Blog | It’s good that Horry County police chief defended heroic cops - but law enforcement officials must end silence about police misconduct
Horry County Police Chief Saundra Rhodes penned a strong piece on her Facebook page that she allowed The Sun News to post as a letter to the editor on MyrtleBeachOnline.com.
It reads in part:
I think that it's time that I give my friends my perspective.
I am a police officer, it's not just a job; I am just as much a police officer as I am a mother, I am just as much a police officer as I am a daughter, a sister, a cousin and a friend.
It is not just a job to me and it's not just a job to most of my fellow brothers and sisters who wear the badge with pride.
It was not a job that caused Officer Bo Sauls to buy the baby formula that his suspect was trying to steal to feed her baby, instead of taking her to jail. That selfless act was due to him being just as much a police officer as he is a son and a father.
It was not the job that caused Officer Richard Ernest to go home and take an air conditioner from his garage and go back to a ladies house and install it for her after he had responded there for something else but noticed she had no air.
It was not a job that caused my officers to go out and find furniture for a family that had none so that they would no longer have to sleep on the floor; they did this because they are police officers.
It’s a strong, heartfelt piece that has garnered a lot of attention.
It seems to be coming from a place of a sincere frustration shared by many police officers in the Myrtle Beach area and throughout the country. The past few months have seen their chosen profession come under scrutiny like it hasn’t in quite some time, if ever.
They feel put upon, feel that the bad acts of a relative few in their ranks have cast a shadow over them all, and that some protesters have taken things too far, uttering ugly chants - like those calling for dead cops - and presenting police officers as people to be feared instead of respected.
That’s likely why the letter resonated with so many people, because on all those counts, police officers have legitimate reason to feel as they do.
It is laudable because any worker knows that during the toughest moments, you need public support from your boss like no other time, and that’s what Rhodes has provided for those she supervisors, as well as those who wear the uniform throughout the region and country.
And that Rhodes is a black woman drove the point home even more, given the racial component to the recent unrest.
That’s why I understand why she wrote what she did.
But there are other things to consider, things I hope Rhodes and Myrtle Beach Chief Warren Gall and other law enforcement leaders will address, too.
I’ve written before but will mention again: what police officers have faced for a few months, black men and women, in general, have faced since before the founding of the U.S.
Black people have long been judged by the worst acts of a relative few within their ranks - including by some police officers and officials and prosecutors and people who are upset when that type of judgment is placed upon police officers themselves.
For a refresher of what I’ve written, go here: Why black men and police officers need each other
But it’s deeper than that. Yes, for the past few months, police officers have been scrutinized, and sometimes unfairly. The truth, though, is that officers have always and always will be looked upon as heroes for the work they have chosen and get paid to do.
Little children dream of growing up to put on that uniform. Politicians highlight police officers as much as possible to win votes.
Everyone is told to revere and trust and respect cops. That has always been the case and remains so today - even with the heightened scrutiny.
Though many critics of the organization don’t know, for many years the NAACP has put out a list of guidelines, often aimed at young black men, on how to deal with - and respect - police officers when stopped either in a car or while walking.
It included this advice:
To avoid conflict with police, citizens should use the following guidelines:
1. ALWAYS be respectful and follow the officer’s instructions immediately.
2. Don’t run.
3. Don’t’ touch the officer.
4. Don’t resist. Even minor resistance is a misdemeanor and can be a felony if the officer is
injured.
5. Upon request, provide your correct full name, address, date of birth,
When stopped by police in your car,
1. You MUST show your driver’s license, proof of insurance card and vehicle registration.
2. When pulled over, stay in your vehicle until instructed to get out of it. Keep your hands
visible.
3. Unnecessary movement causes concern for officer safety and raises suspicion of an attempt
to hide illegal contraband.
And this:
1. Do not argue with police officers. If you feel you have been treated inappropriately, jot
down the squad car number or the license plate number in instances where you cannot get
the officer’s name or badge number without asking for it and file a complaint against the
officer with the police department.
2. Never, ever run from the police or struggle to avoid being handcuffed.
Read a more complete list of suggestions the civil rights group has been urging people to adopt here: A Guide to Interacting With Police
Some of the things said and done recently by a relative handful of protesters throughout the country have been ugly and should not be supported by any right-thinking person. But let’s not pretend that the police receive the kind of unfair scrutiny that black men, and women, have received throughout the history of this country. It’s not even close.
Besides that, at the end of the day, it is the police officer with the badge and gun and baton and pepper spray and ability to end a person’s life or detain and imprison their fellow Americans.
Given that amount of power, they should be able to endure heightened scrutiny, even if some of it is unfair.
In addition to that, grand juries decide to indict police officers roughly 10 percent of the time - and more than 90 percent of the time for everyone else.
Laws have been carved out in most states that heavily favor the police officer - even when he makes a deadly mistake.
When a law enforcement official is killed, we rightly mourn his death, collectively, as a city, state and/or nation, without reservation, without judgment - a courtesy we do not afford those even wrongly killed police officers.
We allow law enforcement agencies to provide spotty, incomplete and sometimes misleading information about police shootings.
And here: Hundreds of police killings uncounted
There’s more, though. The focus on the minority of protesters who have taken things too far doesn’t change the basic reality that the criminal justice system - at every level - is heavily slanted against young black and brown men, and that police officers are essentially the tip of the spear for a system that has produced scores of racial disparities and injustices.
Read how blacks are targeted by police all across the country.
Read why even off-duty black cops feel threatened.
Read about research on police misconduct.
Read how these policies hold back towns like Ferguson and create the unrest we’ve witnessed.
Read how race impacts support for punitive policies that help to destroy black families.
Read how the war on drugs has stifled black social mobility.
Read: Seven reasons police brutality is systematic
Read why the rules really are different for blacks seeking justice.
Read: Deadly force, in black and white
Read why America needs to overhaul its law enforcement system.
If you don’t read those, please check out this national survey of police officers, which found that the overwhelming majority of police officers have witnessed their colleagues use excessive force but that most officers don’t report the abuses, even when it is severe: Police attitudes towards abuse of authority
If you are really serious about understanding the roots of the unrest on display the past few months, pick up a copy of Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” a book that outlines just how much the criminal justice system is influenced by race - to the detriment of blacks, and increasingly brown people.
And this is a great primer for why we see some of the social disparities too many people remark upon but almost never think deeply about: How we got here and what to do about it
I don’t like that all police officers feel as though they are living beneath a shadow not of their making, and I hate it when protesters and pundits throw fuel on that fire.
That’s why I, like Chief Rhodes, have spent time trying to highlight incidents of officers going above and beyond the call of duty, including white Myrtle Beach officers who showed great restraint recently instead of shooting an armed black suspect and the white Alabama cop who helped a black woman instead of taking her to jail.
Highlighting such things is important to make sure we are offering up a balanced portrayal, which is what Chief Rhodes was trying to do.
I hope, though, that she and other law enforcement leaders do more than that.
It is important to defend the profession and talk about the daily heroism on display in police departments throughout the country.
But it is just as important for law enforcement officials to speak frankly and openly about some of the issues raised above. They can not simply defend themselves and give a passing nod to there being “rogue” police officers who make all cops look bad; the issue is bigger and more important than that.
It would be great if they also highlighted the times officers made deadly mistakes and how they could have been avoided. Instead, we get the blue wall of silence, a refusal to honestly assess the harmful actions of police officers who make the lives of citizens and good cops just that much harder.
It would be great to hear them say that it is not an OK thing that a 12-year-old boy playing with a toy gun in a park is shot dead within 2 seconds of the arrival of the police.
They must be willing to join us and say, no, it is not OK that officers responding to a young black man holding a toy gun in a Walmart in an open-carry state is shot dead.
They must cry with us when a man is choked to death over the alleged sale of untaxed cigarettes just as we cry with them when a police officer is killed.
Until law enforcement leaders are just as willing to call out corruption and fatal mistakes - and intentionally harmful acts - committed by fellow officers as they are to defend heroic cops, the system won’t change, the racial disparities and unfairness won’t be conquered and the unrest will remain.
I applaud Chief Rhodes for standing up for the hard-working officers.
I’m ready to applaud her, and other law enforcement officials, when they courageously speak out about the need for policing and criminal justice reform, too.
This story was originally published January 6, 2015 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Blog | It’s good that Horry County police chief defended heroic cops - but law enforcement officials must end silence about police misconduct."