Race Matters: From San Francisco Police To Top GOP Psycho-Bigot Trump

2016-10-16 23

Going, going, gone…?

[Speaking Truth To Power]

This past week, the Justice Department released a report calling for changes in the San Francisco Police Department—a police department where certain officers apparently routinely sent around racist text messages, including some disparaging President Barack Obama.

The DOJ’s report on San Francisco is important, because can we really say the San Francisco Police Department is worse than most of the police departments across the country—when it comes to how they treat Black people?
If the SFPD is this bad, what can we expect of others?

In the DOJ report, they found a San Francisco Police Department filled “with concerning deficiencies in every operational area assessed: use of force, bias; community policing; accountability measures; and recruitment, hiring and promotion practices.”

In terms of diversity recruitment, DOJ found that “gender, racial, and ethnic minority recruits were terminated at a higher rate from recruit training as compared to White male recruits.” It also found that “the SFPD does not have representative diversity within its ranks in the organization, especially in the supervisory and leadership ranks.”

Other key findings in the report were: “the majority of deadly use of force incidents by the SFPD involved persons of color.” According to the report, “nine out of 11 deadly use of force incidents from May 1, 2013, to May 31, 2016 involved persons of color.”

Although the DOJ report stopped short of accusing the SFPD of racism, they did accuse them of “bias.” The study showed that “the weight of the evidence indicates that African-Americans drivers were disproportionately stopped compared to their representation in the driving population.”

It also found that “African-American and Hispanic drivers were disproportionately searched and arrested compared to White drivers. Another finding was “Not only are African-American and Hispanic drivers disproportionately searched following traffic stops but they are less likely to be found with contraband than White drivers.”

That is exactly the conclusion researchers at the New York Civil Liberties Union found after analyzing data from NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk policing policy. Also, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a class action lawsuit, in the case Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., attacking Stop-and-Frisk on grounds of racial discrimination. Judge Shira Scheindlin found that the NYPD had engaged in systematic racial discrimination—and conducted unreasonable searches in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The Justice Department’s report on the SFPD is not surprising. We see yet another police department engaging in racism—although the DOJ’s report doesn’t want to say this. What is important to note here is: San Francisco is one of the most progressive cities in America and yet the SFPD is tainted by the same kind of racial policing practices as other police departments in the country.

Let’s also remember, the SFPD has been embroiled in a racist texting scandal this year, and in 2010, where officers highlighted their bigotry against Blacks and other minorities. This year’s texting scandal came to light during the investigation of a reported teen sexual assault by SFPD officers. Obviously, these officers learned little from the 2010 texting scandal—and it says and awful lot about the lack of accountability among America’s corrupt cop culture.

With only a few weeks left before the election, the conversation regarding police violence against Black people, and how to address it, is hardly even mentioned by politicians or by some press pundits. In the last presidential “debate,” held in St. Louis, not one question was put forward about police relations with Black America. Instead, the evening was dominated by allegations of the perverted proclivities of presidential pretender Donald Trump.

Rightly so, this racist misogynist should have to answer for his disgusting comments—and actions against women. However, many of these things were known by politicians and press people before this year. Why have many waited till the proverbial eleventh hour to expose these things?

Donald Trump has been given a pass all his miserable life because of the influence of his father’s money. Even worse than police who get away with outrages committed against Black people, Trump has never been held truly accountable for anything in his life. It’s no surprise why police unions love him so much: with him as president, police prejudice will be excused as “law and order.”

Just prior to the release of the Access Hollywood tape, where Trump is bragging that he grabbed women “by their pussy,” he once again attacked the innocent Central Park Five. Trump helped railroad the Central Park into convictions and imprisonment—when he bought $85,000 worth of ad space in the major daily newspapers calling for a return of the death penalty. Trump fanned the flames of racial hostility, similar to what he is doing now, adding to a climate that led to the conviction of five teenage boys, who had no idea about how racist and crooked the criminal justice system is.

Last week, during a CNN interview with Miguel Marquez, Trump said “they [Central Park Five] admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.”

What Trump fails to mention is DNA evidence has fully exonerated the Central Park Five. Moreover, that same DNA has shown Mathias Reyes was the lone perpetrator of this crime—a fact Reyes has confessed to. Besides the obviously coerced police confessions of these teenage boys, there was no DNA connecting any of them to this crime.

Why can’t Trump admit the Central Park Five are innocent?

Well, for one thing, we know apologizing is not something he ever learned to do. Right now, instead of apologizing for his misogynistic sexism he is attempting to deflect his bad behavior by bringing up stories about President Bill Clinton. Is this the kind of leadership Americans really want in the White House?

But there is another reason why Trump can’t admit that the Central Park Five are innocent: racism.

For all his recent talk about doing things for Black Americans, it is abundantly clear that Donald Trump is a racist. After all, this is a man who was sued twice by the Justice Department, for housing discrimination—including, initially by the administration of President Richard Nixon. Around this time, he made a complaint that landlords like him were being forced to “rent to welfare recipients.”

This is also the same person who made the incredulously idiotic claim, in a 1989 interview with Bryant Gumbel, that “a well-educated Black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated White in terms of the job market. … If I was starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated Black, because I really do believe they have the actual advantage today.”

Donald Trump’s political ascendancy is rooted in racism. When he makes blanketed prejudicial stereotypical insults against Mexicans and Muslims it mirrors his attacks against Blacks as a whole—including his vicious Birther attacks on President Barack Obama in particular.

Going into 2017, America’s racial wounds have been widely reopening. Racial policing has always represented the front lines of institutional racism in America.

Racial healing cannot be stopped by those who are benefiting from racism like: Donald Trump.

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