911 IS STILL A JOKE
IN THE WAKE OF RECENT MASS SHOOTINGS, HOLES IN CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION THEORIES ARE PUT INTO THE SPOTLIGHT.
The massacre in Uvalde, Texas was difficult for every American to digest. I’m a father of elementary school aged children, and it pained me to know that the place that I send them to spend most of their day could be vulnerable to those who want to do them and their classmates harm. I’m also an educator and the loose fraternity we have is shaken when one of us is killed while trying to teach valuable skills to others, especially children. As a Black man, the Buffalo massacre by a white supremacist was still fresh in my mind.
While some rightly discuss sensible gun reform, the goal for others is to scapegoat these tragedies on mental health or one outgunned school resource officer or school protocol. The solutions put forth are to arm teachers, as if they don’t already have enough responsibilities. Instead of giving teachers iPads and other tools to make them more successful educators, we want them to have guns in the classroom, as if that creates a better environment to learn in. They want more armed security with no regard for the fact that we’ve seen violent encounters between school security and students of color. Having guns inside the school is only asking for one of those situations to escalate. Having armed guards inside or outside turns a school into a prison facility.
Still, one narrative has been severely challenged from the mass shooting in both Uvalde and Buffalo. People on the right are finally coming to the realization that not all police are heroes. It is important to realize that police are put in the position to act heroically more than most other professions. However, any honest law enforcement officer will tell you that their objective is to get home safely. Unlike firefighters, whose charge is counterintuitive to their own safety, police prioritize self-preservation. Protecting children has not trumped that call toward self-preservation. When officer Timothy Loehmann in Cleveland shot and killed 12 year old Tamir Rice, he argued that he was preserving his safety. When Officer Jeronimo Yanez fired his weapon into a vehicle striking and killing Philando Castile, his personal safety took precedence over the wellbeing of the little girl who sat in the backseat as Castile’s body was riddled with bullets.
On 9/11, dozens if not hundreds of NYPD officers acted heroically, running into almost certain death for the outside chance they may save a life. However, in daily encounters officers do their jobs which does not require heroism. Calling police heroes actually does them no favors.
The second part of what Buffalo and Uvalde have exposed is that there are systemic issues with law enforcement and emergency services, particularly in Black and Latina communities. A 911 dispatcher allegedly hung up on a Tops Supermarket employee as she tried to report an active shooter. We were all reminded of why Flava Flav sang the important 1990 classic song “911 is a Joke.” In the song, Flav states “they only come and they come when they wanna/ so get the morgue and embalm the goner.” Over the two decades since the song was released, a large portion of the public has resisted reforms that would make police more effective, trustworthy, and respected in marginalized communities. Any critique was seen as hatred for cops. Now the failures and inaction of local police and emergency services are front and center and everyone, including many anti-Black police unions, must acknowledge them.
The truth is that nothing is going to change. The gun lobby and police unions are too strong and Democratic politicians are too weak. Time moves quickly and another issue will capture the imagination of the American people. Still, many people sadly saw the myths of the inherent heroism of policing and the lack of need for police reform disintegrate.
