Police Story

"FUCK tha police comin' straight from tha underground--
a young nigga got it bad 'cuz I'm brown."

-Ice Cube from N.W.A., "Fuck Tha Police" (Album: Straight Outta Compton, 1989)


"On tha count 'ah three, say 'fuck tha police!'
One, two, three--'FUCK THA POLICE!' "

-J Dilla, "Fuck Tha Police" (Album: Exclusive Collection by DJ Rhettmatic, 2001)




Sorry for postin late, but I had to work some shit out in my brain about the happenings of this weekend. And it's not even about the incident itself, which when considered in retrospective isolation is not nearly as bad as other similar incidents that I've witnessed and heard stories about. The fact that my evening was going perfectly on Friday night until I walked past 5 squad cars on my block is what upsets me the most. The t-shirt I had been wearing underneath my work shirt earlier in the day said it all: "It's all fun and games until the cops show up."


At the end of a longer-than-usual Friday, all I wanted to do was flop down on my sofa with some good grub, a beer and a good movie and wait till I fell asleep in all three. It was a wonderful nite outside, so after I got back from the grocery and 'package' stores with supplies for the weekend, I walked up a block practically salivating over the tasty jamaican jerk chicken and cabbage I was about to throw down on. The first thing I noticed as I came over the small hill to my destination was the flashing lights; the second thing I noticed was that there were three sets of them lined directly across the street from my jamaican eatery. As I got closer I discovered that there were two more cop cars in the adjacent alley and a gaggle of people (prolly around 8 or 9 total not counting the cops) scattered in and around the 'package' store across the street. Everyone seemed to be moving slowly and deliberately, including the cops. I definitely got the feel that something was 'off' about the whole situation, but I decided to pull the "just another cop invasion of the neighborhood" reasoning and refocus on my food.


Walked outta the restaurant 10 minutes later re-salivating, and as I left I saw three cops walking one guy, very slowly and calmly, away from the building and away from the squad cars. Now I was curious. The man in 'custody' was not saying anything or acting out, and he didn't have cuffs on at all. He looked completely sullen, like he knew what was about to go down. The cops led him about 20 feet away around to the side of the building where they couldn't be seen by the other people on the street. Then they threw him, face first, into a patch of muddy grass. The guy lay there trembling for a bit, like it hurt to move. The cops then proceeded to cuff him, pick him up and bring him back to one of the squad cars. And I proceeded home, shaking my head the whole way.

Now that the details are clear, let's analyze. Knowing only these details provided, I'm thinkin there are probably only two ways that you can look at this situation. Most white folks--scratch that, most folks in general, I believe--would probably react by asking "what did that guy do to deserve THAT?" or "I wonder what brought THAT about?" The problem with asking that question is that in doing so you automatically assume that the actions of the cops were acceptable in whole or in part--even potentially justified. Even in a sarcastic or rhetorical manner this type of reaction doesn't fly--it potentially assumes that the victim did absolutely nothing to deserve THAT, which is just as bad.

The other reaction you could have, the reaction that I had and that most people have who've seen their fair share of shit like this before, is to ask "Was THAT really necessary?" I wish more Americans asked themselves that question whenever they encounter incidents like this, because it's the only reaction that seems truly appropriate for this type of thing. You don't ever need to know anything about what happened beforehand, all you need to know is what was happening at the time. And what was happening at that time was a suspect being completely cooperative and non-threatening, and giving no indication of changing his disposition whatsoever. He could have spit in one of the cops' faces and cursed him out before I arrived on the scene or he could have been doing absolutely nothing at all. It doesn't matter. That's why law enforcement officers are trained in the use of 'NECESSARY force,' not just 'force'. Taking a suspect who is not threatening the safety of anyone around him in any way away from eyewitnesses to 'teach him a lesson' by physically assulting and humiliating him is never fuckin' necessary. We expect and pay for our law enforcement officials to take the high road when they are disrespected, NOT to retaliate.

What does it take to get non-black society to understand why blacks have such a negative attitude toward cops? Why are there some 2,000 videos displayed on YouTube from a "police brutality" search? Why does the country's richest black county (Prince George's in MD, +60% black, double the national black median income) have 12 police shootings (5 fatal) in 14 months? And why in the hell does no one else seem to be asking these damn important questions? These are the people we pay to PREVENT brutality and killing from happening, right? I mean seriously, given the history, how can you not expect a bunch of hood n__gas from South Central and Detroit to tell the police to go fuck themselves when they and too many other inner-city Afro-Americans have had more experiences with 5-0 that looked like what I described (and much, much worse) than the 'hero cops' experiences that make pretty headlines? Straight up--where Dilla and N.W.A. are from, cops don't react, they retaliate. It's impossible to truly gauge what this kind of approach or mentality is doin' to the inner city, where danger for cops and citizens alike is at its highest, but it's pretty easy to see what it ain't doin', and that's keepin' the peace.

So as long as the cops keep throwin folks in the mud whenever they're in a bad mood, I'm gunna keep bumpin my Dilla, my N.W.A., and my Kweli around the 3rd Precinct whenever I'm in a bad mood.

but maaaaaaaybe the volume won't be turned up quite as high as it would be at home...