Issues Under Fire: The Rise and Fall of the African-American Part 9
The Fall: Managing the Occupation
After orchestrating one of the most heinous acts of inhumanity against the African-American, whomever was in charge of handling the fallout, had prepared for every possible contingency. After all, any entity capable of targeting a specific demographic within a population, for slow but certain annihilation, would have policies and procedures at the ready, to confront any unforeseen circumstances. And the unforeseen circumstances were considerable.
When it became obvious, "Operation Crack Epidemic" was unlikely to reduce the African-American population to an acceptable low before public outcry demanded answers, that operation had to be brought to a close. Unfortunately, the resulting human waste - a byproduct of the operation, could begin to threaten the general population and that byproduct had to be dealt with forcefully. Although many of these people would be considered victims in a just nation, in America that byproduct is just a dangerous liability.
We now have several generations of illiterate ex-cons and reoffenders and former addicts and backsliders with little to no hope of ever being reintegrated back into civilized society again. Lacking basic social and communications skills, along with all their other issues, these people are unlikely to ever be allowed to engage the mainstream population without constant monitoring and containment. The level of monitoring and containment necessary to manage such a large community of "nothing left to losers" will require not only require policing tactics like Broken Windows, but a military style police force to keep that community in its place.
These lifetime losers have families, friends and cohorts living in similar circumstances. The exact number is impossible to determine for sure, but considering "Operation Crack Epidemic" was operational for more than twenty years, one can reasonably estimate the loss of life from addiction, gang violence and incarceration has to climb into the millions. If one attempted to quantify the loss of human potential and production, you'd be looking at tens of billions in wasted lives. Still, we're talking about African-American lives and by now we all realize, African America lives don't matter.
In order to protect mainstream America from the human waste its government created, the entity responsible added insult to injury by applying some of the most aggressive and oppressive policing tactics in the world. While most of the public's hostile reaction has revolved around the brutishly sadistic methods in which many of America's militarized forces engage people of color, the real damage is done through the phycological warfare component of targeted policing.
A man of color to being stopped, questioned and frisked at random, while the general population strolls by looking and wondering what crime this "criminal" has committed, is humiliating and degrading enough, but to have his son or daughter witness their fathers or brothers submitting to that humiliation can be every bit as demoralizing and discouraging as it was meant to be. For the small numbers of weapons and miniscule amounts of drugs that's confiscated during such street shakedowns, one would think the practice yields far more resentment from the occupied territories than positive results.
When White America became aware that mothers of color routinely instruct their sons to be unduly respectful of the police no matter what they do or say to them, the revelation was met with shock, surprise and even anger. But not to do so, could get that child killed and nobody would give a damn. White America didn't want to believe those charged with policing America were providing separate and unequal forms of enforcement and justice. Surely, if the police was keeping undue and relentless pressures on people of color, it had to be because they deserved it.
After being publicly groped, embarrassed and ridiculed a few times in one's life, some may reach a point when they say never again. And that, is every mother of a young man of color fears most. Having a man of color stand up for his right to be treated with respect and dignity can not and will not be tolerated. Resistance is not only futile, resistance is often fatal. When no drugs and or weapons are found, in many cases, the person of color will be given a summons or ticket for any violation, real or imagined, to justify the stop and meet that particular officer's quota for the day.
Once ticketed or given one of those summonses, the person of color is obligated to go to court and pay the fines they can ill afford or face a bench warrant for their arrest for being a no show. For things as trivial as riding a bike on the sidewalk, littering, jaywalking, urinating in public, trespassing, talking too loud, playing music above acceptable decibel levels, a broken tail light or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you could be a wanted man. If you're ever stopped again and the cops run a check, you're going to jail and you won't get out until you find a way to pay the fines you couldn't afford to pay in the first place.
The whole idea behind Broken Windows Policing is to maintain a phycological dominance over a population through constantly holding it to standards other communities would find over the top. The idea that Broken Windows Policing has been instituted to serve and protect the law abiding citizen of crime infested communities, is no more than a clever cover story for making life difficult for those who refuse to remain within the confines of public spaces specifically designed for them.
Broken Windows was never meant to protect anyone in low income communities, it was designed and implemented to protect the general public from the human waste the government created.
BTW, as per usual, ther is another episode of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe just below. This is entitled "The Green Flame" Enjoy and share
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