It turns out the 5 police officers indicted for murder after a traffic stop wound up in the death of a black man were also black. What were they thinking? I was ready to write a piece decrying the white supremacist attitude of police, but the fact all five offenders were black just adds weight to the story that police culture is as much to blame as racism. The " us against them" mentality is present in militarized police departments across the nation. It makes a mockery of the motto "to serve and protect".
White or black, it's not just a few bad apples spoiling the barrel. The barrel itself is rotten and must be cleaned out in totality. Many, if not most officers must be reeducated in the mission we expect the police to perform in our society. If they are uncomfortable with serving the public instead of terrorizing it, they must be removed from positions of trust.
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