GUNS, COPS, AND THE HOOD

When I was growing up my mother and father taught me to respect the law and police officers because they had a dangerous job and they were there to protect us and our interests. Pretty much that was the mindset of everyone in my community back in Tarrytown (Gary, Indiana) as a preteen back in the mid sixties, but as time went on, the climate changed as I became more politically informed, and the police became part-time occupiers of our communities. I couldn’t understand how was it that the agency that you were supposed to call when something bad happened was the very organization that we young warriors despised deeply with an intensity that bordered on hate. Hate. Whenever an organization has an “us verses them” mentality, it can’t help but spread onto the streets where those who are classified as “them” begin to feel the same way. Back when I was in junior high at Tolleston High School in Gary, Indiana, there was a police officer that was stationed at the community office at Patcher Park in Tarrytown, his name I could never forget, it was Mr. White, and he lived in Tarrytown. He was so friendly and explained things to us in a simplistic manner. He was firm, but he believed we could be anything we wanted in life. We were in amazement at the realities that he shared with our young minds. Whenever we would see him in the streets, we would bend over backwards to speak to him. “Hello Mr. White!” He would always say hello. He spoke to us and made us realize that he was a normal man who had a job to do, a very demanding job that could cost an officer their life. But we children were no threat back in those days, all we wanted to do was to get good grades in school, play ball, and play more ball. Life was so simple back then…….the difference between us then, when we were kids, and the kids nowadays is that we wouldn’t dare do anything that would bring shame and disgrace to our parents and family name. Today, it seems as though many of our Black youth are trying to do just that! Children now are growing up faster, not in a physical sense per se’, well, let me correct that; they are getting developed faster. Maybe from the hormone laced meat and dairy products? Some of these young teenage girls are definitely not prepared emotionally for the adult scenarios that their premature bodies are introducing them to, but that’s another blog now isn’t it? But yes, they are growing up faster and they are realizing that all cops aren’t the “Officer White” of my glorious upbringing. It works both ways though, because kids these days have juvenile rap sheets that would make career criminals flinch with embarrassment! Young girls brag about their special abilities in mastering certain acts that bring them lots of money from men who could be their grandfathers. Young boys barely out of middle school fathering children themselves and becoming street hardened criminals long before they graduate high school. Many welcome the hood “rights of passage” of manhood by getting into the lower level drug trade and few get a chance to ever enjoy becoming the legal age of twenty-one because of their early funerals. So imagine what the police have to go through when they must deal with youngsters who are unfortunate because of their dreadful circumstances, and the bleak environment that breeds them to be the criminals of tomorrow in a hopeless economy and oftentimes a hopeless world from their personal point of view. They don’t grow up with respect for the law; they embrace a strong distaste for it. And while my generation would try to live in harmony with the police officers of my day, it is a cultural expectancy today to sneer publicly at any law enforcement officer, even if you had absolutely no reason to do so. It’s not popular to be the “Po-Po” anymore. It used to be a common thing to hear a young man say that he wanted to be a police officer when he grew up, now you hardly hear any young men say this. And young Black men? Don’t waste your time; you’ll probably have a better chance of finding a naked Barack Obama taking a leisurely stroll down at the mall. This is how drastic our culture has changed toward law enforcement. Now granted, the dirty cops are becoming more and more of a common fixture in the Black neighborhoods, and I can stretch my imagination a bit to say that I can understand an occasional heavy handed “off the record” tactic that may have to be employed by the cops when the situation calls for it because I know what’s out there. I feel that both sides are being fooled badly. On the one hand, you have these bad ass wayward kids from broken homes that usually have no father present in their life to guide them along the correct path, and when you do what kind of example is it? How can a child have a strong desire to learn and grow when their father is on the corner bumming nickels for a beer or blatantly bed hopping with every woman in sight? Imagine the resentment that is manifested from within as these youngsters get older? I’ve noticed in my personal/professional life that I get mixed reactions on how I carry myself when in close proximity to many of these wayward young men. Many times while I’m out and about, having already cultivated a friendly and sometimes not so friendly dialogue with them, I have found that the young men who have no strong father figure at home will react to me in either one of two ways. They will embrace who I am and grow to open up and confide in me as a surrogate father or they will reject me on sight because of the resentment built up over the years from knowing that they didn’t have a father figure in their lives. I would not attempt to explain away everything in my statements as every situation is completely different. We as Black men carry a lot of our frustrations hidden and brewing below the surface like a pressure cooker waiting to blow. We just don’t talk about what stresses us until it’s too late. We have feelings behind the strong visuals and athletic strut that captures the attention of all who drink in our awe inspiring and sometimes intimidating presence. But truth be told for many of us, that’s all we have, sorry to spill that secret brothers, it’s not all of us, but way too many. This world can be frightening for anyone, I mean anyone, because as fast as its evolving, it seems like as soon as you learn the rules to this life and settle into a somewhat stable existence, some evil power comes along to rip you out of your comfort zone and change the rules forcing you to start all over again. Think it’s easy? This is the norm in the everyday life of the Black man. Not every Black man, but too many of us. It’s not an excuse. Not at all! I am merely painting a colorful picture with my words to bring you into a mindset that you may not have been privy to or may have misunderstood. The uncertainty can be a bitch! Why do you think that so many of us are dropping dead from heart attacks while at the same time appearing to be the perfect picture of health? Don’t let the good looks fool you…….as usual, I’ve strayed far from my intended direction but allow me to bring it back into focus. The bottom line is that many of our Black youth have been programmed with the wrong agenda, the wrong data, and the hijacked culture that I often speak of. The video games make murder and death fair. The disconnect created from broken families only amplifies this isolated condition. The lack of the barest of necessities in such a materialistic world is nothing short of an embarrassment. Opportunities are there, but for some it appears that they are further away than they really are. With no one around who thinks positive to encourage them, they succumb to the mentality of doom. STD’s are alive and well, but that’s not enough to dissuade our kids from experimenting with each other, as illicit sex has not only become a casual recreation, but it has also become a means of yielding a false sense of power to bring a rush of superiority for a short time to the powerless. Wow….slow down Phil! You hear how our young Black men speak to each other in public, “When I finally laid this dick to that bitch, she couldn’t help but call me daddy and give me that check every week because she know that she don’t want to lose this!” How can our young men become men when the only men that they are around speak like that? So here they are, frustrated, misinformed, non-motivated, morally bankrupt, pissed off at the world, unemployed, hopeless with no plan, and no dream or goals to strive for, living in what can only be described as a pre-hell. Now here comes a cop with an attitude telling these young brothers on the corner that they have to move it along or else. This is no reason to shoot an officer of the law, but when these confrontations are an almost daily happening, it doesn’t take long for an opinion to get formed on who is not the most well like person in the hood. You see, from what I’ve observed, there may be no place for these young men to go. The police may reminisce about their younger days in little league baseball, hockey practice or the trips out of state over the summer with their family. But there is nothing like that in the hood except the basketball court where bullets usually fly on a regular basis and where drugs can be purchased with ease as well as the companionship of a crack whore. Damn, did I say that? The tensions are always building. Not all of the time but with so many factors involved, is it a wonder that it isn’t too hard for these young men to take out their frustrations on an authority figure with a gun? We need more “Mr. Whites” in the world today don’t we? My words weren’t meant to excuse anyone for breaking the law, or bringing harm to a law enforcement officer. It was shared to ponder the many factors that bring a person to the point where they do not care about pulling the trigger of a gun on another human being. Until we see ourselves collectively as proud Black folk, no matter what the pedigree, political affiliation, lifestyle preference, background or financial portfolio, look for it to happen time and time again! Is this the type of world that we deserve to live in?