And then police wonder why some people don’t give them their full trust

Officials in New York on Sunday laid to rest police officer Wenjian Liu, an occasion that could have been a moment where the people showed their solidarity and support for the law enforcement types who are supposed to be there for our protection.

Instead, numerous officers in New York felt compelled to turn the funeral services Sunday for the officer shot to death while sitting in his parked squad car last month into a statement that will reinforce the beliefs of some in our society that the police are as much the problem as anybody else.

I HAD HOPED officers would not see the need to make their statement against Mayor Bill deBlasio as they have on several occasions, including the funeral services held last week for Liu’s partner, Rafael Ramos – who also was shot to death by a man who used Facebook to say he was avenging the deaths of black men in New York and Ferguson, Mo., who were killed by police.

Their gesture was to turn their backs to de Blasio – as a way of publicly showing they refuse to acknowledge his presence.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton had said he wanted New York officers to show the mayor professional respect during the funeral service on Sunday. Instead, officers outside the funeral home where a Buddhist service was held turned their back to a video screen while de Blasio spoke – and faced it again once de Blasio sat down.

Although it should be noted the New York Daily News reported that it was not clear that all the officers who “protested” were actually New York cops – some may have been out-of-town officers who showed up to show solidarity amongst law enforcement personnel.

BUT IT STILL comes across as a juvenile gesture – one that legitimate police officers seeking public respect ought to know better than to commit.

For the record, police in New York have been turning their backs on de Blasio ever since the death of Eric Garner – who was strangled by a New York cop with a headlock grip. De Blasio, who has a biracial son, made comments about how he feared his son might be treated by police.

In short, he conceded that the activists upset over the deaths of Garner and Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburbs may well have a legitimate point when it comes to police encounters with black people.

These officers, instead of trying to figure out how to close the gap in trust that exists between them and black people, seem to expect blind loyalty.

AS THOUGH THE lesson we should learn from the deaths of Ramos and Liu (who by all evidence were not doing anything threatening to anyone at the time they were shot) is that people like Garner and Brown (and anyone else whom police decide to use force upon) got what they deserved.

I know there are some people in our society who will be eager to believe such a line of thought. But THAT is the problem we face!

That is why I’m not sure what to think of the fact that other law enforcement agencies feel compelled to express their support to their New York counterparts.

Including Chicago, where on New Year’s Day our city’s own officers gathered at a police memorial near Soldier Field to show their support for fallen police officers – with Ramos and Liu given special mention for the Dec. 20 incident in which the two were shot and killed while on duty in Brooklyn a month earlier.

I’D LIKE TO think our own police officers would behave better than their New York counterparts if the incidents were occurring here.

Then again, with the gap in trust between police and some in our society, that might be the New Year’s wish that’s just too much to ask for.

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Why can’t we all just get along? It seems like such a naive thought

What we really need is to figure out a way that our society can figure out how people of color can feel less threatened by the police who are supposed to be protecting all of us.


Because names such as Michael Brown and Eric Garner already are ancient history – the people who are quarrelling over whether the police are singling out black people for abuse have already moved on to fresher incidents.

EVEN THOUGH THOSE incidents are less than a month old!

For it was just last weekend that a black man, feeling a sense of disgust because of the deaths of those two men and contempt for law enforcement in general, traveled to New York and opened fire on two uniformed police officers who happened to be sitting in a squad car in the Brooklyn borough.

Then on Tuesday in Berkeley, Mo., (just about five miles from the town where Brown was killed by police officers), a teenage boy was shot to death by a local cop.

There is evidence that the boy, when confronted by police, reached for something resembling a pistol – thereby giving the officer in question the legal justification to feel threatened and respond with gunfire.

YET THAT DIDN’T stop local residents from gathering early Wednesday at the gas station where the boy’s death took place and begin protests that at times threatened to grow out of hand.


Combine this with another incident during the weekend in which a rural Florida police officer was shot at, and we just seem to have an endless streak of incidents in which public mistrust of the police is at stake.

More than two decades after Rodney King uttered his words about his preferred state of police/public relations, it seems we’re nowhere near to achieving them.

Now I had hoped to avoid writing much of anything about the New York police slayings, largely because I’m already sick of hearing about them elsewhere. A part of me regrets that I’m adding to the level of rhetoric.

ALTHOUGH WHAT ALSO bothers me is the fact that I have read way too much Internet commentary from people who want to perceive the shootings of the two New York police officers as some sort of evidence that both Brown and Garner were a pair of “(Insert preferred racial slur here) who got what they deserved.”

I don’t doubt that the two officers (who were of Chinese and Puerto Rican ethnic origins, and not white) were caught off guard and weren't threatening anyone at the time they were shot.

But I’m more repulsed by the New York police officers who pulled their symbolic gesture of contempt of turning their backs on on Mayor Bill de Blasio, claiming he was wrong with his past comments implying that perhaps people who were protesting Garner’s death at the hands of New York police just a few weeks ago were justified in their feelings – despite the grand jury that refused to return an indictment against the officers involved.

Perhaps they’re going to be eager to believe the latest police-related death in the St. Louis suburbs is yet another incident of brave law enforcement officers sparing society from yet another person who would have turned out to be a thug. Which is why I'm not enthused that the Chicago Police Department has its officers wearing black bands on their uniforms as a tribute to their New York law enforcement brethren.

THAT KIND OF attitude of knee-jerk support for cops is offensive on so many levels. While I can understand the legal reasons why prosecutors are reluctant to go after police, I also fully comprehend why people feel nothing but contempt for such an attitude.

As though they’re being singled out for abuse by people committing what can amount to criminal acts and are using the authority granted by their badges to avoid facing the consequences.

Personally, I feel fortunate we haven’t had any such police/black people conflicts in the Chicago area anytime in the recent past. But we shouldn’t presume that we’re above such bad behavior.

Because that level of tension seems to be something universal to our society, and we can only hope our public officials figure out how to handle such circumstances better than other cities have done so.

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Freedom of expression? Or should Derrick Rose keep his trap shut?!?

A t-shirt is going to show us just how much Chicago sports fans “love” Bulls point guard Derrick Rose.

Bulls fans have become critical of the fact that Rose has suffered so many injuries during his professional athletic career and gives the impression that he’s in no hurry to recover from his various maladies.

THE DEBATE OVER Rose is whether he’s merely being careful and taking care of himself; or if he’s got a lazy streak within him.

But now, we’re going to have another issue – following the Saturday night incident where Rose publicly wore a t-shirt with the slogan “I can’t breathe” printed on its front.

That slogan refers to what were among the “last words” spoken by Eric Garner in New York while being held in a choke hold by police. Garner later died, and his words are being used by protesters angry that the officer in the incident evaded criminal indictment for his actions that caused the death.

Rose became merely the latest professional athlete to show sympathy toward someone who died recently because of a police officer’s actions.

LET’S NOT FORGET the St. Louis Rams football players who last month took the field prior to a game against the Oakland Raiders with their hands held in the air, symbolically letting police know that just because they were black men, they weren’t about to commit any violent acts.

As though the assumption was that black people are naturally violent and pose a threat that law enforcement should react harshly towards.

The St. Louis Police Officers Association led a verbal attack on the football players, saying it was disrespectful for them to side with the people who believe the death of Michael Brown in suburban Ferguson, Mo., was caused by police and who are angry that an officer there also managed to avoid being indicted for his actions.

Now, we’re going to see how the sports world comes out against Rose, although it should be noted that the Chicago Tribune reported most of Rose’s Bulls teammates are supportive of his right to express his views.

THEN AGAIN, ROSE is the supposed star of the Bulls team and is the man whose fitness is key to whether the Bulls have a chance to be in the NBA playoffs come spring.

If he does play well this season, he “buys” himself the right to say what he thinks.

Those Rams football players (Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Gevans and Kenny Britt) are not NFL stars. In fact, there’s a good chance that when they die, their obituaries will lede with the fact that they were the guys who protested Brown’s death – instead of anything they did during a game.

As for Rose’s gesture of protest, I think it is rather mild. If you weren’t paying attention during pre-game warm-ups, you didn’t see it. It’s not like he’s going around elaborating on his attitude these days.

SO I THINK anybody who gets too upset about Rose taking such a stance is probably saying more about themselves than anything Rose (or Garner) said or did!

It reminds me of the book “Ball Four,” in which former pitcher Jim Bouton addressed the attitude of baseball people toward those of their colleagues who expressed views on social issues.

Ballplayers could say anything they want if they expressed a socially conservative viewpoint because they were “right.” But if they said something construed as not supportive of the conservative establishment, then they were criticized for being “wrong.”

Unless the player in question was a big-enough star, in which case they’d get a simmering silence directed toward them. Is that bound to be Rose’s fate for daring to wear a t-shirt Saturday night?

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The more we change, the more we stay the same. And that is pretty sad!

Protesters gathered both Thursday and Friday at prominent points in downtown Chicago to express their outrage with the fact that a New York police officer managed to avoid indictment, despite being caught on video putting a choke hold on a black man who later died as a result.

In a legal context, the death of Eric Garner is a perfect example of the difference between “homicide” and “murder.” The former is a medical term for any death caused by another human being’s action.

YET PROSECUTORS THIS week in New York determined that the shouting and screaming and other hostilities that occurred between Garner and police Officer Daniel Pantaleo caused the incident to rise to the level by which use of force was justified.

Therefore, no criminal charges!

That is what has activists upset all across the country, including in Chicago. Thursday night saw four people get arrested for misdemeanor charges when the protest they participated in caused traffic on Lake Shore Drive to close.

On Friday, they were to gather on State Street (“that great street”) for another rally. Who’s to say how long they will continue to do so?

THE GARNER INCIDENT may wither away into the past. But at the rate we’re going, it will be a very short period of time before there’s another “male black” (to use police jargon) who winds up getting killed because of a police officer’s actions.

It was just last week that the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the refusal of grand jury to indict the police officer on any charges caused activists in Chicago to camp out at City Hall – literally spending a night outside the mayor’s Fifth Floor office to express their disgust.

We haven’t had violent outbursts in Chicago yet. But just envision if one of these upcoming acts takes place here. When one considers that a person asking a police officer why they’re being questioned can, under certain circumstances, be construed as resistance, it’s just a matter of time before there’s another police-related death in Chicago.

The sad part of all this is that it isn’t the least bit new. In fact, Thursday was the 45^th anniversary of when the Chicago police raided the West Side house where the Black Panther Party was located locally.

WHICH MEANS THAT 45 years ago today, we had people outraged over the blatant actions of Chicago police that resulted in the death of Panther party leader Fred Hampton and others with the group.

There were others more than willing to believe the rhetoric that the group was a subversive organization, and would cite the armed conflicts that had burst out between the group and police across the country in the late 1960s.

Then again, there are those who argue the Panthers’ desire to arm black people for “self” protection was because the police themselves were not doing anything to protect those individuals – and may well have been the problem.

Some people might well think that nothing has changed – police still viewing black faces as the problem, and being more willing to use potentially-deadly force.

I HAVE ENOUGH sense to see that in the 21^st Century, we’re in a more subtle situation.

Nothing that has happened in recent months is as blatant as the Panther raid, where the FBI provided intelligence they gathered about the Panther headquarters and turned it over to Chicago police – which then carried out the raid that resulted in criminal indictments against 13 law enforcement officials, including of then-State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan.

All of them were ultimately acquitted, although Hanrahan’s desires to someday become mayor withered away and died. In his mind, that may well have been the ultimate punishment!

Although others still feel an injustice was done – a level of discontent felt by some in our society these days who wonder if attitudes will ever change significantly.

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