This article is Part 2 of a three-part series. You can read Part 1 here and Part 3 here.

I ended my last post wondering where are the good police officers and why aren't they doing anything about bad apples like Derek Chauvin?

After doing some research, I found the answer.

It seems the contracts that the police unions negotiate allow police officers to operate with effective immunity from the very laws they are sworn to uphold.

Some police act as if they are above the law because they actually are.

This is how officers like Derek Chauvin can rack up complaint after complaint and still not get fired.

Good police chiefs can't get rid of bad police officers, even if they want to.

And bad police chiefs will fire a good police officer for not going along with “shoot first and ask questions later.”

Police Union Contracts Are The Problem

Tackling the issue of these “freedom from consequences” police union contracts is a way we can all go beyond marching and systematically address the issue of police brutality towards black people.

White people, if you're serious about helping, addressing these egregious police union contracts is how you can use the privilege you enjoy to make a difference.

No law-abiding police officer needs the sweeping exemptions from any and all punishment that these contracts provide.

It Really Boils Down To A Lobbying Effort

In the PBS Frontline documentary, NRA Under Fire, a former lobbyist for the NRA explains how little it really takes to influence legislation.

He said it doesn't take tens of thousands of people or thousands of people or even several hundred.

He said that the NRA is able to keep gun laws the way they are by just getting a couple hundred people to call and write to their congressperson.

The couple hundred voices that make themselves heard are the voices that decide our nation's gun laws.

It doesn't matter if tens of thousands of other citizens have a different opinion if those people do not light up the phones of their congressperson.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

That's the playbook that the NRA has been executing successfully for decades because it works.

That explains why the NRA has been such a powerful organization when such a small percentage of the American population are members.

The Police Unions Are Following The Same Playbook

This strategy of the few dictating the rules that all of us have to live under is exactly the strategy the police unions are employing, as is detailed in this Reuters investigation:

“Reuters, examining the fine print of 82 police union contracts in large cities across the country, found a pattern of protections afforded the men and women in blue:

A majority of the contracts call for departments to erase disciplinary records, some after just six months, making it difficult to fire officers with a history of abuses. In 18 cities, suspensions are erased in three years or less. In Anchorage, Alaska, suspensions, demotions and disciplinary transfers are removed after two years.
Nearly half of the contracts allow officers accused of misconduct to access the entire investigative file–including witness statements, GPS readouts, photos, videos and notes from the internal investigation–before being interrogated.
Twenty cities, including San Antonio, allow officers accused of misconduct to forfeit sick leave or holiday and vacation time rather than serve suspensions.
Eighteen cities require an officer’s written consent before the department publicly releases documents involving prior discipline or internal investigations.
Contracts in 17 cities set time limits for citizens to file complaints about police officers–some as short as 30 days. Nine cities restrict anonymous complaints from being investigated.”

Why would law abiding police officers need such blanket immunity?

We’ve seen time and again what kind of policing this blanket immunity produces.

It’s time now to tackle the issue of these police union contracts so that police no longer feel they have free license to do whatever they want to black people.

We no longer have to take the black community’s word for it when it comes to police misconduct.

With video cameras everywhere, we now see exactly what police do to black people when they know they can’t be held accountable.

Body cams mean nothing when the police know their contract will protect them, no matter what the video shows.

From the ACLU article, Police Unions Should Never Undermine Constitutional Policing:

“Take the example of John Blumenthal, a Sergeant with the Oklahoma City Police Department.

In 2007, he kicked a handcuffed man who was lying down in the head. His fellow officers reported him and he was fired and subsequently convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery.

Two years later, after filing an appeal and successfully revoking his punishment as allowed in the police union contract, he was able to return to work, and continues to act as a police officer to this day.”

This Is What Institutional Racism Looks Like

These police union contracts that exempt police from any form of accountability for their actions are an example of how racism becomes codified into “the system” and then becomes institutional.

This is how we go generation after generation and make no progress.

These police union contracts are innocuous to white people because white people are significantly less likely to be stopped for any reason, and white people are significantly less likely to be brutalized by the police.

Meanwhile, that same police union contract allows people like Derek Chauvin to terrorize black people with impunity over the span of their entire career.

The institution is stacked against people who look like me.

These are the rules under which black people have to try to navigate life in America, 24/7/365, and it's damn exhausting.

A white executive and a black executive who each share the same ten mile commute to work face vastly different journeys.

The black executive is on a far more perilous journey and it's not criminals he has to worry most about, it's the police.

If his car is too nice, as determined by a racist police officer, the black executive can be pulled over for no reason and have that unwarranted traffic stop end in his death.

This is the kind of outcome that institutional racism produces, and these “get out of jail free” police union contracts are an example of institutionalized racism.

When You Know Better, You Do Better –Maya Angelou

As citizens, we must become knowledgeable of what's at stake with these police union contracts and demand change.

We have to insist that these contracts no longer be negotiated in secret, and we have to show up and support our city officials in their efforts to change them.

And if changing the police union contract isn’t on your local legislator’s agenda, you have to put it on their agenda. Your vote counts.

Nobody, except the police, wants to live in a world where the police enjoy a “get out of jail free” card, no matter what they've done.

Austin, Texas Made Reforms

We can follow the same playbook as the citizens in Austin, Texas and insist that these police union contracts do not exempt police officers from being punished for violating citizens' rights.

And now is the time to do it, while we're all still cringing from seeing George Floyd murdered on the street by someone who should have been removed from the police force a long time ago.

For anybody who truly wants to be a part of the solution, contacting your city councilperson about your municipality's police union contract is where you can start right now.

Now You Know Better

Having read this article, you now know the mechanism by which police brutality has persisted as a problem for the African-American community.

What are you personally going to do about it?

Putting a Black Lives Matter sign in your yard or bumper sticker on your car is not enough!

Black people are getting executed on the street by people who should have long ago had their police powers stripped.

What are you personally going to do about it?

You can start by sharing this post so more people become knowledgeable about this issue.

From a CNN article published on June 2nd:

"Bank of America is donating $1 billion over the next four years to community programs and small businesses to help address economic and racial inequality that has been exacerbated by Covid-19.”

Here are some additional resources for those who are serious about effecting change before another black man dies at the hands of the police, saying “I can't breathe.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Campaign Zero

Check The Police

Nationwide Analysis of Police Union Contracts

Economic Sanctions Will Fix This

In the third and final installment of this three-part series that I never intended to or had any desire to write, I demonstrate how we can use the power of money to end police brutality, without spending a dime.

Read Part Three