Police have not become the heroes we need, but servants for the privileged and few

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Have police practices changed over the decades? The perception is that indeed police are being trained to be better civil servants, peace officers and examples to our youth. Perception does not mean that in fact police officers have evolved much. Perception is not in fact reality.

Most American Police Departments train their staff using military methodology, trained by former soldiers. Police Academies rest their laurels upon the following points.

Are their trainees:

• Able to take orders and not deviate from said orders
• Right weight, height, gender and ethnicity
• Multi-talented in languages, education and appropriate psychology
• Politically appropriate and motivated

Most officers that serve the public directly are men, with women placement centered upon inhouse service. A slightly higher percentage of female officers serve the public directly in Canada, but American police departments show a high level of advantage to their male colleagues particularly in the specialized fields, as well as with regards to advancement and promotions.

Has the public realized a better relationship with the police? In most nations located in South-Central America, no way. These police forces are seen as part of a controlling, politically motivated organization whose job it is to control the public. The Caribbean’s police continue to hold the line as trained Para Military Forces with direct contacts to political parties and the governments hierarchy, particularly in: Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba, Dominican Republic and beyond. “To Serve and Protect” means “To Serve and Protect the Business Sector.”

Platitudes and promises made long ago, initiated by the pressure brought to bear upon these organization by the Black Lives Matter Movement, remain mostly empty and not followed through. Hiring a Black officer to be Police Commissioner will not cut it for most of the public. These officers all come from the same cloth, trained by the same military, motivated by the same purpose to serve. Cops want and get great wages, benefits and pensions. Some are police officers for another reason, hopefully to give back to the community, to actually serve and protect the: weak, harmed, victims of society, maintaining societies chaotic nature.

Many police officers have left the force, retiring early to enter private sector businesses they once worked with while on the job. In Grenada many have left to seek employment with Credit Unions friendly with former Prime Minister Mitchell, New National Party. In Canada many retired police enter private security firms, while a large percentage of retired police become involved with private paramilitary contractors who protect the rich and famous, and government agencies.

Most police officers in Mexico, Central and South America were, or become part of the military complex, protecting not the public, but governmental and private property of the wealthy and powerful. Many sponsors of police academies in South-Central America are wealthy, or politically involved people with their own private agendas to achieve. The public runs and hides from gang warfare in: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico. Much of this gang warfare is in fact initiated by political-economic influences, able to tear entire nations apart, such as what is happening in Haiti today.

Americans fear the movement of people towards and across their borders, not understanding why the victimhood of Latin America needs to become their problem. Americans seem to only see higher taxes coming with the higher costs of protecting their southern border, when in fact the peril their nation faces are much grander. Injustice in: Africa, Asia, China, Latin America, or North America and beyond is injustice universal.

Remember “If you chose to be neutral in questions of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” (D.Tutu).

Police have not become the heroes we need, but servants for the privileged and few. As long as we fear police, we fear our chances of achieving those things that mean much to us, like equality, justice, accountability and real transparency in how, why and where our servants in uniform protect us.

“Injustice somewhere, is injustice everywhere” (M.L. King).