Fuck tha Police?

Fucking with me cuz I’m a teenager,
With a little bit of gold and a pager." *
- Ice Cube, Fuck tha Police from Straight Outta Compton, 1989

* For any millennials confused by the term “pager” it was a device that predated cell phones used primarily, but not exclusively, by drug dealers and doctors. It allowed the owner of the pager to receive numeric messages from anyone who knew the pager number. The owner could not respond directly and usually resulted in the pager’s owner having to call the person who paged him. Yes, there was a time when people actually called and talked to each other.

There are certain times in a young person’s life that may not seem great, but adults will tell that person that these are great times that should be savored and enjoyed. My senior year of college was spent with four guys crammed into a three bedroom, one bathroom apartment. I was chronically broke, the bathroom never got cleaned, and my roommates and I all hated each other except when we didn’t. In short, it was freaking awesome. All adults will tell young adults college rules. There is also another period which many adults look fondly upon, and that is working in the hospitality industry.

While college was great, my experience in hospitality was decidedly not. My introduction to the business took place at a Chinese restaurant on the periphery of Paradise Valley Mall, the source of my misery was Eddie Chan’s Too. My friend Nick helped me get a gig there and it was the worst, most depressing environment ever. I was one of a handful of bus boys who made minimum wage and got a few extra bucks based on whatever the waiters and waitresses decided to kick in from their tips. So, in theory, I was making above minimum wage at sixteen, which was good. In practice, we would be regularly scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights, show up, and then get sent home after two and a half hours. My precious weekend nights were sacrificed for a lousy $3.35 an hour and whatever the wait staff decided we should get, which was usually a few ones and some quarters. I actually quit this job after a few months to go bag groceries at the Alpha Beta on Tatum and Cactus because I could get longer, more predictable shifts.

The titular Eddie was pathologically cheap. Where most restaurants would offer staff a free meal before their shift, Eddie did not allow us lowly peons to have so much as a complimentary Coke. As busboys, we would light up inside when someone at a table would say that they were done with their plate and it still had food on it. We would snag the plate and put it on a special shelf above the rest of the dirty dishes and snack on other people’s leftover food. A year later, I was shocked when I would show up for a shift at the Dallas House in Scottsdale and the cook would always ask if I wanted a burger. He’d throw a burger on the grill for me whether or not I asked for one. I felt like an abused child who finally made it into a loving home and couldn’t believe that someone would just be nice to me for no reason. Oh, I ate the burger, but I always wondered when he was going to ask me to pay the price. A few months of free burgers and I realized that the people there just treated each other like fellow humans. It was weird after working at Eddie Chan’s.

But I digress… On a particularly shitty Saturday night after an extra shitty shift at Eddie Chan’s Too where I made about $8 in wages and another $4 in tips and got yelled at alot by Eddie, I got sent home at 9:30. In a day and age before text messages and cell phones that meant I had no plans and nothing to do. I was driving northbound on 56th Street when my 1977 Buick LeSabre died. I wish I could more accurately describe what happened, but the entire car simply stopped working. I had Sereno Park to my right between Sweetwater and Emile Zola and all I could do was pull over to the side of the road. Everything that required electricity no longer worked, I was without power steering, and the car would not start again.

It didn’t take me long to weigh my options, because I didn’t have a lot of choices. The only plan I could come up with was to leave the car, walk the mile or so home, get my dad, and have him drive me back to the car. I was going to have him sit in the driver’s seat and do his best to steer while I pushed the behemoth somewhere safer. I figured my parents wouldn’t be mad at me, as there was nothing I could have personally have done to prevent what happened, and we could figure out what to do longer term the next morning.

I got out of the car and made it about twenty feet on the sidewalk when a police car pulled up behind me, complete with the lights rolling. The police man jumped out of the car and asked me, “What the heck are you doing?”

“My car stopped working.”

“So you’re just going to leave it there?”

“No. I was going to try and get help. It’s too heavy for me to push and try to steer by myself.”

“Why are your hazards not on?”

“Everything in the car that uses electricity is not working.”

“Why do you not have a flare behind your vehicle?”

“I don’t have a flare.”

“Why not?!”

“I don’t. I didn’t expect this to happen.”

“That’s why you should have a flare in your trunk!”

Side note: I still don’t have a flare in my trunk.

“License, please.”

I provided it. The cop seemed to be calming down a bit. Once I handed over my ID he eventually stopped accusing me of abandoning a vehicle, creating a safety hazard, and being a punk teenager. All of which were true. However, he started to see me as someone in need of a little help.

He didn’t want my car on the road, which was fair enough, so he had me get in the driver’s seat. He gently rear ended my car and it started to move. I managed to get it to an alley and off the road. As helpful as he was, he had to get one last dig in before I began walking home.

“And get a flare for your trunk!”

I ignored the comment and walked off. I was a white boy in a middle class neighborhood. I was wearing black dress slacks, a white dress shirt, and dress shoes. The police officer treated me with suspicion, prejudice, and was an all around dick when I first encountered him. I am pretty sure if I shot my mouth off, I would have been thrown to the ground and cuffed.

Had I been black, wearing a hoodie, and in a poorer neighborhood; I would have sworn up and down that I was being harassed by a no good racist cop. All my “white privilege” and nice clothes couldn’t help me from the simple fact that police officers have been messing with teens since long before Ice Cube ever rapped about it. White, black, brown, or even green; law enforcement has always treated the youth with an air of suspicion.

THE GAME

There is a reason I used to be able to jump a six foot stucco fence in under three seconds. Back in the days before constant communication, me and my friend Darren used to engage in the time honored tradition of trying to find the party at the house of the high school kid with the parents that were stupid enough to leave them unsupervised. Quite often, this quest ended in futility. Occasionally, we managed to find a friend of a friend of a friend who would let us know where “the party” was. Inevitably, that meant we would spend thirty minutes trying to find said party (no GPSs back in the day), possibly kick in a couple of bucks for beer in a keg that we wouldn’t get a chance to drink, stand around for a few minutes, and then someone would yell, “Cops!”

Now, I hit my athletic peak somewhere between 17 and 22. Even at my all time fittest, I have never been called “fast”. However, just like in the animal kingdom, in this situation, I didn’t need to be the fastest. I simply needed to not be the slowest. Upon hearing the word “cops” I’d jog towards the nearest fence, hop off of my right leg, grab the top of the fence with my hands, do a pseudo-pull up, and a gently hop to the other side. Once on the other side of the fence, I’d look for Darren and walk away from the party. At this point, all we had to look forward to was a good hour or so of sitting outside the Burger King on Scottsdale and Thunderbird looking for another party, but we were the lucky ones...

While “the party” was over for me, some of my other classmates would not be so lucky. If someone was too drunk and/or too slow, they were going to get cuffed and taken for a ride in the Paddy Wagon. Those who dispersed quickly were left alone, those who did not or could not were hauled into the station and had some explaining to do to their parents.

In David Simon’s woefully underappreciated epic crime drama “The Wire” both drug dealers and law enforcement would talk about the unwritten rules governing their interactions as “the game”.

Easily one of the greatest dramas of all time

As teenagers growing up in North Phoenix, the busts and the runs were all a part of “the game”. We understood it. We were technically trespassing, surrounded by alcohol and weed, and underage. If we left peacefully, we got away with it. If we didn’t, we had to face the music. Both teenagers and law enforcement knew the rules of “the game”. Never once did I think of standing my ground or resisting arrest. That wasn’t a part of “the game”. “The game” dictated that I make a break for it.

So what would have happened if the police showed up and instead of jumping a fence, I stood my ground and yelled, “Fuck you, pig!”? In the early 90’s, I’m almost certain that a white cop would have grabbed me; thrown me to the ground, kicked the crap out of me, cuffed me, and hauled me off.

The hypothetical incident would have never been caught on someone’s iPhone, nor would it be uploaded to youtube. My classmates would have shaken their head in disbelief that I would do something that stupid, but no one would have called the cop a racist.

Make no mistake, I am NOT condoning police brutality. However, “the game” has changed. Smart ass teenagers have a tool at their disposal and it is going to take some time for law enforcement to adjust. Police are now being trained to assume that they are being captured on video. In some clips of incidents with police, you can even hear police utter the phrase, “Hi, youtube.”

Even though “the game” is changing and law enforcement is changing with it, this type of seismic change does not happen overnight. While teenagers have always been smart asses, they can now freely say the things that I used to just think. If a cop reacts the way they have always reacted, it now becomes a source of outrage. This is not necessarily racism, as I am positive I would have gotten an ass kicking, white privilege and all. Less ass kickings for exercising free speech is a good thing, calling it institutional racism is another.

GARFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

In my adopted home town of Seattle, a local high school made headlines when the entire football team and the coaches decided to kneel instead of the traditional standing for the national anthem before a football game. The act was inspired by the second string quarterback for the San Francisco Fortyniners, Colin Kaepernick. (Source)

Garfield High School Football Coach Joey Thomas echoed the prevailing sentiment amongst anthem protesters stating, “Everybody wants to talk about how this is disrespectful to the American flag. That’s a smokescreen. How about we talk about the issues people are kneeling and fighting for? If we could start addressing the issues and finding solutions to the issues, we won’t have to kneel.”

In my ultra liberal former home state of Washington, the players and coaches are celebrated as being brave and courageous. Many have expressed pride in what these sixteen to eighteen year old young men have done with their action of civil disobedience.

I disagree. I think that it is sad that an entire generation of young men are buying into a false narrative that law enforcement is out to get them, that black people are oppressed, and that they are fighting an uphill battle. I wish these young men had a greater sense of optimism for the world around them. I don’t blame them though, they are getting encouraged to see an America that hates them. How did this movement start?

WHO IS COLIN KAEPERNICK?

To answer the question, “Who is Colin Kaepernick?”, one first has to answer the question, “Who is Alex Smith?”

Alex Smith was a quarterback out of the University of Utah who became the first pick of the 2005 draft by the San Francisco Fortyniners. He was drafted over twenty slots ahead of surefire future Hall of Famer, Aaron Rodgers. Unlike Rodgers, Smith was not given the luxury of time to learn the pro game.

To start his career, Smith, was taken in and out of the lineup by a revolving door of head coaches and offensive coordinators. Additionally, he fought through numerous injuries which did not help his poor performance on the field. In his early years, he started to be called the worst name in all of sports, a “bust”.

However, after battling through the injuries, a quarterback competition with Shaun Hill, facing numerous coaching changes, and a lack of receiving talent; Smith started to come into his own. In 2011, Alex Smith led the Fortyniners to the NFC Championship game and was a horrific special teams play (not his fault) from going to the Super Bowl.

In 2012, Smith was in the midst of his best year as a pro. By the midway mark of the season, he had the Niners at 6-2 and posted a career best and downright respectable passer rating of 104.1 (good for third in the league). Then, in week 9, Alex Smith suffered a concussion against the St Louis Rams and was pulled from the game only after throwing a touchdown with blurred vision.

Pulling a QB after a nasty hit is not controversial, nor is starting a backup the following week, but quarterbacks are not supposed to lose their starting jobs due to injury. Even though Smith had changed the perception of his being a “bust”, the sporting world put a new label on him which is almost as bad, Smith was being referred to as a “game manager”.

Currently, the NFL does not award extra points for style. However, Smith’s play was often referred to as boring or cautious. While he did not make many mistakes or throw interceptions, the perception was that he did not make the big plays or have the arm to throw it down the field. Some commentators thought it was the San Francisco defense that was winning games, not the Smith led offense.

Traditionally, a quarterback was expected to receive the ball from the center, hand the ball off to the running back, or stand in the pocket and find the open receiver. Coaches and managers loved the quarterback that would literally just stand there, find the receiver, get rid of the ball, and get hit by a giant defensive end that was trying to take the hapless quarterback’s head off. The community would talk about the courage it took to take the big hit.

However, there was a new style of play emerging about this time that put an emphasis on a “dual threat” or “mobile” quarterback. While there have been some mobile quarterbacks in the past such as Michael Vick, Steve Young, and Randall Cunningham; it seemed like the new school, next gen mobile quarterbacks were the new hotness in 2012.

A mobile quarterback, unlike a pocket passer, would not stand scanning for receivers. If a defensive end broke through his line, the mobile quarterback would take off running. These young bucks could sling the ball like a traditional pocket passer but run like running backs.

In last year’s AFC Championship game, two of the greatest all time pocket passers, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning faced off. Each quarterback had a big run in the game, but they move slowly and awkwardly. Clearly, they are at their best in the pocket and throwing the ball.

Tom Brady is slow and awkward

Peyton Manning is just as bad...

Compare this to Colin Kaepernick, who in 2012, set a record for rushing yards by a quarterback in the playoffs which is likely to stand for years to come. In the divisional round against the Green Bay Packers, Kaepernick ran for 181 yards, averaged an astronomical 11.3 yards per carry, and scored two rushing touchdowns.

While Brady and Manning are slow and awkward, Kaepernick possesses blazing speed and is not scared to use it.

Kaepernick, before he sucked...

Not only were these next gen quarterbacks fast, the offenses were changing to take advantage of the running skills these quarterbacks provided. The zone read, read option, pistol formation, etc. were all designed to confuse the defense. Typically, on these plays, the quarterback receives the ball, places the ball in the running back’s gut, scans the field, and makes a split second decision. The quarterback can let the running back carry the ball, he can pull the ball back and throw, or the quarterback can run it himself. When it works, it is a thing of beauty.

In this play, fellow mobile quarterback Russell Wilson fakes the handoff to Lynch, sees the defense collapse around Lynch, but keeps the ball himself for the touchdown.

Why was this play not called with the Seahawks on the one yard line two weeks later in the Super Bowl????

Back to the 2012 season… Before Smith’s injury, rookies Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson along with second year pro Cam Newton were using the read option to great result. This style of play was better suited to Kaepernick than Smith and as a result, Kaepernick was given the starting job for the remainder of the season, took the Niners to the Super Bowl, and went 5-2 with his golden opportunity.

Entering the 2013 season, Kaepernick was firmly the number one quarterback and Smith was jettisoned to where all San Francisco quarterbacks are sent in exile, Kansas City. Again, Kaepernick rose to the occasion and led his team to 12-4 in the regular season and took the team to a third consecutive NFC Championship, this time losing in the waning minutes to the eventual Super Bowl Champions, the Seattle Seahawks (that felt great to write!).

In the off season, Kaepernick was richly rewarded with a brand new $126 million contract and was considered to be a legitimate star in the NFL having appeared in a Super Bowl and successfully leading his team to 12 wins and a conference championship. That’s the exact moment the wheels fell off the bus.

In the beginning of the 2014 season, Kaepernick was well respected within NFL circles and was raking in endorsements as a result.

The seeming darling of the NFL proceeded to go 8-8 in 2014 and failed to lead his team to the playoffs. This mediocre and disappointing year was followed by the horrific 2015 season where Kaepernick was just 2-6 as a starter and eventually replaced by first round bust Blaine Gabbert. Now, two years removed from being the toast of the town, Kaepernick was a has been.

Following his miserable 2015 season, there were multiple rumors surrounding Kaepernick. Although he had signed a $126 million contract, NFL contracts are far from guaranteed. Due to make nearly $20 million for simply being on the roster, most people expected Kaepernick to either be traded or straight up cut from the team.

Instead, new Head Coach Chip Kelly, fresh off an incredible year of destroying the Philadelphia Eagles with his personnel decisions was intrigued by Kaepernick. Desiring a mobile quarterback to run his offense, Kelly failed to cut him. After the guaranteed money kicked in, Kaepernick refused to renegotiate his contract and a proposed trade to the reigning Super Bowl Champs, the Denver Broncos, was off the table. Training camp started and Kaepernick was still not at full strength and Gabbert remained the presumptive starter. Kaepernick’s stock could not possibly get any lower and rumors circulated that he might still be cut despite being owed $20 million.

So what happened? Why did Kaepernick’s star fade so fast while some of the other mobile quarterbacks like Russell Wilson’s and Cam Newton’s continued to brighten? For starters, there are the injuries like fellow mobile QB, RG3. Additionally, defenses started to understand Kaepernick better. Kaepernick had a tendency to be a run first quarterback unlike Wilson. When Wilson’s pocket collapses and he’s running for his life, he had a tendency to keep his eyes down the field and often times pulls out a miracle. For Kaepernick, he stopped scanning and started running. Once defenses realized they had to stop the run if the pocket collapsed, Kaepernick’s whole game stopped being effective. After a good season of game tape on him, his weaknesses began to show. Where Kaepernick was once considered the best of the next generation, he began to get mocked by opposing defenses for his inability to find receivers on the run. To start the 2015 season, Green Bay Linebacker Clay Matthews was caught yelling at Kaepernick, “You ain’t Russell Wilson, bro!” (Source)

And Alex Smith? Since his unceremonious dumping by the Niners, he made his first Pro Bowl, maintained a passer rating of over 90 (pretty respectable), won between 9 and 11 games every year, and took his team to the playoffs twice. His starting job has never been in jeopardy since his change of scenery.

Back to Kaepernick… Entering the 2016 season, no longer an elite quarterback, he started doing little passive aggressive things that only became visible in hind site. One day it was wearing “pig” socks to practice.

Then it became sitting and eventually kneeling during the national anthem. When asked why he took an action which is considered by many to be the utmost in disrespect, he answered:

I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
- Colin Kaepernick

If only Kaepernick had a way to reach a mass audience instead of using a cheap media stunt. Oh wait, he did! NFL players spend an inordinate amount of time talking to the media. For decades, the media has had direct access to players.

In IT, there is a measurement in 9’s as to how long a system has stayed up. To say a system is up 99% of the time is pathetic in IT. Instead you want to say that the system has been up 99.999%, or five 9s. Likewise, in the NFL, these conference are at five 9s for boring and predictable. A coach or player says a bunch of cliches and platitudes. In all the time I have been watching the game, here are the only three times I have ever noticed a press conference.

Jim Mora's classic "playoffs?!" rant

Dennis Green's insane "they are who we thought they are"

And of course four minutes of Marshawn Lynch saying, "I'm just here so I won't get fined"

What if Kaepernick took one of these boring, lifeless, and pointless press conferences and said something like, “We could talk about my future with the Niners organization, but I don’t want to do that today. What I would like to do is talk about what is going on right now in America…” He could have index cards full of notes and statistics. He could do his homework, have a real call to action, and launch a movement. In fact, that’s what Seattle Wide Receiver Doug Baldwin recently did. (Source)

At the time of the sitting/kneeling protests, I honestly thought this was an attempt by Kaepernick to get cut by the Niners so that he could move on with his life looking for a new role as a Social Justice Warrior. If the stunt worked, he could become a martyred celebrity who was cut for his beliefs and parlay that into some kind of show host or professional victim, like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Instead this little self serving media stunt has taken on a life of its own. It is now being mimicked by fellow NFL players, a woman’s soccer player for the US national team, high school football players, and sadly by volunteer members of the United States military.

This movement has from the beginning been divisive, poorly planned, and quickly becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. All started by the thoughtless actions of a vastly overrated pouty athlete whose fifteen minutes were very nearly up.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ANYWAY, IT’S JUST A FLAG

For years in the Air Force, it was ingrained in me. When the flag was raised or lowered, I was to stop whatever it was I was doing and salute the flag. Out of uniform, I was required to stand at attention. It was a sign of respect and something I will continue to do for the rest of my life.

It’s fair to say, “Well good for you, but I don’t want to.” I sort of get that. I have travelled around the world and I have come to appreciate just how individualistic our society is. However, there are times when we should just stop and show some respect. I am not a religious person. That is my prerogative. However, if I were invited to someone’s home and they wanted to say grace, I would shut up for the thirty seconds it took, bow my head, and say “amen” at its conclusion. It is simply the right thing to do. Yelling, “God is a delusion!” at the top of my lungs while others were engaged in worship does not seem appropriate. There are better times to make this statement, if I felt it necessary.

I bring up saying grace because at the moment I am a guest in someone’s home, they do not expect to be attacked for their religious beliefs. I still have free speech, but an attack at that time just seems inappropriate. Likewise, when the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” included a drawing of the Muslim Prophet Muhammed, I failed to see the controversy. Satirical magazines do satirical things. Satire can oftentimes be offensive, but one has the option of simply not reading the magazine with the full knowledge that at some point, you might be offended. The inclusion of these drawings in a satirical magazine is far different from printing out the drawings and standing in front of a Mosque. While I think both ought to be protected, the latter is tacky and classless.

I do not for a moment dare argue that kneeling during the anthem (by a civilian - this action is clearly punishable by a member of our armed forces) is protected free speech. I do think there are far more effective ways to get the message across. It broke my heart when I would read comments written by every day folks on articles regarding the Seahawks decision to stand during the anthem with their arms linked in unity. Some called the Hawks sell outs for not kneeling. Seriously, this is what it has come to. People are now expecting disrespect to prove that they are a part of the black community?

This so called protest has reached a point where no one even knows what it is they are protesting. Some now feel compelled to protest to be a part of something, but that something is very ill defined.

The anthem protest seems to be born out of the #blacklivesmatter movement. As police brutality and shootings are being captured, allowing us to armchair quarterback law enforcement agents from the comfort of our own homes, the outrage in what we have seen grows. There are cases such as Charles Kinsey’s that horrify me. However, there are other cases, where it is not so clear cut.

One indignant Social Justice Warrior screamed at the top of her lungs, on Facebook - that place where people can declare themselves good people with minimal effort, that she is white but outraged, OUTRAGED, by the shooting of the unarmed black man Terence Crutcher by a white police officer. For whatever reason, I engaged the angry white mob. I do not condone the shooting. However, what seemed like a cut and dry case of a cop shooting an unarmed black man who needed assistance after his car broke down, just like my anecdote, was not so. I pointed out that the first responder on the scene had a difficult time getting Mr. Crutcher to respond. Due to her training, she believed that he was under the influence of PCP. I am not trained on the symptoms of PCP use, but I know enough to know that this drug can cause a lot more problems than alcohol or marijuana. A PCP user can be highly agitated, extremely aggressive, and display superhuman strength.

The first responder called for backup. At some point, a fellow officer monitoring the situation by helicopter refers to Mr. Crutcher as a “bad dude”. Now that sounds pretty racist, out of context. What if a smallish female officer came across me, at 6’4” and 250 pounds, high on PCP? Would it be racist to call me a “bad dude” if I was unresponsive and my physical appearance scared her? I don’t think so.

The Social Justice Warriors had an absolute field day. Former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner rapes an unconscious woman and only gets three months jail time, while this poor, helpless gentlemen (who had PCP in his car and in his system - Source) gets shot unarmed? These things are totally unrelated. If OJ Simpson taught us anything, it’s not that white people get away with murder, it’s that rich people do.

Then I got accused of blaming the victim.

BLAMING THE VICTIM

I have an engineering degree. As a consequence, I only had one semester of English Literature to my college credit. The one and only class that I did have, I was a part of a group that my female professor labeled “The Feminist Four”. Our group really hated when female characters would be raped or mistreated.

I am personally aware that I am bigger and stronger than just about every woman on the planet. I understand that women might feel endangered being around me. When I was younger, I was not particularly aggressive in dating due to the fact that I never wanted to scare the shit out of some woman I was much stronger than.

I have a wife. I have a daughter. I would like to think that I am not a misogynist. When it comes to rape, I really dislike it when the defense tries to “blame the victim”. I don’t care if a woman’s skirt is short. I don’t care if she flirted with someone. Before sex, men need consent. Period.

In male/female relations, men are by and large much, much stronger and can and, sadly sometimes do, overpower women. Sex without consent is rape. However, in relations between law enforcement and civilians, law enforcement does not always have the upper hand. Civilians may very well be better armed than a law enforcement officer and in cases where firearms are used, the first party to use the firearms are at a decided advantage. Pointing out that someone is acting irrational, may be on PCP, in fact did have PCP in his car, and might have been armed is not blaming the victim!

Almost every list of hashtag names has a similar story. The same week that Mr. Crutcher was shot, in Charlotte, North Carolina, another black man, Keith Scott, was killed. Somehow me pointing out that he was carrying a gun and not responding to an officer’s commands was, again, blaming the victim.

By and large, I do not like the people who choose to become police officers. I have an anti-authoritarian streak a mile long, and yet… I find the fact that Mr. Scott was armed and not cooperative to be a 100% relevant to the fact that he got shot. Law enforcement officers have seconds to make decisions. There lives can, quite literally, be on the line. Against a suspect with a gun, their best move is to shoot first.

IF WE CAN’T TALK MICRO (UNLESS IT’S EXPLOITIVE) LET’S TALK MACRO

So the folks at #blacklivesmatter and Social Justice Warriors on Facebook want to paint every person shot by police as a saint. If they were high on PCP, charged a police officer, grabbed an officer’s gun, had their own gun, or whatever; it’s all irrelevant so they, say and that’s just blaming the victim. #Blacklivesmatter likes to comprise a list of “victims” and every person on this list is a “victim” in their eyes because the context of the shooting is irrelevant.

So let’s stop talking about individual shootings. One of the problems in arguing with a Social Justice Warrior is that if you take the opposing side, you will surely be called a racist. Data is not racist, data simply is. So what does the data say?

According to Roland Fryer, a black Harvard Professor, who published a working paper via the non-partisan National Bureau of Economic Research:

On the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account. We argue that the patterns in the data are consistent with a model in which police officers are utility maximizers, a fraction of which have a preference for discrimination, who incur relatively high expected costs of officer-involved shootings."

(Source) 

To be fair, I am sympathetic to those who echo the thoughts of former British Prime Minister  Benjamin Disraeli, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” In fact, some who are critical of Mr. Fryer’s conclusions correctly point out that sourcing data to do this kind of analysis is difficult at best. His study relied heavily on data from New York City and Houston because these cities have a high level of racial diversity and the Houston Police Department in particular has great data.

When dealing with a hot topic such as this, I would be hesitant to source outlets that are considered obviously biased such as Fox News. However, according to the fairly left leaning news outlet, CNN, “We Aren’t Seeing More Police Shootings, Just More News Coverage” (Source).

Another source, The Washington Post, points out that in the first half of 2016 there have been more civilians shot by police, but there has also been an increase in police shot by civilians. (Source)

Perhaps a bit more biased, but in a study conducted in Spokane, WA among law enforcement officers not told the purpose of the test, officers were less likely to shoot a black suspect. (Source)

While it is really easy to sit in a comfortable chair, see a shooting, and jump to outrage; it is a lot more difficult to look at the bigger picture. The only thing that both sides can clearly agree on is that we need more and better data. Thankfully, the FBI is committed to dramatically expanding the information it gathers on violent police encounters by 2017.

HOW DID WE GET HERE

Ordinarily, I do not complain when businesses go under. It is sad, but this is the system that we have. Competition forces companies to innovate. As a society, we get better quality at lower prices due to this constant competition. Most of the time…

Since 2001, newspapers have cut 20% of their journalists amongst increased printing costs, declining subscribers, and a radical loss in classified advertisements. The type of in-depth provided by a team like Woodward and Bernstein that resulted in the resignation of former President Richard Nixon simply no longer exists. In its place, we have “clickbait”.

According to a 2014 study of 70,000 headlines, people are far more likely to click on headlines that speak to happiness and outrage (Source). For the happiness side of the equation, we get “These 47 baby kangaroos will make you squeal with joy!”. On the other side we get headlines like "Terence Crutcher Walked To Police for Help. They Shot Him Dead". Outrage! In fact, I was outraged when I first saw headlines like this. I have been hassled by cops on the side of the road when I just needed a little help. Of course, I wasn’t high on PCP and I engaged in a dialog with the officer. It was acting sane, not white privilege that prevented me from getting shot.

Sadly though, most people only skim headlines. These biased headlines skew public opinion. If one did not know better, you would think we were living in a war zone. Except, this is quickly becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Filled with righteous outrage, not knowing the facts, not pausing to examine the data has legitimately lead to an outright assault on law enforcement.

At a #blacklivesmatter protest rally this July in Dallas, a lone gunman opened fire on law enforcement killing five officers. Fueled with anger and outrage, he did the unthinkable shooting at the very people who were ensuring the protest stayed non-violent. These officers gave their lives completely fulfilling their duty to protect and serve their community. Prior to the shootings, the protest was peaceful. In the same span of time; shootings at police have occurred in Bristol, Tennessee and in St Louis, Missouri.

I may disagree with #blacklivesmatter, kneeling during the anthem, or the bias in headlines. Except these are all completely legitimate forms of protest. While the Civil Rights movement of the sixties focused on civil disobedience, it was peaceful. The laws that were deliberately broken were unjust. Shooting at law enforcement officers doing their jobs for wearing the uniform is nothing less than domestic terrorism.

YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE

Lest anyone accuse me of not knowing what it is like to be a hated minority, I am actually a member of one of the most hated minority groups in the world. A mere thirty years before my birth, some of my direct relatives were systematically rounded up and killed in German death camps.

Today, I have owned multiple German cars. I started my career working with German software. I have welcomed the sons and daughters of Nazis into my home. I do not hold the next generation responsible for the atrocities of the Holocaust. It does no good. They are clearly not to blame.

I thought about this a lot and it came down to, there are two things that I really want from the German people as a Jew. First and foremost, I do not want the Holocaust to be forgotten. It happened. To their credit, the German people have never denied it. In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted a two day conference in Tehran to create a safe zone for “scholars” such as former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke to be able to express their views freely.

While this was going on in Tehran, in Berlin a counter conference was held with Thomas Krüger, head of Germany's Federal Agency for Civic Education, the sponsor of the event, stating, "The denial or questioning of the Holocaust cannot remain uncommented. We have to do what we can to counter this current before it begins to make inroads into our society." (Source)

It was as if Germany, as a country, publicly stated, “Hey, this was not our finest moment and looking back, this wasn’t a good idea at all, but we did it. Sorry.”

In this vein, I completely understand the outrage when McGraw-Hill created a history book for the State of Texas that referred to slaves as “workers”. No, they were slaves. They were considered pieces of property and it was an embarrassing part of our nation’s history. We should not, for one minute, forget that this happened. (Source)

But aside from acknowledging it, what should we do over one hundred and fifty years since the Emancipation Proclamation? The idea of reparations is absolutely ridiculous. My ancestors were too busy getting kicked out of every decent nation in Europe to ever own a slave. While the sons and daughters of slave owners are not responsible for their ancestor’s immorality. The notion that reparations are owed plays into a victim mentality and it is a waste of time and energy. I do not ask that anyone forget slavery, but I do ask that we, as a society, move on from it.

Second, I ask that the German people preserve the death camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau. Razing them and putting up condos seems disrespectful. In the United States, we can preserve parts of the underground railroad or plantations as reminders of the past. Further, it is time to knock down monuments glamorizing the Civil War.

Twenty-five miles from my home, at the Capitol Building for the State of Texas, stands a monument that reads:

Died for state rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The people of the South, animated by the spirit of 1776, to preserve their rights, withdrew from the federal compact in 1861. The North resorted to coercion. The South, against overwhelming numbers and resources, fought until exhausted.”

Nice, huh? Right there on the grounds of the Capitol.

Except the Civil War was not about state’s rights. It was about slavery. At least according to former Vice President of the Confederate States

Our new government is founded upon exactly [this] idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.” - Alexander Stephens

Certainly the men fighting in the Confederacy fought valiantly, however, their cause was unjust. They were traitors and fighting to subjugate fellow human beings. Memorials and tributes to the soldiers, the Confederacy, and/or the Confederate flag have no place in our society.

I take this view seriously. Every year, for the last three years, my family has visited the Gulf Coast in Texas, also known as the Redneck Riviera. There are tons of souvenir shops and I am sure my kids are tired of my principles. If a shop sells confederate flags or anything displaying racist ideology, I make my family leave. No exceptions.

Siting the Holocaust as a Jew growing up in the United States might make one thing that I never experienced racial hatred firsthand. Au contraire. Just as I am sure the vast majority of black people have been called the n-word, I have been called a dirty jew, kyke, jew bastard, and just about every combination thereof. My locker in high school was nicely decorated with a spray painted swastika by a cowardly asshole. However, not for a moment did I think my country hated me. Looking back, I wish my middle school and high school would have done more when these incidents happened, sometimes in full view of teachers, but I don’t believe there was systemic anti-semitism. It was more a personal attack and this was an easy way to provoke me.

So while I can understand that today’s black Americans have been called horrible things, that their parents and grandparents were treated as second hand citizens, that fifty years ago black people and white people were not permitted to marry in some states, that segregation was the de facto rule in many states, and more; it is time to move on. Forgive not forget. The vast majority of white people want nothing more than to see black people succeed.

WANTING SUCCESS

How do I know most people want black people to be successful? For starters, there is affirmative action. To be clear, I am not a fan, but… Based on race, some races actually receive a “boost” on their SAT scores when applying to universities.

Whether or not the SAT should be used in admissions, this is the system that we have. In 2015, the maximum score was 2400. The percentiles break down as:

Percentile	Score, 2400 Scale (official, 2006)
99.93/99.98*	2400
99+ **	≥2280
99	≥2200
98	≥2140
97	≥2100
93	≥1990
88	≥1900
81	≥1800
72	≥1700
61	≥1600
48	≥1500
36	≥1400
24	≥1300
15	≥1200
8	≥1090
4	≥990
2	≥890

Source

A black person can add a whopping 230 points to their SAT score. If a black person scored 1500, good for the 48th percentile, after the boost they would be in the ~75th percentile. For someone in the 81st percentile, they would be in the 97th percentile after the boost. In other words, this is a pretty damn big “boost”. Hispanics only get a 185 point boost. Meanwhile, Asians get a 50 point penalty. (Source)

Which brings up an interesting point. If our society has so much institutional racism, why is it that Asians are so amazingly successful that they have to be penalized by universities? Did all the racists get together and decide to let Asians be wildly successful, at least when it came to getting into elite colleges, but still hold down other minorities? That’s kind of not how racism works. I imagine racists really hate all races except their own, and yet some have proven to be so successful that they are now penalized. It puts a pretty big dent in the idea of institutionalized racism and an oppressive “man” holding minorities down.

A HISTORY OF ATHLETES PROTESTING

So, isn’t there a long history of black athletes using their time in the spotlight to draw attention to social causes? First, jumping to mind, is Mohammed Ali.

I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong ... They never called me nigger." - Mohammed Ali

In 1966, as a 24 year old athlete in his peak earning years; Ali was arrested, stripped of his boxing titles, and ruled ineligible to fight for the next three years. His appeals went all the way to the Supreme Court where he won by unanimous decision. His protest sure seemed to cost him, personally a lot, but what was he protesting?

When Ali represented the United States in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, the Civil Rights Act was four years away from being signed. When he won the gold, the Jim Crow Laws were in full effect in many states. Ali could not sit at the same lunch counter as a white man. If he were seated on a bus in the “colored” section, a white man could tell him to stand. Outside of athletics, black people were discriminated against for home and business loans, subject to political boundaries to make their votes less effective, and were truly second class citizens. You want to talk institutional racism? Black people of that time absolutely faced it.

Even with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, all our societal ills were not solved overnight. The Vietnam War was starting to escalate, and one could legitimately claim that black people were over represented by the draft. As middle class whites sought out student deferments, conscientious objector status, or went to doctors for their “bone spurs” (special call out to Trump); these avenues were not available to most black people. Taking a stand, losing three years of income, and calling out the hypocrisy of the draft that over represented black people - that’s a protest.

Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised a fist in the air, an action mimicked today by certain NFL prima donnas, in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Just like Ali, Smith and Carlos had some pretty legitimate claims. An involuntary draft was going on for an unpopular war that over represented black people. I will grant that might be the very definition of institutional racism.

These athletes had principles and a cause. They also paid a hefty price for their beliefs. Ali lost years of his career. Smith and Carlos never really had careers after this action. The fallout for their beliefs was so severe that a few decades later, athletes actively tried to be as apolitical as possible. Michael Jordan was easily the greatest basketball player of his generation, but never expressed his political beliefs.

Now, almost forty years later, athletes are entering the sphere of politics again. Some have opinions that are not popular with their own communities.

I always tell myself as a black man: ‘Am I part of the problem or part of the solution? If I’m out doing illegal stuff, stupid stuff, I’m part of the problem. If I’m helping young black kids go to college like I’m trying to do, if I’m giving money to causes to help young men, I know I’m part of the solution.” - Charles Barkley

Although no longer a player, Barkley has never shied away from controversy. He has not held back on problems within the black community, been a supporter of law enforcement, and used his platform to raise awareness for the way he sees it. Starting next year, not only will he be hosting his Emmy award winning show on TNT, but he will be hosting his own show “The Race Card” to further his idea of discussing the problem from all sides.

While Barkley may be loud and buffoonish at times, current NBA legend, Lebron James, has almost quietly become a leader. He has set up a fund to send 1,000 kids to go to college (Source) and brought about a respectful, healthy dialog during his speech at the ESPYs (full video here)

We all feel helpless and frustrated by the violence. We do. But that’s not acceptable. It’s time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what are we doing to create change. It’s not about being a role model. It’s not about our responsibility to the tradition of activism.I know tonight we’re honoring Muhammad Ali. The GOAT (Greatest of All Time). But to do his legacy any justice, let’s use this moment as a call to action for all professional athletes to educate ourselves. It’s for these issues. Speak up. Use our influence. And renounce all violence.And most importantly, go back to our communities, invest our time, our resources, help rebuild them, help strengthen them, help change them.We all have to do better. Thank you.” - Lebron James

Lebron’s former teamate, Dwayne Wade, recently participated in a bicycle ride in coordination with the Miami police department in order to “help bridge the gap between the police and the community by reinforcing the need for a safe and connected community working together with a sincere understanding of each other's positions and mutual respect.” (Source)

At a time when Kaepernick has decided the best course of action is to propagate the false narrative of coordinated institutional racism and ongoing discrimination against black people, other athletes have used their platform in far more positive and powerful ways. Wade and James are hardly condoning cases of police brutality, but they are looking to partner with police and help their communities along the way.

GETTING A DIALOG GOING

Former Long Beach Crip and convicted drug dealer, Calvin Broadus aka everyone’s favorite rapper from the 90’s - Snoop Dogg, has called for a dialog between the black community and law enforcement.

The mission is to reintroduce our community to the LAPD... just to get some understanding and dialogue. We’re the ones they’re going to be dealing with, we’re the ones that are going to be pulled over. … We’re here on peace. We don’t have to fear each other today… Respect is key.” - Snoop Dogg

So what is a dialogue? A dialogue is not blaming the other side. It is about listening to the other side, respecting the other side, and compromise. But don’t listen to me, take it from Proposition Joe, and seriously if you haven’t seen “The Wire” just do yourself a favor and buy the box set.

CONCESSIONS BY LAW ENFORCEMENT

Everyone can agree that we need better data. Local law enforcement needs to provide data on police shootings and investigations to a centralized, publicly available repository. If a bias exists in any geography it needs to be directly addressed. The good news is this is in the works and should be available next year (Source).

While the videos that have been posted on youtube often cast police in a negative light and highlight police brutality, every citizen has the right to film law enforcement officers. Better yet, the use of body cameras and dashboard cameras needs to receive continued funding and mass acceptance. The verdict is starting to come in and both law enforcement officers and suspects tend to behave better when they know their actions are on film.

“Neither party wants to ‘get caught engaging in socially undesirable behavior that may have costly consequences.’" (Source)

Better data and more video is going to be useful to both sides. Perhaps there is room for elected officials to be trained and provide oversight to investigations. These community leaders would represent their delegates, but work daily with law enforcement and understand the type of pressure and decision making they deal with daily. They would be more than armchair quarterbacks quick to anger and lash out, but instead be true partners representing both sides.

Most importantly, law enforcement needs to remember what, exactly, their role in our society is. It is NOT to protect each other, to cover up for their higher ups, or to dish out street justice. Their job is noble. It is to protect and serve.

Protecting and serving does not mean acting like a fourth grader deputized to be a hall monitor handing out demerits to their fellow students. It does not mean acting like Officer Reid here in Bee Cave, who likes to hide behind a hill and nail civilians for minor speeding infractions to collect revenue for the city. Sorry, that one is personal, but Officer Reid is a dick.

Protecting and serving means showing good judgement. If a car is darting in and out of traffic, driving erratically, or is likely to cause an accident; by all means pull the vehicle over and write the driver a ticket. However, setting up speed traps is a form of harassment and a regressive tax on the citizens you are supposed to be protecting, while ironically, making us all less safe.

CONCESSIONS BY THE BLACK COMMUNITY

It is time to forgive, not forget. It is time to put yourself in law enforcement’s shoes. It is time to stop making a martyr of drug dealers, armed disobedience, and a lack of civility. When driving, expect to be asked for license, proof of insurance, and registration. If you have all three, the incident is going to be over in less than five minutes. If you do not have this basic information, you should not be driving. Period. Do not make yourself a victim if you are caught.

Ask yourselves, do you really believe that there is a pervasive institutional racism alive in America? Take a look at the Asian community and ask yourselves, why are they so wildly successful? As a group, Asians have higher income and higher educational advancement. Part of the explanation can be explained by Asian immigrants having a higher education level to begin with, but there are certain cultural aspects that could and should be emulated. Two parent families, a belief in hard work, and an emphasis on education have served this community particularly well. (Source)

As Snoop Dogg said, it is time to get that dialog going. The police do not exist to make you miserable, to harass, and to hunt you. There are bad cops and hopefully improved data, video monitoring, and oversight will result in their immediate termination. If you don’t like law enforcement in your community, do something about it. Heck, become a police officer.

Black culture has made enormous contributions to the overall American culture. It has brought us rock and roll, hip-hop, urban fashion, and significant contributions in athletics. However, the odds of a child becoming a professional athlete are infinitesimal. It is time to encourage the youth to explore all career options - STEM jobs, nursing, law enforcement, teaching, and more.

If doors are closed, then it is time to use all tools to open them. A few months back, the hashtag #oscarssowhite trended. Well, of course they are. Traditionally, Hollywood has been run by white people. White people are not going to write the parts that go to black people in an authentic way. That is a problem. However, to ensure black actors get oscar worthy roles, there is a better alternative than a hashtag. It involves encouraging black people to write great parts. In today’s world, creating and distributing video has never been easier.

Not that Key and Peele make Oscar-type movies (this is not an insult, I find them hilarious), but the sketch comedy duo started as writers. When their contracts at MadTV ended, they were able to get their own show on Comedy Central and build an enormous web audience. The team has been able to prove that their comedy is well received by a wide audience from their ratings on their cable TV shows and their significant number of youtube hits. Four years and millions of Internet hits later, they were given the greenlight to make a feature film. That’s how doors get kicked down - creating a body of work and demonstrably proving that it will be well received. No matter how white studio executives are, they really care about the green. There are no givens, but at the point that “Keanu” received the go ahead, it was about as close to a sure thing as possible given their massive audience.

It is time to start looking for answers and critical self examination. The black community can continue to rally around #blacklivesmatter and Colin Kaepernick, or follow through with the call by Snoop Dogg, Charles Barkley, and Dwayne Wade. A dialogue means both parties are going to compromise. All police are not all bad. All black men are not drug dealers or thugs.

GOING FORWARD

So, finally, back to Kaepernick. When the “protest” started, many were outraged saying he was disrespecting the troops. I disagree. I believe he is willfully disrespecting our entire country. He is preaching a message of hopelessness to an entire generation who are now emulating his actions. Unlike the actions of Lebron James, he offers no solutions or anything remotely positive. He simply spews hashtag-like sound clips and anger.

But, hey, he got us talking, right? Well, sort of. Weren’t we already talking when Lebron, Carmello, and Dwayne spoke at the ESPYs? Didn’t they provide a way more positive message? Doesn’t Kaepernick have the same ability to spread his message without a cheap parlor trick?

In fact, his tactics seem familiar to me. They are reminiscent of the tiny, hateful yet well known group, the Westboro Baptist Church. This is a group so desperate to broadcast their message of homophobia that they have been known to “protest” funerals of our fallen soldiers. Usually, they carry signs reading “God hates fags.”

They believe that the United States is being punished by the Lord Almighty for our tolerance of homosexuality. It’s a stupid message and an even worse tactic, yet most Americans know exactly who the Westboro Baptist Church is even if it’s by their deplorable catch phrase. Yet, liberals by and large cannot stand this group. It’s not just that their methods are so odious, it is that they vehemently disagree with the message and support gay rights.

So, when Kaepernick, kneels in “protest” most on the left are not outraged. Partially, it’s because they fail to see how disrespectful the act is. Partially, it’s because they don’t necessarily disagree with the message and are sympathetic to #blacklivesmatter and victimhood.

It’s dumb and disrespectful… If they want to be arrogant, there’s no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that.” - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon on Kaepernick’s protests

People are getting too caught up in the flag…At the end of the day the flag is just a piece of cloth and I am not going to value a piece of cloth over people’s lives. That’s just not something I can do, it’s not something I feel morally right doing and my character won’t allow me to do that.” - Colin Kaepernick, Social Justice Warrior

Yeah, Kaepernick, it’s just some cloth. And the funerals that are picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church are just gatherings. No, it’s not the same thing, but it is absolutely in the same ball park. Just as the Westboro Baptist Church does not have a real agenda to push, I mean besides homophobia, neither does Kaepernick. There has been a rise in outrage over police shootings, but no actual rise in police shootings. This movement of disrespect towards an entire country was started by a go who, previously, was best known for kissing his own biceps after a touchdown. With those touchdowns coming fewer and farther between, it seems like the “protest” was more about a career change to the Millennial version of Jesse Jackson than anything of substance. Instead of asking for a dialog, looking for answers, or funding a positive solution (only after he garnered media attention did he make this pledge, so far there has been very little coverage to actual contributions) like other modern athletes; Kaepernick did something shocking and awful then seems to bask in the glow of the attention that it receives.

At this point, I am so tired of seeing Kaepernick and his fellow Social Justice Warriors disrespect our country and contribute nothing to the dialog that I am starting to feel like maybe it’s time to stop doing the anthem altogether at sporting events. It really does not add anything to the game and if athletes feel so little patriotism that they cannot shut up and stand quietly for a minute, maybe it’s time to stop. These actions and attitudes of disrespect are spreading. The next generation should not be fed a diet of victimhood and hopelessness. We can do better.

If the tradition does continue, Kaepernick and his ilk ought to stay in the locker room during the anthem. It’s an easy compromise. If you want to stand and pay tribute to our country for a minute before the game, cool. If not, do not show disrespect and do some stretching or other pre-game rituals outside of the view of the cameras. In fact, this is the exact compromise the NBA worked out with the original “protester” Mahmood Abdul-Rauf almost twenty years ago. The controversy quickly died with this solution.

What really saddens me are the players at Garfield High School who are praised for their disrespect. In closing, I would like to address these young men. Gentlemen, you are young and have your lives ahead of you. You are living in a city full of diversity and opportunity. The vast majority of you will never make it to the NFL, but your lives will forever be enhanced by the years of teamwork and dedication spent playing football together. Your country does not hate you. I am sure you have been called the “n-word” or worse, but sadly there are assholes in this country. If you were not black, you would have been called something else offensive. It is a hateful act by a hateful person, please do not give up on your country because of this. You are not being hunted. Your grandparents and parents fought incredibly hard for everything that you have today. Take advantage of your opportunities! Take life by the balls. Take the SATs, apply to schools, get jobs, and raise families. That is hope. That is progress. Forgive not forget.