In the wise words of Whitley Gilbert, “You just have to laugh.”
The “A Different World” character uttered those words to Claire Huxtable in a crossover episode of “The Cosby Show” after her father married the much younger Monica to the chagrin of Whitley.
Whitley’s words echoed in my head as I listened to Mike O’Meara, president of the New York Benevolent Officers’ Association, angrily pleading with the media to quit vilifying police officers and treating them like animals and thugs. O’Meara’s tone deaf message left me astounded. Former Pacers player Reggie Miller tweeted, “Cry me a river. You’ve been getting roasted for 2 weeks, now imagine the black and brown people their entire lives.”
To be clear, the only thing funny about O’Meara’s statement is its utter ridiculousness, arrogance and audacity. You have to laugh because he feels unfairly treated and prejudged — you know the way Black people feel on a regular basis. Somehow this media moment was supposed to elicit sympathy. Cue the eyeroll.
The spotlight is now shining on policing and police departments across the country, and it’s not a good look.
Some of the worst moments in policing history for Black people were at the hands of New York Police Department officers — Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell quickly come to mind. Fast forward to today, New York City police officers were the offenders of some of the worst moments during the protests. We saw video of an NYPD officer shoving a young woman to the ground, another driving through a crowd of protesters and several beating a cyclist. Against this backdrop, O’Meara sounds foolish.
And, it’s not just NYPD. Police officers everywhere remind us of the good cops and ask us not to judge the entire group based on the bad behavior of a few. That request sounds familiar. Maybe it’s because that’s what African Americans have been saying since forever.
From my perspective, good police officers don’t allow misconduct from fellow officers. That argument is lost if you’re doing nothing to change the cocky, above-the-law attitude some officers have. We don’t need hugging or kneeling with the protesters if you’re not speaking out against wrongdoing and standing up for what’s right.
We know police officers commit crimes. We’ve seen them arrested and convicted in our city. In May, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer Jason Norman was charged with two felonies — domestic battery and criminal confinement — and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence after he allegedly beat his wife so severely her right eye came out of its socket. Former IMPD officer Daniel Bullman was sentenced to eight years in prison on domestic violence charges in 2018. David Bisard, then an IMPD officer, was convicted of killing three people while driving drunk on the job.
So, it’s clear police officers aren’t Jesus, and they do commit crimes. Somehow, though, this is never the case when African Americans are involved. It’s always us.
And we’re seeing that with the protests. Even when police departments know they’re being watched, they still act with impunity. There’s no policing themselves to behave better in the public eye. On the contrary, it seems their arrogance is causing them to “do it for the ‘Gram” and misbehave even more.
Local officers used pepper spray, pepper balls, tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters during the early stage of protests. There’s a discrepancy from the police department and the protesters on when and if such measures were necessary.
If we’re seeing these things when police departments are under scrutiny, what happens when America isn’t watching? Policing in America must change. Now.
