The National Black Police Association (NBPA), comprised of active and retired police officers of color from throughout the United States, and because of our police experience as police officers in America’s largest cities, have the credibility to analyze and criticize police actions.
The NBPA supports New York City Police Officer Larry Jackson. Officer Jackson who is black was [allegedly] “peppersprayed” and [allegedly] viciously beaten by fellow white officers. Officers from the 113th Precinct in Queens were in Jackson’s home pursuant to he and his wife summoning police assistance to deal with a group of [allegedly] uninvited men who showed at his home with guns and bats then harassed Jackson family members who had gathered for Jackson’s daughter’s 21st birthday party.
Officer Jackson’s wife told the 911 operator: "… it's my daughter's 21st birthday and my husband is a police officer and there's a young man with a gun."
The [alleged] perpetrators were not apprehended by responding officers; rather, the officers [allegedly] attacked Officer Jackson. As a result, Officer Jackson is suffering a broken right hand and multiple bruises from kicks and baton blows.
He stated that the officers who beat him were white and that the event “might have been racially motivated.”
What followed is that the police department has wrongly made Officer Jackson the target of an “Internal Affairs” investigation.
The NBPA once again calls attention to two disturbing phenomena:
1. Black homeowners who summon the police for assistance, then are wrongly assumed by responding police officers to be perpetrators; and
2. Black people being subjected to unnecessary physical and lethal force by the police.
What [allegedly] happened to Officer Jackson is one of a string of [allegedly] similar incidents throughout the U.S. in which black officers and black civilians have been pummeled by responding officers. On April 26, 2010 Janice Wells, a 3rd grade school teacher who is black, telephoned the Richland [Georgia] Police Department when she feared a prowler was outside her house. But within minutes the first officer who responded [allegedly] pepper sprayed her. When she was on the ground squirming, another officer came from behind and repeatedly tasered her. The widely distributed U-Tube video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsypp8JO1uw] shows Ms. Wells screaming in pain and begging not to be shocked again with a Taser. Officer Jackson’s and Janice Wells’ nightmare highlight the need for police reform.
The solution to the two aforementioned phenomena identified is found less in police training and more through an emphasis by police agencies on the types of men and women hired as police officers. The NYPD applicant process has routinely done a poor job in screening out applicants who hold stereotypical images of people of color. The NYPD screening process is least likely to allow for the hiring of an educated, open-minded white officer but more likely to select applicants sporting problematic bravado and that the applicant has never in his life interacted with a black person in other than passing. There is credence to longtime allegations by blacks and Latinos that the NYPD wrongly uses suburban Long Island as a primary recruiting ground.
The officers who [allegedly] beat Officer Jackson acted as bullies. Their [alleged] action not only revealed problematic perceptions but also failed to show the crisis assessment skills along with temperament that police officers must possess. The supervisors on the scene who [allegedly] failed to manage the scene and the officers who [allegedly] did the beating should be prosecuted and terminated by the NYPD. As the latter termination must occur even if the District Attorney fails to indict the officers involved.
Damon K. Jones is Executive Director of the Westchester National Black Police Association and Board Member of the NBPA.
