Verbal Intercourse: Policing Is The Highest Paying Job An Unskilled White Man Can Get In America. That Is Why Both Parties Protect Police.
“True lies and white guys, we can see it through the eyes.” — Verbal Intercourse By Raekwon.
An old ancient white proverb: Defund the police is bad messaging.
Well, I don’t care Tom and Sarah, it is the truth and the truth never has to be catchy or tested in focus groups to be the truth. Good policy is good policy, regardless of where it is polling or how many hit pieces the opposition release to cripple it: good policy is good policy.
We know that police solve less than one third of all crimes committed in the United States. We know that police are so mistrusted by society that most women do not even bother to report their rapes to the police. We know that there are certain aspects of the job police actually hate doing like dealing with our unsheltered neighbors and car accidents. Police are woefully ill-equipped to confront someone who is in the throes of mental-illness.
We also know that police officers with college educations are 40% less likely to use force. We know that police officers with at least an associates degree are 30% less likely to be assaulted by the public. We know non-white officers and women officers are 28% less likely to pull their weapon. We know that male officers are over eight times more likely to be reported for misconduct than female officers.
All of this information is known. Yet, we refuse to mandate that police officers must have at least a two-year degree? We know that college makes the community and police officers safer yet we do not require our police to have a college or associates degree, why?
The answer is because policing is the highest paying job that a white man, without a college education or a trade can get in America. Not only with the overtime, but when you include the pension and healthcare the amount of money law enforcement officers are paid is astounding. Law enforcement is not even ranked as one of the ten most dangerous job/professions. It comes in at number 22.
Police are protected by both Democrats and Republicans, because it is a job that is mostly performed by unskilled and non-degree having straight white men. For the most part, police officers do not have that many interactions with white voters. Perhaps, the occasional speeding ticket, but most people accept the fact that they got caught and will be back to speeding two days later. Police are deployed to protect their property and keep the non-white citizens in control.
Most major cities are under Democratic control, and even they resist the urge to defund the police, some even boldly proclaiming never on their watch. Is it because police are represented by unions and other collective bargaining organizations and Dems are supposed to be in cahoots with them? Perhaps, because policing is a working class profession and Dems want to appeal to the everyman, by propping up police.
Yet, this makes no sense, because this demographic: white men without college degrees almost exclusively support Republicans with their endorsements and with their votes. Despite this reality Democrats cater to this group to their own detriment. This is exhibit “A” when many people say that the Democrats are beholden to white supremacy. To be uncritical of an institution that was created to intimidate your most loyal base of voters in obscene. All we ask for is for police to not execute us, and all we get is taking Aunt Jemima off pancake syrup bottles and pancake mix.
On the other hand, Republicans support the police as long as they are protecting their property, arresting/harassing non-white folk. The one group of police that Republicans unilaterally despise are the Capitol Police who defended the Capitol from the January 6th insurrection. If the insurrection would have been committed by black folk, then the officers in the Capitol police would have been rolled out every night on Fox News and the Officers would have giddy, because that is where the majority of the white officers get their news from.
This is evidenced by the only victim of police brutality to be made into a martyr by the right is Ashli Babbitt. Perhaps, because she was leading an angry lynch mob to overthrow the government. Maybe, they found her suitable for martyrdom because she was killed by a black police officer. When countless other black bodies have been executed, even murdered, by white police officers they find a way to blame the victim, the Culture, or the parents. It was not until recently that white male police officers were being convicted of killing unarmed black men in the United States of America. For hundreds of years white male police officers had impunity to kill black people in America.
“Smoke a gold leaf, I hold heat, nonchalantly
I’m raunchy, but things I do is real, it never haunts me” — Verbal Intercourse By Raekwon as performed by Nas.
The protection of police is bipartisan, because the majority in power are white. Policing is a way to accomplish two goals: protect property and boost up the white working class.
How do we disrupt the outpouring of funding for policing in America? We need to demand that cities hire college-educated police officers and that they use all reasonable means necessary to make the police force look like the demographics of the city they are supposed to protect, especially when it comes to gender.
College educated officers, not only make the residents of the city safer, it protects police officers from the residents. Those with college-degrees have more options, than those without, so that will require police departments to promote different aspects of the job to the applicants. This alone can be transformative in how police conduct business in the city.
