A letter and some history for Sgt. Baker
The following is an open letter to Santa Fe police Sgt. Troy Baker, president of the Santa Fe Police Officers Association: Dear Sgt. Baker:
We thought this would be a good time to write to you, in part to let you a know a little about the history of the NAACP, our nation’s oldest civil rights organization.
It was founded in 1909 by a group that included both white and black Americans, as the practice of lynching black people (otherwise known as mob murder) thrived and soon after a race riot in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Ill. The NAACP’s stated goal was to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which ended slavery, established the equal protection of the law and mandated universal adult male suffrage.
At that time, in large swathes of the United States, there was no equal justice for black people under the racist Jim Crow system. There were legal obstacles created to keep AfricanAmericans from voting, as well as blatant intimidation. These conditions, including the lynchings, continued for decades in America as the NAACP fought them by organizing, producing reports that exposed the effects of racism and going to court.
NAACP leaders were murdered during the civil rights era. Its Mississippi field secretary, Medgar Evers, was assassinated in front of his house in 1962. The organization’s famous members include Thurgood Marshall, who, as NAACP counsel, spearheaded the legal fight against segregated schools and who became the first African-American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court; and Rosa Parks, whose refusal to move to the back of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., spurred a boycott and helped push the civil rights movement forward.
The NAACP was criticized by some during those tumultuous times for continuing to work within the system, seeking change via legislative and judicial processes, rather turning to more radical means. The organization continues to advocate against discrimination and on other issues.
And FYI, Sgt. Baker, a white person can hold a leadership position in the NAACP. (Just Google Donald Harris, a white, Jewish native of Brooklyn who, in his late 70s, became head of the NAACP chapter in Maricopa County, Ariz. And as you have not steered away from controversial commentary in your own public communications, you probably should take heed of Harris being forced to resign after making a comment about a female reporter’s anatomy.)
We decided this information about the NAACP might prove useful to you after it came to light this week that you have used your personal Facebook page to post numerous bombthrowing memes. One shows a Confederate flag with the words “Now lets eliminate the N.A.A.C.P. which in name alone is racist as is its purpose! There is no room in this country for a separate race to have a membership where holding an office requires that you be black.”
A question you might want to address, for those of us new to the memes you posted, is how a police officer such as yourself, sworn to uphold the law, might propose to “eliminate” a private organization like the NAACP.
On another topic, we’d like to offer a piece of advice for when you encounter Muslim Santa Feans or, say, Muslims who come from around the world to exhibit during the International Folk Art Market or attend classes at the World College over in Montezuma. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to disclose sentiment expressed in another meme you put up online that says, “Let’s discuss what Islam has to offer” and then lists things like rape, beheading, burning people alive, oppression of women and something called “paedophilia.”
As you probably know by performing the tough and under-appreciated job of police officer, many of the horrible crimes you attribute to what “Islam has to offer” are committed all too often here in New Mexico — even including beheading and burning people alive — by people raised as Christians.
Yet another post of yours made us wonder if you were among the police officers who were on duty as more than 10,000 people (that’s the police department’s estimate) peacefully marched through Santa Fe in protest the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. This meme shows a stick figure being run over by a car with the words “All lives splatter. Nobody cares about your protest. Moral of the story … stay off the road!!”
You may have been talking about Black Lives Matter or the pipeline protesters in North Dakota, and you told the Santa Fe Reporter you were just joking. But those are distinctions the Women’s March walkers probably wouldn’t appreciate.
We hope that you will take up the issues discussed in the Facebook posts with your fellow members of the Police Officers Association, the union you lead. Many Santa Feans probably want to know if the union will continue what amounts to an endorsement of views expressed in your extensive collection of publicly posted memes by keeping you on as the union president, and as its public face and spokesman. Please keep us informed on that point, by Facebook, if necessary.
We offer as a friendly suggestion that you volunteer to watch “Eyes on The Prize,” the 14-part documentary series on the civil rights movement in the U.S. that’s been aired by PBS (Note: It will still be available on DVD even if Trump kills off public television). It would be understandable if your city government employers mandate that you see the series, taking cues from the movie “A Clockwork Orange,” if necessary, by propping your eyes open and forcing you to sit in front of a screen.
In any case, we hope the public discussion that your Facebook posts inspire will help Santa Fe residents reach across the severe divisions of American society today. Sincerely,
The Journal North editorial board.