Blind Spot

How racial bias in policing allowed our Capitol Building to fall and what to do about it

Law enforcement, particularly at the beat cop level, is currently infested with MAGA ride-or-die cult culture. That is just a sad fact. In the general US population, we might estimate 30% of people are MAGA. In US law enforcement, I think we can comfortably bump that ratio up well past a majority.

This culture accounts for law enforcement’s systemic blind spot to the white power insurrection threat. It is the same culture and sentiment that had Kenosha riot police thanking Kyle Rittenhouse just before he murdered two innocent people (white people) in his attempt to “help” the police during civil unrest following the Jacob Blake shooting.

Now, in the aftermath of the MAGA-white-power-insurrection terrorist attack that breached the Capitol Building this last Wednesday, we are beginning to understand how this new national tragedy dovetails seamlessly into the ongoing National Police Reform Crisis.

We see a connection point, Implicit Racial Bias.

We see how implicit racial bias in policing not only makes life less safe for black and brown communities, but is also a threat to the central seat of our federal government, a threat to our elected representatives.

We see that implicit racial bias is a National Security Threat.

I’ll explain…

It is this implicit racial bias, which infests law enforcement at all levels, that led Capitol Police Leadership to have such a unfathomable blind spot to the clear and present danger of white-power terrorism that they declined an offer from the National Guard for additional security resources and manpower three days prior to the MAGA domestic terror attack on the Capitol Building.

These resources could have stopped the attack from entering the Capitol Building…if the Capitol Police could have seen the threat. But what law enforcement saw was themselves in that MAGA march…you know…“fine people”.

On the other hand, at BLM marches…there they see the “other”…there they see the “insurgents”.

This is the blind spot. Do you see it?

Just imagine if John Lewis was alive to see this. I would love to hear what he would have to say today. So much hard earned wisdom gone.

This blind spot needs to be eliminated. For the sake of the safety of our communities AND for the sake of the security of the seat of our government, the seat of our sacred fragile democracy.

We must eliminate Implicit Racial Bias.

But even with the deep systemic flaws and issues in law enforcement culture and procedures that need to be rooted out and reformed, I support and defend our law enforcement community. They are asked to do too many things, such that they will never be able to do all that is asked of them successfully.

I will not blame them for that. I want to help them out with that. That is why policing reform is a win-win. We can make success in policing more achievable, lighten their overwhelming burden and create more peaceful communities.

Yes, this will entail changing funding to build and expand supporting services, but that is the sacrifice it will take. Communities where families have been suffering generations of trauma under the US criminal justice system demand it.

Qualified immunity for police will need to be abolished. For reform to work, accountability is key.

I sincerely believe we can do these things if we work together with compassion and understanding for and from all parties. With the right leadership, I sincerely believe successful police and criminal justice reform can be achieved, but the solutions have to be based in honesty and trust, including the honest acceptance that implicit racial bias is real, that it is destructive to the peace officer mission, that it will never be totally eradicated and will always have to be managed.

I know, I sound kind of naïve, right? ‘You may say I’m a dreamer’…You have to believe in something to make it live…We have two Democratic Senators elected in the state of Georgia in 2021, one of them black. That happened because people believed in change they were told was impossible for literal centuries. It didn’t happen in a day. If all those generations believed in the impossible for centuries until it became real…you and I can believe today…

One last important bit here about Brian Sicknick, the police officer that was murdered by a MAGA terrorist during the MAGA terrorist attack on the Capitol Building.

The story of his murder as currently reported is that in the chaos of the siege a domestic terrorist, who has yet to be identified or arrested, struck officer Sicknick on the head with a metal fire extinguisher with enough force that Sicknick was taken to the hospital where he later died from his injury.

Brian Sicknick died a hero, who gave his life protecting our democracy. May you or I never have to make the sacrifice he made for us.

Through reporting, we are learning a little about officer Brian Sicknick: a partner to his girlfriend of 11 years , a beloved brother and son, a veteran, a former Air National Guardsman…and a Trump supporter.

Officer Brian Sicknick, who openly supported Trump on social media, did his duty and lost his life fighting a terrorist attack on our Capitol Building that spawned from a Trump MAGA rally.

It is tragic. But it illustrates one important fact, often lost in rhetoric, that the vast majority of police officers will do their duty and protect us, and our nation…knowing it may be at the cost of their own lives…even if it means protecting us from people they might ideologically agree with.

Somehow that gives me hope…

Now, to protect our officers, officers like Brian Sicknick, our communities, and our democracy we have to fight to eliminate the blind spot that caused our Capitol Building to fall.

We have to fight to eliminate Racial Bias.

We have to educate ALL PEOPLE to accept that racial bias is real, and how to manage racial bias in themselves and in the people around them.

We need to educate firmly, not in the spirit of judgement and punishment, but instead with empathy and understanding. Understanding that the vast majority of those who resist ‘know not what they do’ and will come around when their blind spot is clear…and they can better see a better world.

I know it’s a big ask, but we need to think big here. We do that. We get this done in a real way and maybe, just maybe, Wednesday’s breaching of the Capitol Building never happens…maybe Brian Sicknick’s partner and family see him again…maybe the lynching of George Floyd never happens…maybe those children are never torn from their mother’s arms at the border…maybe…

‘You may say I’m a dreamer’…