Open letter to my fellow members of law enforcement

From the Pittsburgh Courier - https://newpittsburghcourier.com/2020/06/09/open-letter-to-my-fellow-members-of-law-enforcement/

I do not want to dismiss the importance of training and the emphasis on the recognition of implicit bias that is ingrained in American Law Enforcement culture. Making illegal the carotid artery hold, commonly referred to as the “choke hold”, is low hanging fruit and should be legislated out of policing nationally for it is an equivalent to lynching without a rope but at the hands of persons sworn to protect and serve the community. Necessary changes, however, in and of themselves fall woefully short of the complete overhaul that is needed in law enforcement in the United States of America.

The disproportionate numbers of Black, brown and disenfranchised Americans that are over-policed fundamentally will not change if we only focus on tactics and training without acknowledging the structural and systemic racism that policing in America is responsible for. The over-incarceration of Black and brown Americans and ostensibly criminalizing being poor are inequities ingrained in American policing that cannot simply be trained out of the hearts of the 1.5 million plus law enforcement officers that work in over 19,000 different police agencies across the United States of America.

I would submit to you that after 33 years in law enforcement; I joined the Detroit Police Department at 19 years old with the noblest of intentions as I would opine that the millions of Americans that have served in that capacity have done and will continue to do as they heed to the call of serving their communities. At the age of 52 I realize that even with the noblest of intentions of police officers in America; we are surreptitiously the instrumentation that enforces the structural and at times exacerbates the social inequities of systemic racism that starts with the first organized police forces in America; slave patrols to Bull Connor to the War on Drugs; the Omnibus Crime bill to the seminal moment in our history where America witnessed a tipping point moment when George Floyd was murdered by four Minneapolis police officers right in front of what had been for 401 years our proverbial lying eyes.

Anything short of comprehensive reform to American policing is unacceptable. I do not want to be a part of a system that simply causes its officers to be less forceful in its implementation; we cannot afford to simply have systemic racism with a smile. Any meaningful reform of the criminal justice system as it relates to the engagement protocols for police and communities of color to address the disproportionate contact and over-policing of these communities minimally must address and correct the following:

1. The predication for police stops in communities of color. Police Officers have unrestrained discretion as to the predicate for their stops and that discretion is abused in communities of color. As an industry we have not demonstrated the ability to have such unregulated discretion in the predication for police stops that are not directly attributable to a 9-1-1 call for service.
2. Arrestable offenses. There must be a delineation in probable cause arrests that are for offenses that do not pose an imminent or immediate danger to the public. When an offense is not a crime against person and the potential suspect can reasonably be identified; such offenses need to be processed through the not in custody warrant process.
3. Decriminalization of traffic offenses that do not go directly to a physical and tangible potential of imminent danger to the public if continued operation of the motor vehicle were to not cease.
4. Elimination of “no-knock” warrants except for circumstances wherein imminent danger of death or critical injury to persons is reasonably articulated.
5. Review of compensation policies that cause for overtime for officers for their appearance in court based on citations issued. An alternative compensation policy must be adopted to compensate officers accordingly but gives no greater incentive to enforcement with a profit motive for the officer.
6. Equitable sharing formulas for civil asset forfeiture re-engineered for reinvestment in the community wherein the funds were seized as opposed to the coffers of the forfeiting agency; again, removing any profit motive for enforcement.

These measures are in no way all-inclusive of comprehensive criminal justice reform, however, structurally reframes how in a meaningful way the disproportionate benefit of the doubt that has been extended to law enforcement over the persistent and righteous calls to equitable treatment of people of color and the disenfranchised by police. Black people particularly in America have been subjected to 401 years of unspeakable trauma from a system that has not protected them consistently, fairly nor equitably. As law enforcement executives we must own our contribution to this trauma as a profession realizing that there are three physiological stress responses to a trauma which are fight, flee or freeze. Two of the three responses do not work in favor of the traumatized in a police encounter. Black and brown officers in particular and all officers of good moral character must own these unfortunate facts and be a part of the solution; we can no longer hunker down and proclaim we “bleed blue” while the blood of the least of these we are charged with protecting runs in the streets of America. We cannot fix it until we own it and address it. We may in mass be “good cops” but we are working in a “bad system”. Black lives matter.

Ralph L. Godbee, Jr.

Chief of Police (Detroit Public Schools Community District)

Chief of Police Retired (Detroit Police Department)

A letter to Post-Gazette's David Templeton

David, I read with interest your article today titled “Studies differ on how fast to open…”  I have a recommendation for future articles that could provide you with a more “attention grabbing” headline, and potentially serve a much needed good for our society. 

It pleased me to see that the last section of your article mentioned that there is a lot of overlap between the two sets of recommendations that you reported.  Personally I think this is the most news-worthy element of the report.  Now, can you imagine the shock of reading a headline which reads something like “Holy Cow, Economists Largely Agree!” Please pardon my drama, but I can’t help but try to make the case that in today’s environment, reporting on the differences is humdrum; it is not news.  Reporting on even a modicum of agreement would (think about it) be surprising, and draw nearly every reader in.  And then there is the other benefit.  The vast majority of my friends, both right leaning and left leaning, bemoan the polarity and division in our society.  Let’s face it, the media is both a reflection of that, and a reinforcement to same.  Reporting on areas of agreement would, in my view, unquestionably move us forward as a country or community, whether the direction is perceived as more conservative or more liberal.  Most of us want to see progress, paint it whatever color you choose.

I very much appreciate your including the ”Broader overview” section of your article.  Thank you!  Few articles report any agreement at all.  I wholeheartedly recommend that your future articles lead with the broader view section, emphasizing the commonality in purpose and process.  Now that would be news.

Sincerely,

Michael DiMonte

Empowered Women

International Women’s Day 2020

Sunday, March 8th

A presentation by Jeanne DiMonte

I’m a team member of the St Paul’s Working for Justice Ministry.

This group is different from other justice groups in that it is not focused on one justice issue, but is more broad-based, touching on multiple justice issues.  Its goal is to inform, educate, and motivate members to action on various justice issues.  We meet monthly on the second Thursday of the month at 6:30 PM at St. Paul’s UMC.

We are a faith based ministry guided by the St Paul’s vision statement:  We will be an inclusive, diverse church loving others according to the teachings of Jesus and working for justice and peace in our world.” 

Working for Justice was started 2 years ago as a United Methodist Women’s initiative.  “Empowered Women Empowering Women and Men”

They brainstormed a list of justice issues and placed priorities on what to tackle first.  The list was: 

• Women’s Issues
• Anti-Racism
• Domestic Violence
• Poverty
• Gun Safety
• Human Trafficking
• Immigration
• Healthcare
• Gerrymandering
• Addiction
• Climate and Environmental Justice
• Interfaith Relationships

“Women’s issues” was the top priority.  As an aside, I think these are all “Women’s Issues” There is no shortage of justice issues. 

We have touched on just about all of these issues in the two years since our start.  This year we have added political justice to our list.  Politics, unfortunately, is a factor in nearly all of these justice issues and our vote counts.

We have marched in marches, organized a large book study, had presentations from team member and expert speakers on various topics.  We became a UM Reconciling Community and joined the Breathe Project.  We’ve had prayer vigils and police appreciation luncheons.  We readily pass on information provided by team members about what other justice groups are doing and other meetings going on in the communities.  All good ideas are accepted.

Shortly after the start of the group, two things happened that spring which changed both the both the structure of the group and the priority of issues.

• Our beloved administrator, Faith Geer became sick, and several of the women who started the group, reset their priorities to care for Faith.  
• Secondly, this can only be classified as “Life Comes At You Fast” we were faced with two critical issues that spring that we felt needed to be addressed: 

a.    Separation of children from their migrant parents.  We discovered that there were several organizations housing these children in the Pittsburgh area, so it is not something that is just happening on the border of Mexico.

b.    The homicide of Antwon Rose in Pittsburgh

Working for Justice sponsored a prayer vigil and information forum on these two topics and how they are affecting us locally and what we could do.  It was held on July 2 (holiday week) in our sanctuary and our sanctuary was filled.  People of many different faiths were in attendance.  This was our first major event.

The structure of the group changed to truly being a team-based structure.  While we do have a convener to keep us all on track, different people in the group will suggest a topic and run with it.  Several sub-groups have been formed.  One of the largest sub-groups dealing with environmental justice issues including fracking and the Cracker plant being built in Beaver County has become a group onto itself. We have at least four other sub-groups working on various issues. 

One of the sub-groups that is active now is on Human Trafficking.  In January, one of our team members did a presentation on Human Trafficking based on information that she received here in November with the presentation on “Human Trafficking, Yes, It’s here is Pittsburgh.”  Our group wanted to get more information about the topic, so Megan has arranged for a speaker, Sherill Rudy, from the organization “Living for Liberty” to speak to us about Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention”.  This presentation will be held this coming Thursday, March 12^th at 6:30 at St Paul’s.  This is our March meeting.  Anyone who would like to attend is invited to come to this meeting or to join our group.  I have hand-outs for anyone who is interested.

To finish up, I’d just like to make a comment on “Why do we do this?”  I was struggling a little with this since it can seem frustrating at times and you can easily question whether you are making a difference.  Yesterday, I got my answer.  I listen to Krista Tippets’ podcast, On Being, and her interview yesterday was with Nicholas Christakis and entitled “How We’re Wired for Goodness”.  Krista’s introduction is as follows:

Nicholas Christakis is the director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale, He does research that focuses on the evolutionary role of human goodness: capacities like love, friendship, teaching, and cooperation. “These are some very positive, amazing qualities that are shaped by natural selection, are encoded in our genes, and are universal in humans, and that are good and that serve to countermand some of our vile propensities, which, alas, we also have,” he says.

Christakis points out how, in a world filled with evidence of the bad things humans are capable of, we often overlook our propensity toward goodness or take it for granted. “For too long … scientists and citizens on the street have focused on the dark side of human nature, on our propensity for selfishness and tribalism and cruelty and violence, as if this were a natural or normal or primary state of affairs,” he says. “And yet, I think the bright side has been denied the attention it deserves, because, equally, we are capable of love and friendship and teaching and cooperation and all these other wonderful things. And, in fact, I would argue those qualities are more powerful than the bad qualities and, therefore, in some ways, much more important.”

I’ve found this to be a powerful exercise in understanding the kind of communities we must continue to grow and cultivate together.

That’s why we do this!

Practical Voting Help

Try out Allegheny County’s new voting system at the library.

Northland Public Library

Northland Public Library 300 Cumberland Rd, McCandless Twp.

Drop in and try out Allegheny County’s new voting system. We'll be running a mock election with hand-marked ballots, as well as a ballot-marking device.