Dr Boyce Watkins: NYPD Uses Officers’ Deaths to Bolster Its War Against Black People

4) The recent police murders may have a slight dampening approach on protests around the country, mainly because it might affect the way the media chooses to cover the protests.  There’s nothing better to get the public to hand over its rights than to show an image of a big scary black man on TV.  Unfortunately, law enforcement has always been at war with black people, which is why white people love the cops and black people often fear them.  Their goal is not to protect and serve everyone: It is to protect the rich from the poor, the white from the black.  They are soldiers hired to protect white and wealthy privilege.

It’s clear that public sympathy toward the officers will reduce American tolerance for protesters, and might also remind people to show good cops how much we appreciate them.  But my belief is that the resolve of the protesters is largely driven by the need to confront police terror where it stands, and these recent tragic events will help all of us to remember that there is a difference between good cops and bad cops, good citizens and bad citizens. Everyone wants police to go after the bad guys, but it’s the harm/excessive force imposed on the rest of us that has become the problem.

The bottom line is that law-abiding citizens should have no reason to fear the police, but that is not always the case.   Additionally, those who break minor laws (i.e. The Eric Garners of the world) should have no fear that the cops are going to kill them.   With so many citizens of so many backgrounds, breaking so many laws so often, it is morally reprehensible to tell a man’s family that their father died because he tried to sell a loose cigarette.

Dr Boyce Watkins is the author of the book, “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” To have Dr Watkins’ commentary delivered via email, please click here.