It was interesting to hear Michael Wood Jr. talk about the
police force and the problems he sees with it. There were so many thoughts he
shared that had never even crossed my mind before, despite the fact that some
of them may sound simple. I never even once considered that police officers may
have an “Us. Vs. Them” mentality, especially if that mentality also lead to
them possibly antagonizing specific groups or types of people. I suppose this
thought hits closest to home considering my cousin just became a police officer
very recently in Virginia, and it’s hard for me to imagine him falling into
this established issue. Michael mentioned that he believes the community should
police the police, which to my understanding meant that the community should
essentially be the ones who control the police to some extent. I’m not entirely
sure how I feel about this idea. Aren’t police officers already part of the
community? They just also happen to be law enforcers; isn’t it best to let them
do their job? Perhaps I misunderstood what Michael meant, but I don’t think I
fully agree with him on that thought. I was also very surprised to hear so much
about the systematic racism that plagues our police force. He mentioned that
when the police officers who arrested Freddie Gray saw Freddie they were
probably thinking “Stats, stats, stats.” It was hard to hear that, it almost
felt to me that he was trying to say that because of the way the system
operates police officers are encouraged not to see people, but rather just
statistics.
This class has made me curious, I would like to know:
1. What is different about Freddie Gray’s death
compared to everyone else who has died in police custody, in terms of the
impact or change that death has brought about? I know that it blew up on the
media, but just because people heard about it doesn’t necessarily mean much has
changed.
2.
What kind of policy or law changes can be
brought about on the political battlefront to truly and successfully combat
this issue of systematic racism in the police force?
For next class, a few questions I would have are:
1.
What can the average Baltimore citizen do to aid
the people in the streets find a home?
2.
Why has public housing in Baltimore been
declining, and why is there an increase in non-affordable housing? Besides the
simple answer of money, is it because of a set of policies that have been set
in place?
3.
What is being done to change the issues with
non-affordable housing right now?
Good Good Tyler .. you are questioning what you hear. That is what you are supposed to do. When you wrote "Michael mentioned that he believes the community should police the police, which to my understanding meant that the community should essentially be the ones who control the police to some extent. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this idea. Aren’t police officers already part of the community? They just also happen to be law enforcers; isn’t it best to let them do their job?" .. probe like this more .. make yourself and others around you answer the tough questions ..
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