Normally (as someone who suffers from PTSD), I believe in posting Trigger warnings. But for this post, the only warning youâre going to get is that this conversation is likely going to be uncomfortable. Itâs likely to be stressful. Itâs likely to be painful. Especially if you are white. But if you can endure this conversation until the end, I hope that you will come out better for the conversation.
Before I begin, I want to give you a bit of background about myself. Iâm not doing this for back pats, or hero worship. I think itâs important that you have context for the things Iâm going to say in this post. I am a gay. I am mixed. I also became a firefighter at 16. Iâve been going on 911 calls since I was 14. Iâve worked Rural, Small City, and Large City Fire and EMS in the 11 or so fully active, and the past four semi-active years of my career. I have worked as a part of âthe systemâ.
Recently, in the wake of high profile cases like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Iâve seen a lot of white people asking why this is happening. How did we get here. Iâve seen a lot of white people especially asking what they can do. So, I want to talk about how we got here, and why this is happening before I talk about what we can do.
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I need you to understand how police, firefighters, EMTâs and Paramedics are trained. We are taught to believe every single situation is dangerous. It is ingrained in us from day one, that our safety is the #1 most important thing at all times. And then we listen to horror stories about what happens when we drop our guard. Itâs easy to think that...âif we just stop teaching that, then it might get saferâ. Unfortunately, for many of us, this reality plays out (whether we were taught it on day one-though most of us are- or we learn it over our careers through a lot of pain and suffering). You need to understand where our mindset is. You need to understand why we see the world the way we do. This isnât an excuse, but it becomes important if you truly want to make a change, to make reforms.
You also need to understand that uniformed civil service is steeped in tradition. Changing tradition is a slow, and laborious process that doesnât happen over night. Because youâre not just changing the tradition, you have to change the attitudes that have been perpetuated and ingrained in law enforcement officers since their origins.
With that in mind, we can now talk about how weâve gotten to the place we are at today. And I want to be clear...this isnât some new phenomenon. This has been the way of law enforcement since its inception. Itâs just that now... more of it is coming to light.
For as long as the police have existed, weâve used them to oppress minorities. The black and brown people, LGBTQ+ people. Weâve also used them to oppress the poor. From the rattle gangs of NY, going around to break up gambling and excessive drinking, to the slave patrols in the south. Weâve always had violent police. And the police have used that violence in the way that the power structures at hand dictated them to. The sad reality is the police that we see today, are a reflection of cultural values not only from the time of their inception, but values that even to this day, we subconsciously perpetuate to this day. Thatâs why we are where we are. Because every time thereâs a high profile case of law enforcement abusing their power, we threaten changes and reforms to the police. But that hasnât worked. Why? Because the police are a product of the society we live in, and the rules weâve put in place. You will never change law enforcement, until you change the culture of our society.
What do we do? How can you help?Â
Well, for starters, you have to acknowledge that the police we see today are a reflection of those cultural values and beliefs we hold, both consciously and subconsciously. Thatâs pretty hard to do. We all want to believe weâre good people, and that we donât hold bigoted ideas of any kind...but be truthful with yourself. Sit down, and reflect inwards. You may be surprised at some of the attitudes you find. You may not even know why you have them. And, as long as youâre willing to work on them, then thatâs okay. For white people, you need to come to terms with, and actively work to dismantle the system that you directly, and indirectly benefit from. I always see woke white people talking about how they want to help...from recording the police (good idea) to jumping in and acting like a âKarenâ when they see the police interacting with someone, to physically trying to assault officers (both of which are very not good ideas). You need to be drafting proposals. For example: You donât like how militarized the police are? Well, youâre going to have to campaign to actively create legislation that prevents the military from selling their goods to the police. Youâre also going to have to draft legislation that prevents them from selling it to citizens. Youâre also going to have to campaign to fix the broken 2nd Amendment. Youâll be threatened and hated. But if you really want to see change, thatâs what it takes. You want to see the police defunded, so that you can send social workers and drug specialists to calls for mental health crises and drug abuse cases? Well, youâre going to have to campaign for higher taxes. Because municipalities have dumped these duties on police, fire, and EMS because weâre already out responding to calls. Dumping it on us means one less service that has to be funded. You have to campaign ending the war on drugs. You canât say well, only some drugs. You have to end the war on drugs entirely.Â
These are just some of the small things that need to be done. If you really want to reform police, than we need to reform society first. Because right now, despite all our talk, we still send the message to police that we want them to keep doing what theyâve been doing.
