To bring justice, police must get tougher on themselves

It’s not enough.

It’s not enough to condemn the actions of the Minneapolis police officer that killed George Floyd. There is no way to look at that incident and conclude anything but that one is witnessing a blatant disregard for another human being.

It’s not enough to state that you shouldn’t let one bad apple ruin the bunch.

It’s not enough to state that there are many more good cops than bad cops.

It’s not enough to say that these incidents are just a small fraction of the number of calls officers respond to.

It’s just not enough.

The law enforcement community needs to take a high level of introspection with this incident and the many more before it. It’s not enough to say, “That didn’t happen in my department’ or “We don’t behave that way.” An incident that happens in Minneapolis happens in Albany. An incident that happens in Georgia happens in Albany. We are all judged by the actions of every police officer in the country.

Each one of us needs to look deep inside and figure out how we are going to fix this. We can’t just cross our fingers and hope that each of these terrible incidents will be the last. There is always another incident and law enforcement must work together to take definitive action as a whole. Being judged collectively requires a full-industry approach.

As a recently retired 20-year law enforcement veteran, I can’t help but think about my con

ened to call the police on black men working out in an office gym. How dare they claim to be entrepreneurs who belonged there, as he was?

Throughout U.S. history, black people have been labeled lawless, lecherous and wild, and whites who believe the stereotypes are sometimes genuinely afraid of black people who represent no threat. But neither Cooper nor Austin believed they were in physical danger. Instead, the threat was psychic: Their sense of superiority was endangered by black men behaving as equals.

Unfortunately, millions of white voters seem prepared to destroy democracy rather than give up their sense of entitlement, whether an explicit or implicit sense of white supremacy. Two years ago, political scientists Steven Miller and Nicholas Davis released a study, “White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy.” They found a link between racial resentment

Millions of white voters seem prepared to destroy democracy rather than give up their sense of entitlement.

and support for authoritarian rule (as long as the authoritarian agreed with them, of course). It’s no wonder that so many leading conservatives have suddenly gone soft on Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

Prominent Republican politicians have laid waste to every conservative principle and every democratic tradition they once claimed to hold dear. Criminals who sided with Trump are championed by the attorney general; Russia’s continuing interference in American elections is played down; federal watchdogs assigned to ferret out malfeasance are fired. Sen. Mitch Mcconnell and his allies are also finding new and creative ways to suppress the vote among those who might support Democrats.

Perhaps the November election will turn the tide, stanching the flow of malice and ill will that seeps daily from the Oval Office. But the larger project of restoring American democracy will not be so easily finished.