“Stop trying to fix the police, fix the ghetto!”

Sheriff Clarke says fix the ghettoOut of all the negative headlines about the few bad cops we have in our country, there are a lot who honor their badge and do a good job. And their are some who are voicing their opinion on what should be done in the streets. Like Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who is African American. He has strong views on what should be done to stop violence in the ghetto. I don’t completely agree on everything, but there is some validity in what he is saying and where we as Americans should concentrate our affords to curing violence. His quote is… “Stop trying to fix the police, fix the ghetto!”.

On the second part of this quote I strongly agree with Mr. Clarke on the rehabilitation of what he calls the “Ghetto”.  Why… because of all the neglects associated within it, creating anger and frustration that are displayed through violence by youth who live there. We as a country and as people need to do a better job in defusing these problems by getting involve in solutions to cure the violence. America spends more on locking up people, them building them up. There is also a neglect in parenting and community, where children are not the priority to parents and the community as a whole is not united leaving our children exposed to violence.   The 1.2 trillion we as African American generate each year is used on lottery, beauty and fashion, instead of creating institutions for entrepreneurship, business and better social activities for youth. Better engagement is key to pull the mines of young people from the street and if our government will not do it, we need to do it ourselves.

Now for the part on fixing the police…

There is a need for improvement, because policing has changed since I was a young man. This is my opinion on what needs to be done. Police need to evaluate the need of aggressive police tactics on a case by case basic. Every stop should not be to dehumanize a person and if there is a chance to build a repour with the person or people you stop, it should be taken. Like my mother told me long ago, “you can get more with sugar than s%#t” (and it still works). I remember growing up with “Officer Friendly” in public school. These police officers would come in a few times every month and talk with the children of the neighborhood. It wouldn’t be the same officer all the time, so we learned their names, who they were and he or she would do the same toward us. This broke the ice and broke down walls create by fear. We would sometime see the same officers on the streets as we were growing up. This relation made us RESPECT them instead of fearing them. So Sheriff Clarke you almost had it right, there is a need to overhaul the ghetto, but there is also a need to put humanity and love for your fellow man (or woman) back into policing.

My new quote… “You can beat a ghetto dog to seconds of their life does not mean they won’t bite you.”

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