Yes I’m 100 percent behind finding a way of getting more Black police officers in cities throughout this country that have Black residents. And the only way to do this is making sure race is a factor in the hiring process. City, county, state and federal officials keep talking about increasing diversity but keep saying that using race as a factor in the hiring is illegal, or as the Right Wingers like to say, reverse discrimination. Well, I’ve got news. These Right Wingers didn’t care about discrimination when they were using race to block Blacks from police forces and other top level jobs across this country so why are they so concerned about reverse discrimination now? What I’m saying is that there will never be diversity and there will never be a high number of Black police officers hired if race isn’t a part of the hiring practice. So if it’s illegal, then the law needs to be changed, because the law is a discriminatory law if no Blacks are being hired. It wouldn’t be the first time.
And even though White police officers killing Blacks is a major problem, Blacks killing Blacks is a much bigger problem yet very few people outside of Pittsburgh are dealing with it. For example former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson got into a heated exchange over policing in Black communities on Meet the Press. I hate to say it but Giuliani had a great point, which Dyson never answered.
“Mayor Giuliani speaks about what’s, you know, unconscionable and what should be indicted. What should be indicted is the criminal justice system that continues to impose undue burdens on African-American, Latino, and other poor people,” Dyson said, reacting to the grand jury not indicting the police officer for shooting Michael Brown in Ferguson.
Giuliani disagreed, saying people aren’t focused on the reason behind the heavy police presence seen in Black communities. “We are talking about the significant exception, 93 percent of Blacks are killed by other Blacks,” Giuliani argued.
Dyson called that a false equivalency, saying police officers are agents of the state sworn to uphold the law. “Black people who kill Black people go to jail. White people who are policemen who kill Black people do not go to jail.”
Giuliani continued to argue that the problem is rooted in the Black community. “What about the poor Black child that is killed by another Black child? Why aren’t you protesting that,” Giuliani asked Dyson.
Dyson argued that most criminals involved in Black on Black violence end up in jail. That’s when Giuliani interrupted to ask, “Why don’t you cut it down so so many White police officers don’t have to be in Black areas?”
“The white police officers wouldn’t be there if you weren’t killing each other 70-75 percent of the time,” Giuliani said.
Well, first of all that 93 percent number Giuliani used is probably low, and according to Pittsburgh numbers and mothers of homicide victims most killers of Blacks are not captured and punished. I wonder if Mr. Dyson knows or cares anything about Black on Black violence in this country and why didn’t he indicate his anger and concern over it.
But even if they were caught does this excuse or make it OK for Blacks to kill other Blacks? And our national leaders are not marching and protesting in the streets over these deaths, which far outnumber the number killed by police.
I wish I could say that I was surprised by Dyson’s lack of concern and knowledge about Black on Black violence and how it’s crippling the Black community and depriving our community of so many great minds. But I’m not. I don’t know what it’s going to take to wake up Black people outside of Pittsburgh. Where are the national marches, rallies, protests, and outrage over Black on Black violence? Where are you Rev. Sharpton? Rev. Jackson? Or whoever? I know it’s not the popular thing to do but it’s the right thing to do.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
About Post Author
