tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1213408811519129994.post4558514718875343031..comments2023-05-03T07:41:33.662-04:00Comments on the poet: Shazza: AN ABORTION OF JUSTICEthe poet Shazzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00338037314941958216noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1213408811519129994.post-64110306167091372322008-04-30T18:23:00.000-04:002008-04-30T18:23:00.000-04:00Actually I have done a Ride Alone One Man, which i...Actually I have done a Ride Alone One Man, which if you recall a while back, I expressed that it isn't that I don't like the Police, I reject the system that allows and protects as well as condone BAD OFFICERS. I have family, friends and students that are Officers. I have seen them in action and I do applaud them in action (especially when they come in contact with people who act like a damn fool). I have family that are Lawyers -- one rose to be a Federal District Attorney that represented and charged Bad Cops. So when I champion people against those Officers that cross the line it isn't just because I am an Angry Black man with too much energy and no focus to vent, the FOCUS is real and direct. <BR/><BR/>In this case, the Officers were in the wrong, there was hearsay, alcohol and violations of Rights from beginning to end with the bias judge's decision. <BR/><BR/>People think that every Police shooting in New York, People of color react and attack. Not true, Only the ones that are Blatant Violations of Civil Rights do we ACT-UP. The Sean Bell Case is one of MANY MANY MANY that happens because of the casual management of the NYPD -- since the Mayor Gulliani Administration where he allow a roll back of responsibility to communities.the poet Shazzahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00338037314941958216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1213408811519129994.post-52032916272114693122008-04-30T16:30:00.000-04:002008-04-30T16:30:00.000-04:00Well, I can't speak for the NYPD or any other offi...Well, I can't speak for the NYPD or any other officer, Shazza, but I will speak for myself. I make every effort, on my part to effect change. As a sergeant, I am out there. I don't allow my troops to talk to people just any kind of way, nor do I allow people to just talk to my troops any kind of way. <BR/>Here in Dallas Texas, we are trying our damnest to get rid of the bad seeds, because they make us all look bad. We too also have a citizens review board. But we also have a citizens' academy so the citizens can be educated in what an officer can and can not do. What is excessive force to you maybe justified force in the training of the officer. What may be yelling to you, may be loud verbal commands to an officer, because we want you as a bystander to hear that we told them to stop resisting, put down the gun, whatever. <BR/>Have you ever done a ride alone with a cop, Shazza? If not, would you, for me? Come to Texas and I'll put you in the car with me. it won't be the same a New York, I am sure, but you'll get the picture.One Man’s Opinionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10369070920453105981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1213408811519129994.post-45770744816964822512008-04-30T11:00:00.000-04:002008-04-30T11:00:00.000-04:00You know I have LOVE for you and ALL PEOPLE (livin...You know I have LOVE for you and ALL PEOPLE (living Right). What I express is WHAT IS RIGHT. <BR/><BR/>I like to look at it like this, Police Keep Society's Order and Society's Responsibility Is To Keep Police In Order. It is a balance. <BR/><BR/>I agree, Power can currupt, which is why there is a community review. Speaking for here, in New York, the Community's Review is ignored and dismissed and as a result Black and Brown people are being murdered. My passion is to stop that because it can be anyone, or ME. Its just that the anyone often look like ME and that has to be address, loudly and aggressively.<BR/><BR/>In your situation, you just might be the one or the many that are the GOOD OFFICERS but the way the oganzization is STRUCTURED you Can't or Won't address those Issues for change and there for are guilty by association. Just like you can't tell who is Guilty and who is Innocent when on the BEAT, when a mother is shot in her back and no one from the "FORCE" won't step up to do the right thing, YOU TOO are guilty by association.<BR/><BR/>We are actually more friends than enemies but it only takes ONE misplaced or misfired bomb to start a WAR.the poet Shazzahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00338037314941958216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1213408811519129994.post-8707697172819303382008-04-30T09:37:00.000-04:002008-04-30T09:37:00.000-04:00Shazza, you are such a passionate man, when it com...Shazza, you are such a passionate man, when it comes to the written word. That is one of the reasons I went to vote for your blog in the BlackWeb Awards (I still have not figured it out). I have read both of your impassioned posts on the topic of the NYPD as it relates to the Sean Bell case, as well as your comments on my site. To be honest, I don’t know what to tell you. As a black man, who is a cop, I love my job and respect it. And, like it shames me when black people make choices that bring dishonor to my race; so does the same hold true when somewhere in the world there is a blatant case of police brutality. <BR/>I am not a stupid man, sir, and nor do I think you to believe me to be. Police brutality and corruption exist, because police are human. People hate when I say that, but they are. And just like there is corruption and crimes and just about every job in the world, from cashiers to zookeepers, we want the people who protect us to be without sin. Sadly that is not going to happen. As they say, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And police have power, whether we like it or not. However, they are trained not to misuse that power.<BR/>I as a black man I grow up with this dislike and distrust of the police. I use to sing out the words, “fuck the Police” when that song came out. When I heard about things that happened where police had to use what I deemed unnecessary force, normally on a black man, I too was enraged and thought how there was not justice, there was just us. <BR/>As I grew older, I can name at least three incidents where I was stopped by the police, while on foot, because of the very fact that I was black. Never in a car though. Every time I was stopped in a car, I knew why I was being stopped, although there was one time, in a particular neighborhood, where I thought it was iffy at best. <BR/>The times I was stopped on foot, I was angered and let the officers no it, because I refused to be disrespected due to the color of my skin and the nappiness of my hair. I like to think I wore both with pride (once I became a police, I can understand better, in one of those cases, why the police stopped me. The other two were still unjustified). <BR/>The first time I attempted to join the police department here, I was a mere 21 years of age and I went through the application process and took the test and shit, but there was this one sergeant…this one white sergeant that I did not like the manner in which he spoke to me. So, I completed the process, for that day, but I went home mad and decided that maybe I didn’t have the mind set to be a police officer just yet. I was still too angry; too immature. It was funny though. I was a young black man, from the hood, without a record, who had never done drugs and had a somewhat descent head on his shoulders. They called me for about two weeks attempting to get me to come back and complete the process so they could get me into the department (even then we were in need of more qualified police). I was like, fuck them. I’m not going to work for anyone who feels like they can talk to me any kind of way and I have to just grin and bear it. <BR/>Seven years later, as I’d matured and had more jobs, but the need to serve my fellow man was still strong in me and I was drawn back to the police department. I hired on and went through the academy, where we learned all penal code, polices, use of force, search and seizure, how to shoot, not only our guns, but shotguns, and the manner of which to carry both so as not to accidently cause injury to people or damage to property. <BR/>What we also learned, that I was not expecting, was how to understand different cultures and life styles. For a full week, eight hours a day we had members from the black communities, Asian communities, Hispanic communities, gay and lesbian communities, Native American communities, hell, every community you could think of, except the white communities come in and teach us how to approach them and how the police was viewed in their eyes. It was interesting at best and sad at least. Sad, because, I thought you can’t get someone who has never had any dealing with these cultures to understand them in a block of class room time, but I gave credit to our department for putting forth the effort. <BR/>Here in Dallas, we have put video cameras in all of our squad cars. We have body mics that our officers are required to wear, because the citizens lie (I personally have been accused of everything, from police brutality to stealing money and planting drugs) and so do police officers. When officers are faced with situation that have the potential of going bad they are required, although not all do, key up those body mics so everything can be recorded. We do this so that we can make it easier to tell who is lying and who is not. Before we got our cameras and body mics, I had been lied on so much, that I had invested in my own little digital recorder. <BR/>Anyway, I said all of that to say this. I could never work in a job that I did not respect and that I did not think held honor. Flawed as the Dallas Police department maybe, I get to work with a body of men and women who carry theirselves with pride and honor and stand by each other til the end. The detectives of IAD here investigate things to the very end. Hunting down every witness they can get. God bless their soles, we think that they investigate incidents with the idea that police are guilty until proven innocent. And now that I have become a Sergeant I understand why. Police do some dumb ass shit. They are like over grown kids with guns. But still, most of those dumb things are done to determent of themselves not our citizens. <BR/>I sad all that to say this, the police are trying and trying hard to fight corrupting and the misuse of power in the departments. It is an ongoing fight, because police are people; people who come on with their own belief systems and biases and sadly, you can’t tell when that a person has hatred for another when they put on a uniform. You don’t know if this person is going to be the person that is going to be guilty of pulling over Hispanics and jacking them for their money, or this person is going to get off on going into predominately black neighborhoods and jacking up black folks. You just can’t tell. That is why we have an Internal Affairs Department. It falls on the citizens to hold their men and women in blue to a higher standard and call them on their bullshit by calling the stations and IAD to complain when they have been treated unjust. And it is up to us, as police to try to weed out that bad element so we can gain back the respect of the people that we have sworn a oath to protect and serve. And I meant that shit from the bottom of my heart!<BR/>Thanks for listening, and sorry I left such a long ass comment. I love you, my brother.One Man’s Opinionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10369070920453105981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1213408811519129994.post-57790678233401072582008-04-26T22:09:00.000-04:002008-04-26T22:09:00.000-04:00Poet great article what can we do more importantly...Poet great article what can we do more importantly what can Obama say and do right now? We are all shock at the out come of this trial.Ann Brockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10273380949544392923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1213408811519129994.post-89471476433547012592008-04-26T14:23:00.000-04:002008-04-26T14:23:00.000-04:00Wow America has a very long way to come... reminds...Wow America has a very long way to come... reminds me of something i read reccently... i am reading Martin Meredith's 'The State of Africa'...though written in a wester voice...a bit biased if u asked me...<BR/><BR/>Anyway, on the 6th of March 1957, when Ghana was offered it's independence from Britain, one of the delegates who attented this was Richard Nixon, then the US vice-president... apparently during an official cerremony where he was surrounded by a crown of Ghanaians, he slapped one man on the shoulder and aked him how it felt to be free, and the man responded by saying 'I wouldn't know sir, I'm from Alabama'...that made me laugh...but is is sad, that, not much has chenged since thenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com