My father once said something to me that I have pondered frequently. He said sadly of a man we both knew, “In so many ways he’s a good man, except he’s a racist.” I expect many people know someone with a similarly flawed character. I think it has meaning right now as our country faces the opportunity to grow and leave behind another real vestige of racism in our country.
Most law enforcement officers are good people trying to do a hard job and I always thank them for their service when I see them at the filling station or elsewhere. Even so, I believe that in too many police departments a culture or unspoken code exists where a few are tolerated as being good officers except perhaps that they’re “a little racist.”
Every American has the right to trust that all law enforcement personnel will treat them with respect and always with primary concern for their safety. Unfortunately, people of color in this country live with a different reality. For them, every encounter with law enforcement includes the justified fear that the person who pulls them over for any reason might not be someone they can trust.
We live in a free society, and that means we tolerate people with sometimes abhorrent beliefs. But that does not mean the same attitude can be taken in any police department. I’m not sure if you can even be a good man except that you’re a racist, but I know absolutely that you can’t be any kind of a police officer and harbor racist views. Any blue code or culture that tolerates such officers in any way succumbs to that very racism itself. It is the responsibility of all of those good decent cops I admire to purge racism from their ranks now. Those who preach law and order would do well to remember that it will never exist for all Americans until we grow beyond acceptance of officers who have no place wearing the badge.
Mark Petersen, Park City