Blue Wall of silence needs to be broken down

Our phones and TV screens are filled daily with videos of officers behaving badly. But what about those officers who stand by doing nothing?

When we talk about police reform, we cannot solely focus on holding bad cops accountable. There’s a system in place for that already.

What truly needs our attention is the impenetrable wall of silence: the officers who watch these atrocities and do nothing.

In Somerville last October, a police officer was videotaped allegedly spraying mace in the face of a handcuffed man. That officer, Somerville police Officer Michael McGrath, has been criminally charged for the assault. McGrath, who has led police protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, will have his day in court.

But what about the other two officers who with were him that night? Not only did neither of them do anything to stop Officer McGrath from spraying an incapacitating agent into the face of a handcuffed person, they also did nothing as the man was thrown into the back of a prisoner transport van.

Despite suffering in pain from the chemical agent, the man was driven from the scene to the Somerville lockup, and officers with McGrath apparently did nothing to render aid. Along the ride, the man pressed his face against the cold, metal floor of the vehicle for relief.

Those other officers apparently didn’t think for a moment about the human rights of that man or consider that they had a duty to act. They are paid by the taxpayers to protect and serve. They are bound by a duty to ensure that the public is treated fairly and that human rights — even those of criminals — are respected.

They couldn’t have stopped Officer McGrath from spraying mace in the man’s face but they certainly could have helped the man. They could have offered aid. Instead, the man was tossed into the back of a van, left to suffer. It’s unconscionable.

While we all love to work with people we trust, loyalty cannot be blind. My father fought in Vietnam and the loyalty of his fellow soldiers is the reason he came home alive.

But loyalty in the face of bad behavior, or at the expense of public safety, cannot be tolerated. The blue wall of silence cannot be allowed to stand when a fellow officer is inflicting trauma on the community.

Officers take an oath — not to be loyal to each other, but to protect and serve the public. That is their first obligation. Officers need to remember that core mission and their training must reflect a commitment to public safety first, and their fellow officers second.

The investigation into this incident must go beyond Officer McGrath. The other officers had a duty to protect and serve and they failed. They too need to be held accountable.

Officers need to learn from incidents like this and understand very clearly that they too will lose their job and their pension if they are complicit and fail in their duty to protect the public.

Right now the incentive for those officers, and others in similar situations, is to remain silent. The system is set up to keep them quiet, rather than requiring them to do the right thing and help their fellow human. When we talk about systemic injustice, this is what we are talking about.

This is what needs to change.