Editor's Note: This page was donated by a Sistah
in NJ who wrote it for a black political and social development class.
We are pleased to present our Sistah-Gurl!
For decades the presence of the Klu Klux Klan within law enforcement agencies across America has remained evident throughout past and current events. In the following pages, I shall attempt to “break down” the facts and details of their white sheet cloaked Presence, by utilizing an intricately thorough and precise problem solving methodology.
I. We shall begin by stating our problem or difficulty. In this case, it is racism, use of excessive force by the police, and the polices active involvement with the Klu Klux Klan. History supports time and again, where the two entities have formed alliances, yet, in the latter part of this century, despite civil rights gains, it is still as if they are one.
A) First we must identify our role occupant. For this discussion we are focusing on law enforcement agencies, particularly the police, on a local level. Although brutality and racism is rampant throughout all levels of law enforcement, we needed to narrow our focus in order to substantiate our findings, which eventually can be applied to the broader spectrum of law enforcement.
B) Secondly we have behavior, is it repetitive or institutional? History shows us that slave owners used terror and intimidation to control the slaves, and after the Civil War, the same terrorist tactics were continually practiced upon the freed men. In the earlier decades of the century, lynching was the popular method of which the white man practiced his “swift justice”. For many, treating Afro-Americans as subhuman was done with malice and without forethought. Their daddy's and grandfathers and so forth, were more than likely Klan members, or just subscribed to the white supremacy theory. During the Civil Rights Movement, the lynching became less frequent due to political and public outcry, therefore, water hoses and dogs became the preferred “weapon of choice” against the masses. In the '70’s it was the nightstick or “billy club” which blacks were severely beaten, and often left for dead. Now in the “enlightened” ‘90’s it's the deadly chokehold and the 9mm glock, and the poor excuse of “ I saw something shiny in his hand…” Which almost never leads to any disciplinary action or indictments. I would venture to say that yes, this behavior has been repeated for over a century and as for institutionalization, it has somehow always been okay to murder in cold blood, murder, unarmed African American children, even if for only having a candy bar with a shiny wrapper in his hand.
C) The negative results of this learned behavior are vast. The Klan could reasonably be viewed as this countries resident domestic terrorist. The atrocious acts they committed against the African American populace of this country were so barbaric and depraved, that there is no other way they could've escaped prosecution, unless they had law enforcement and court officials within their ranks. In the period between 1931-1941, there were 118 lynching committed, (This does not include, beatings, rapes, and unreported murders, but those that resulted in death to the victim,) and in 67 of these cases all of the victims were seized while in the custody of police officers. The victims alleged offenses ranged from murder, associating with a white girl, to insulting a white woman. For example:
- 1932- in Arkansas, Frank Tucker, a Negro, was taken from jail and hanged from a light pole near the center of the business district. He was accused of slashing the throat of the deputy sheriff.
- 1933 in Alabama, Dan Pippen and A. T Hardin both Negroes, were taken from officers by a mob of fifteen men and shot. They had been arrested on suspicion in the murder of a white girl. Six weeks later, within the same county, Dennis Cross, a paralyzed Negro, was decoyed from his home at 2. A. M. by a group of six or seven and shot to death. He was out under bond on a charge of assaulting a white woman.
- 1934 in Louisiana, Andrew McLeod, a Negro, was accused of attempted rape, was taken from jail in broad daylight, hanged on the courthouse square, and his throat slashed.
- 1935 in Louisiana, Jerome Wilson, a Negro, was shot to death in his cell in the Parish jail by a mod of six or eight men. The Supreme Court had granted Wilson a new trial in the murder of an officer. The Sheriff was quoted as saying, “ There wasn't any lynching, there wasn't any mob… There were just about six or eight men who were going about their business”
- 1940 in Alabama, O’Dee Henderson, a Negro, charged with a altercation with a white man, was beaten then shot to death in his cell by three officers of the law and one civilian.
And how much different are things today? Well let's see….
- 1989 in Los Angeles, two white sheriffs’ deputies, were suspended after burning a cross inside the County Jail with a homemade blowtorch to intimidate the sheriff.
- 1990 Forth Worth Texas, - Sgt. Tim Hall is dismissed from the Tarrant County sheriff's department after it is revealed that he is “J.D. Calhoun” the kleagle or chief recruiter of the local Klan. Hall’s exposure leads to the firing of two other sheriffs’ department employees and 6 of his fellow military police at Carswell AF Base.
- 1991 Alameda, CA-Four white police officers are suspended after a check of mobile data transmissions turns up “jokes” about killing a nigger and wearing Klan robes. They were eventually let off with a slap on the wrist. It is later disclosed that the city destroyed the tapes rather than turn them over in a lawsuit by two bars charging the cops with bias.
- 1992, Iannet, Alabama- a review board upholds the city's dismissal of two officers who taunted a prisoner with racial slurs and made him wear a Klan-like hood.
- 1992, Boynton Beach FL- Officer Dave Demarest, fired from the force for flaunting a swastika tattoo at a Jewish woman officer and several other cops, seeks reinstatement by claiming that racism and nazism were widespread and accepted in the department. He presented a photo of two officers dressed as Nazis, which had been posted in the deputy chief's office.
- 1993, Paterson NJ- a cop is busted for dealing in illegal weapons with an undercover officer in a sting operation. An extensive weapons cache, nazi paraphernalia and white supremacist material is found in his home.
- 1990, Teaneck, NJ Sixteen year old Phillip Pannell was gunned down by white officer Gary Spath after a brief chase, while his hands were up in the air. Spath was acquitted of manslaughter.
- 1996, NJ- Pasquele Florentino, a white county jail officer, pulled alongside two black teens walking. At gunpoint he forces them both to repeat the phrase “I am a nigger” three times, and that he was their “master”. On April 30, 1998 he pleaded guilty to racial harassment and terrorist threats, only after perjuring himself in previous testimony given back in February.
During the ‘60’s, The FBI used the guise of infiltration to actually help rebuild the Klan by setting up klaverns, being leaders and public spokesmen. When FBI informant Gary Rowe was involved in the Klan killing of Viola Luizzo, a civil rights worker, Rowe’s explanation was that he had to shoot, or it would've blown his cover. Another FBI agent speaking publicly at a rally said, “ we will restore white rights if we have to kill every Negro to do it”. The FBI agent's antics at their annual “Good O’ Boy” roundup made national headlines for holding contests for “Redneck of the Year”, signs that read “Nigger checkpoint” and attendees were allegedly “checking cars for niggers”
The incidents, names, and dates may change, but the overall acts themselves remain the same. For over a century, the KKK and the law enforcement in America tend to share many common values, and enforce the same social order. The cancerous disease of racism doesn't just affect one facet of the law enforcement body without traveling throughout its host. A recent study found that “ there exists a perpetual pattern of police violence in New York City led primarily by white officers, and directed at African American males particularly and people of color generally.” Regarding police brutality in Los Angeles, the Christopher Report was even more blunt “The problem of excessive force is aggravated by racism and bias within the LAPD.”
II. Explanation Hypotheses- trying to explain the how and why certain officers are unnecessarily abusive and use excessive force, is like trying to answer how do birds fly, or why is the sky blue. By using the various hypotheses’ in R.O.C.C.I.P.I (rule, opportunity, capacity, communication, interest, process, and ideology) that pertain to our problem, perhaps we can arrive at a clearer understanding as to the how and why our problem exists.
R= Rule the reason problematic behavior is in existence. In this particular case, it isn't so much that it's a law to abuse, lynch or kill minorities, namely African Americans, but it isn't exactly against the law either. Very rarely are white men convicted of first degree murder, or of anything lesser for that matter, when their crime is against a minority. Thus, sending the message, that the lives of minorities have no value, and are therefore subject to whatever sick concept of “fun” the white supremacists should decide to embark upon.
O= Opportunity, the role occupant has opportunity to commit act-. Police have yet to police themselves. The opportunity to beat suspects, innocent or guilty, is plentiful. Who is going to stop them? Who is to stop them from taking drug money or drugs during a bust? Who is to stop them from planting a gun on an unarmed shooting victim? Or taking out their personal vendettas and frustrations by using a chokehold, or welding a nightstick? They are in control of all of these situations, and therefore have ample opportunity to do whatever they choose.
C=Capacity role occupant has no choice but to do badly. Racism is learned. As children, through the media and other mediums, these people were told that blacks are inferior, less intelligent, and any other negative stereotype that we have ever been branded with. In the old westerns, good guys wore white, the bad guys always wore black, even in something as silly as superstition, black cats meant bad luck, white magic equates to good magic, and black magic automatically means it is bad. All things pertaining to “blackness” was always portrayed as evil, uncivilized and sinister.
C=Communication reason for role occupants behavior due to lack of communication. Because they (police) subscribe to the “white is right theory they have been subliminally conditioned to believe, they sincerely feel that they are in danger while they are out patrolling the streets. When police believe that all that is black is potentially dangerous to them, their families, and their way of life, they function with an acute sense of readiness to assault the source of the so-called “threat”.
I=Interest- what is the role occupants benefit or interest? Is it political gain? Sometimes it is both financial and political. During the ‘20’s, when the Klan was a mass movement throughout the U.S., operating within both the Republican and Democratic parties, holding judgeships, governorships and other elected offices, the Klan was sometimes deputized to fight rum-runners, and to assist in man-hunts (for their own self-serving purposes). In the ‘80’s Klansmen like David Duke openly embraced his Klan ties and ran for political office. Police and military forces were and still are very fertile ground for recruits.
P= Process- decision making process has deficiency. There is no doubt that if you feel that someone is inferior to you, a person tends to adopt a condescending superior disposition. It is my contention that this is what ails the law enforcement agencies within our society. Perhaps these officers have only been exposed to the negative ills that have befallen the African American community, i.e. poverty drugs, gang violence etc. They might actually believe that the majority of African Americans exist solely within the realm in which they are used to witnessing. Hence, in there twisted minds, confirming the hateful stereotypes they have been taught.
I= Ideology-They (the role occupant) want to do it, they are predisposed to do it. This hypothesis brings us directly back to the theory that racism is inherent. There are photographs of lynching those show children as small as 11 years old, standing beside the charred corpse of a mob victim. Pictures of lynching were taken as photographs and used as postcards. Victims burnt body parts were taken as souvenirs. When posses gathered, and a lynching was sure to follow, people came from the surrounding counties, with picnic lunches, cameras and children in tow, to witness the event as if it were a sport. The children growing up during this time, surely had to think that lynching were a “good” thing. In a child's mind they were going on a trip and would see cousins and friends, perhaps they don't normally get to see. Never would it occur to these children that they were witnessing one moment, out of many of the white man's darkest hours.
III. Alternative Solutions- Realistically there is a number of solutions that perhaps we could try. Firstly, we could try an ends means approach and just fire all law enforcement officers that have ties to any and all white supremacist groups. Perhaps the first amendment would be violated, (and probably a few more articles within the Bill of Rights) this method surely would be popular to those that have had practically all of their civil and human rights violated. Secondly, demand that the enrollment of all suspected law enforcement officers in sensitivity and multi-cultural training, attempting to reeducate them and change their method of thinking. Or we could just segregate our community police forces to mirror the community it protects. But the only problem with that is why should we have to go to such extremes? Protect and Serve doesn't mean white protect whites, blacks/blacks, Hispanic/Hispanic and so on and so forth. It means EVERYONE! We could always quarantine the entire white racist policeman and all police academy candidates, with minority groups on a 24-7 basis, and force them to learn about who we are and where we come from. But that too wouldn't work, those that feel we are destined to be separate, will go to dire extremes to perpetuate separatism
IV. Solutions-Since we are a civilized society (I think) but definitely a civilized people, then the most obvious solution is one in which we cannot enact. That is to take all of their ignorant, sheet wearing, hypocritical, murderous, and abusive backsides, and treat them like a horse with a broken leg. Just shoot them and put them out of their misery. Again I say, but we are civilized. It would give us a sense of justice I am sure, but at the same time it would only serve to deliver us down to their inhuman level. Education is truly our solution. Not an eye for an eye, or some warped sense of vigilante justice. The police that are supposed to protect and serve in our neighborhood, should first be made to understand and know who we are as a people. Sensitivity and cultural training is of the utmost importance. The history books must be corrected so that the children in the private schools, and predominately white school districts where perhaps there is no interaction with African American children, are able to read the truth. Why isn't lynching included as standard history within the high school curriculum? Racism itself is never on the school boards curriculum agenda, yet it should be there, as frequent as the issues of book banning and tenure. How can more value be placed on issues that to some may be of great importance, yet dwarf when placed next to lynching, racism and racism's role in police brutality?
In conclusion I would like to state that although the facts are just what they are-facts, the tentative solutions are merely my personal opinion. An opinion which strongly feels that it has been “open season” on the black man for far too long. I am sure that everyone who will read this, has a story to tell, of an encounter with a racist police officer. It's as if they set out to degrade and humiliate you as much as they can, usually in hopes that the situation will escalate and they can have an excuse to use excessive force. They don't care what your profession is, it means nothing to them if you are a doctor, lawyer or street sweeper. Whenever my husband, brothers, and other male family members venture out in their day-to-day activities, I whisper a little prayer for their safety, because we never know when the uninvited ugliness of racially biased police brutality shall visit upon our family. My eyes fill with tears as I re-read what I have typed, tears of sadness for those that have died and have been brutalized at the hands of racist hate mongers. Tears of anger, and frustration but mostly tears of defiance. I will not lay down wilt and die as they would have me to do, I will teach my children where we have come from, and what we have been through so that they will know, and they may teach their children and so on………….