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Police Reform (Community Based Policing) in "2020" 7/23/2020 7:19:28 AM
The importance of police reform in America. As a baby-boomer, watching the protests for “black lives matter” and social justice, it brought back vivid memories when I worked for “police reform” and other social justice reforms.
I was a former Co-Chairperson of the Blue Hills Citizen Action Group in Hartford, Connecticut; Secretary, Connecticut Citizen Action Group (State organization), and Board Member, Citizen Action (National organization), Cleveland, Ohio. I thought of the countless hours in the evenings and weekends from the late 1970's – early 1980's in attempting to effect change in addressing the ills that beget poor communities, and communities of color through no fault of their own.
As a member of one of those organizations, we coalesced with other similar groups as warranted to address – police reform (community policing); education reform – no disparities in suburban/urban education; tax reform – taxation without appropriate representation from neighborhoods/looking at collection of taxes and how/where monies were spent; environmental reform – pollution of water, hazardous waste (landfills) and air pollution; energy reform – Big Oil and nuclear energy to name a few. Exploitation of people of color and poorer Caucasians allowed businesses to build and/or store materials not fit for humans in their areas of town. Those things occurred because of the people that had been elected to the City Council.
Now with the rapidity, and in your face number of brutal killings at the hands of law enforcement, it made me think of sitting on panels with the former police chief in Hartford, Connecticut, Bernard Sullivan, and other community organizations looking at community policing, and how at that time, nothing occurred. I feel now more than ever before, that community policing will now become an eventuality nation-wide, if not, world-wide.
All of these protests also brought to mind a meeting held in the early 90's at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, Connecticut to address “race relations.” I went to participate, but was rendered “silent” because I wanted to address “white privilege/male privilege,” and that was something others felt wasn't important at that time.
Now, many years later, I feel an easing in my chest because of the countless people in America and around the globe addressing and ensuring change for the betterment of all Americans, and the World.
Thank God these young people aren't tip-toeing around these “401 years of apartheid in America.”
No more of this “a change is going to come,” the change is now!
