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Vince Wade

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A Look at Rank and File Police Racism

In several of my videos I mentioned I was on the crime and corruption beat for decades. I was around police officers, mostly good, some bad, for many, many years. I can say from experience, racism is NOT a case of a few bad apples. It’s endemic in some police departments.

The extent of the racism disease among our occasional protectors in blue is open to debate. The corrosive effect on Constitutional rights and true law and order is not.

Hoodies, crime, black teens, white police
White police officers don’t live in the ghetto and don’t understand black culture. This leads to dangerous assumptions and presumptions of guilt based on skin color. (Image: David Englund-Pixabay)

So-called people of color, especially blacks, are all-too aware of police racism. Less well known is the animosity that erodes solidarity between black and white officers. If you ask what’s wrong with policing in America, this man has a blunt answer:

“It’s all part of the systemic racism that goes on.”

Rudy Thomas, Detroit, Deputy Police Chief, Racism, Police
Rudolfo “Rudy” Thomas worked in the Detroit Police Department for nearly 30 years, rising to the rank of Deputy Chief before retiring.

The Voice of Experience

Rudolpho “Rudy” Thomas, who is part black, part Filipino. is a retired deputy police chief. He spent nearly 30 years in the Detroit Police Department. He’s seen it all—from the inside.

Thomas will tell you not all police officers are racist but many are ill-equipped to deal with the cultural differences in minority neighborhoods:

“There are some officers who weren’t racist but they had never dealt with blacks, Latinos. And then that’s where that systemic racism kicks in.”

People in the ghetto know they need the police but they are very distrustful based on years of experience.

From the time they are little kids, blacks and Hispanics learn some of the cops who patrol their neighborhoods aren’t always there to protect and serve.

More and more, it seems, having black skin when the police are around is a deadly condition.

Police, excessive force, shot in back, unarmed suspect
Excessive use of force by police officers in the shooting of blacks is frequently defended by claiming the officer feared for his life. The excuse doesn’t hold up when the suspect, usually unarmed, is shot in the back. (Image: Mohamad Hassan-Pixabay)

“It’s a mindset they have,” Thomas said. “We’re here protecting you, you need to let us do our job and leave us alone and we’ll keep you safe. That’s the mentality.”

Thomas encountered systemic police racism in his first partner when he was assigned to patrol duty on the midnight shift:

Racism in a Police Car

“I had a white senior officer and never said a word all night,” Thomas recalls. “I mean, so that, he kinda let you say…

Q: You were working as his partner…

“His partner, midnights. Never said a word.”

Q: And you’d ride around for eight hours and he wouldn’t say a word…

“Wouldn’t say a word. He’d walk in, he’d go walk in and get coffee at a stop and I’m thinkin’ ‘Well, we can have lunch.’ I had to go out and sit down. I sit there with him and he didn’t say anything. And I never worked with him again.”

Sergeant, police, supervisor
Sergeants are supervisors in police departments. They are the direct managers of rank and file police officers. Many avoid racial problems out of a desire to “get along” and “be one of the boys.”

Thomas complained to his supervisor, who responded the way managers in most police departments would handle it:

“He said, ‘I’ll take care of this.’ And he put him with another white office, anyway.”  

Disrespecting the Chain of Command

Rudy Thomas, police, racism
Retired Detroit Deputy Police Chief Rudy Thomas is pessimistic about the chances of eliminating racism and police brutality in most police departments. Thomas says these problems are ingrained in the police culture of us-against-them.

Thomas chuckles a grim chuckle. He says the racial animosity didn’t change when he was promoted to sergeant and assigned to the 7th police precinct:

“I didn’t know very many people there and I noticed the officers looked at me, but they wouldn’t say ‘Hey, Sarge’ or nothing like that but they said Sarge to the other white sergeants and I’m thinking ‘Wow. Was it something I said or what?’

“Anyhow, I got on patrol. I was trying to do my job as a supervisor. And then I said, I responded 8-Seven-Oh or 6-Seven-Oh, whatever I was, I said…

Q: That’s a radio code…

”…Radio code, yeah. That a supervisor is on his way. And then I heard two or three times, I thought I heard Willie, and I said, ‘Is that Willie?’ ‘Hey, Willie Seven-Oh is on the way.’ ‘Willie Seven-Oh on the way.’ And the other black officer said, ‘Be positive.’ I heard that on the radio and I got back in the station and they said, ‘You know they were calling you?’ I said, ‘What are you talkin’ about? ‘Willie Seven-Oh. Black Sergeant.’”

Q: Is that what that means?

Oh, that’s what it is.

Q: But it’s a racial…That’s a racial, yeah…insult…insult, yeah.

Q: And that spills over in to their interaction with citizens…

Exactly. If they would treat a supervisor, a black supervisor…it would be worse for a citizen. I can still remember their faces to this day.

Q: Do you have any reason to think things are going to get better anytime soon in America in terms of minorities and policing?

“I think that’s one of the toughest things the departments are ever going to have to work on. I hope that they do. It’s going to be a long, tough battle.”

Getting the police to treat all citizens equally and fairly is a big job. Unequal policing is one of the nation’s most persistent and urgent problems. If people are serious about LAW and order, police brutality has to stop.

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