By
David Muhammad
“Guns
and drugs on the table” was an infamous
tag line in the highly touted television crimes
series “The Wire.” It’s what
the police brass and mayor’s office wanted
in order to have a press conference to show
they were doing something about the rising
tide of violence.
And at a recent press conference in Oakland with police
and the former mayor-turned state attorney general, the guns and drugs were on
the table. With corrupt government bureaucrats, uncontrollable violence and ineffective,
often heavy-handed police tactics, Oakland and other cities have been
providing fodder for discussions about how realistic the HBO series is.
Police
checkpoints, armored military vehicles, raids by heavily armed law enforcement — this
all sounds like scenes from the war in Iraq. But no, this describes the streets
of many inner cities across the country this past month.
Scores of cops and an
armored vehicle mounted the streets of Oakland in “Operation Nutcracker,” the
city’s latest attempt to crack down on violence. Since we’re not
talking the ballet here, the name police gave this initiative is pretty eye opening.
The operation racked up more than 50 arrests and numerous gun seizers. And that
was enough for local residents to welcome the initiative.
Like in Washington,
D.C., where the police cordoned off an entire neighborhood and set up police
checkpoints that allowed in only those who can prove they live in the area, civil
liberty activists were furious, but local residents were cheering. When local
activists only complain about such heavy handed tactics and do not offer alternative
solutions, the community is left to accept any potential solution the police
throw at them.
In D.C., Cleveland and Oakland, these cities have some similarities,
including violent crime problems, large black populations and black mayors.
In
an article entitled “Gundemic” in the magazine Governing, John Burtin
wrote about the rising use of strong-armed tactics by local police departments.
“Faced
with this bad news (of rising crime), police departments have been focusing their
attention on guns. In Baltimore, gun offenders are now required to keep police
informed of where they live. In Boston and in Washington, D.C. police have begun
to send officers into high-crime neighborhoods to ask parents for permission
to search their kids’rooms for illegal firearms.
“But Cleveland and
Philadelphia have gone further. In both cities, African American mayors have
directed their police departments to use tactics in high-crime, black neighborhoods
that few white mayors would dare to authorize. In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael
Nutter has instructed police to conduct more ‘stop-and-frisk’ searches.
“In
Cleveland, Mayor Jackson signed off in January on an aggressive new gun-suppression
strategy that hinges on profiling pedestrians who might be carrying guns. If
it is successful, it could redefine the boundaries of what is considered acceptable
in policing. If it fails, it could inflame the very tensions that Jackson has
spent much of his life trying to alleviate. The mayor puts it bluntly, ‘I
say to people, ‘Don’t call the pit bull out and tell it not to bite.’
’ “The
fact remains (Cleveland) allows police officers to stop and frisk suspects in
high-crime areas in ways that would not be allowed in other places. As criminologist
Peter Moskos has argued, ‘Constitutional rights depend on the neighborhood
where you live.’”
There is no question that more needs to be done
in law enforcement, community engagement, preventative and intervention services,
and in all areas to reduce crime. We are continuing to see epidemic levels of
violence and there is legitimate outrage from the communities that have been
plagued by this senseless killing.
But we need real solutions, not made-for-TV
antics that are more about promoting good will for politicians than actually
affecting the longterm challenge of despair and violence. Heavy-handed police
tactics are actually good short-term solutions, but the question of civil liberties
being violated and shortsightedness of the intervention makes such initiatives
not worthwhile.
