs. The problem with this is that Internal Affairs are made up of the very same people who used to work at the NYPD, another conflict of interest.

New and Separate Agency

If we are to begin holding police officers accountable for their crimes against people, there needs to be a complete disconnect with the current system of checks and balances that is inherently unbalanced and leaves police wholly unchecked. I propose that we completely abolish any state-run internal affairs organization and put in place of it a federally run organization whose sole responsibility to maintain the integrity of police departments. They should be held to the highest regard in society with proper funding, lawyers, judges, and enforcement to uphold the Constitution. They should be given complete access to computer systems and tracking systems employed by the local police. They should be allowed to tap phones without warrant. Most importantly, they should be easily accessible by the people.

Overhaul Police Procedures

Beyond a federal agency, there needs to be a complete overhaul of police procedures starting with real transparency. A statistical summary of individial police officers should be made freely available to the public. In keeping all records secret, requiring special requests that may take weeks or months to fulfill, the police do a disservice to citizens. No one has any idea who works in their community and the police are made to be secret themselves operating without accountability. Police officers should be judged individually and completely as well as be reprimanded. On the same token, citizens can recognize real heroes within the department and give them the proper respect due to a police officer who does his job well.

Sincerely, President Anthony Taurus

President Obama, I am sure the community, especially those affected by police brutality the most, have ideas they'd like to share with you. I'd like to see fundamental changes in the way police are governed and treated. I like to see a return to community policing where police officers know the people of the neighborhood and the people know them as well. At the same time, the people ought to have greater access regarding their local police departments in the future and not less as has been the case for the past 50 years. We have to stop assuming the local justice system is not tainted or biased against the people they're supposed to serve.

As we've learned with the economy, there is a difference between theory and practice. Republican economic theories sound good but they did not work, obviously. While, in theory, the current justice system should work, in practice, it truly does not work. Today, we live in a time where notorious gangs are on equal footing, as it pertains to safety and trust, with police officers. Citizens, and even children, are in fear of the very people meant to protect them. Something must be done about these problems.