KAPPAS IN THE COMMUNITY
that over 80 percent of hands have gone up in every forum hosted when we ask the question, “How many of you have been stopped, questioned, harassed by the police or personally know someone who has been?” That means that most of our youth from middle school age through mid-twenties share negative police experiences. That’s sad and scary! Secondly, the interactive part of the forums, have revealed one important les- son that we need to teach our kids; stop reaching for their phones. We have had at least six car stop scenarios when a kid has made a quick sudden movement to reach into his or her pocket, down to the floor or back into the car (once pulled out by an officer) to grab a cell phone. Whether their intent is to record the interaction or just not be without their phone, we’ve had Black officers stop
This includes racial profiling.
this initiative to this point. Facilitat- ing 20 forums and interacting with that many kids has revealed some important truths (especially during the Q&A ses- sions) that we now realize the need to address programmatically. Our children are suffering from the emotional effects that generations of social injustice have wreaked in our communities. Our kids are hurting. The stories and experiences that we’ve heard from our youth reveal extraordinary pain. Although it makes sense if you sit back and give it thought, it became glaringly obvious that we, “missed it” by failing to design a compo- nent to address those wounds. Not sure what it’s going to look like, but we’re going to design something to address it in the future. Q: What’s the next step in this initia- tive?
Our second point is a commitment to ongoing and regular cultural diversity and sensitivity training as well as unbi- ased police training for all department personnel. The third point calls for a concentrated departmental effort to recruit officers of statistically underrepresented cultural groups in order to present a department representative and reflective of a diverse 21 st century population. Point four calls for a commitment to consistent outreach and constructive conversations and interaction by law en- forcement agencies with members and leaders of the African American commu- nity through events and activities. These steps are important to break down social
...[W]e've had Black officers stop the exercise in mid-scenario to explain that such an action (grabbing for one's cell phone) might offer enough validation in the mind of an officer who is only looking for a little bit of justification to pull a trigger. In every scenario, the kids were oblivious to why sudden movements were an issue.
the exercise in mid-scenario to explain that such an action might offer enough validation in the mind of an officer who is only looking for a little bit of justifica- tion to pull a trigger. In every scenario, the kids were oblivious to why sudden movements were an issue. That was moving, because if you think about it, we have experienced six police shootings during the course of this initiative in the past year. As older persons of color, we understand the concept of hands on the steering wheel and no sudden move- ments. We can no longer assume that our young people know the hard lessons that life and experience has taught us. We have to teach them to be prepared for their first or future police encoun- ters. Finally, we estimate that approximately 10,000 kids have been trained through
McMikle: The forums will continue. We have 80 more to facilitate. We are now developing partnerships with police departments throughout the county who will stand in unison and accept (in writ- ing) our program's five-point pledge for accountability in operation. We have a number of police departments who will be signing our memorandum of under- standing (MOU) during the summer, which outlines our five-point pledge. The first point is a “Zero-Tolerance Policy on biased policing.” It calls for a zero-tolerance policy on biased policing. We have defined bias-based policing as the collection of practices that system- atically and intentionally incorporate prejudiced judgments based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, religious beliefs or age.
and cultural barriers to cultivate ideal interactions between police and cultural communities. The final pledge point calls for active police involvement in youth initiatives. This pledge point not only provides a benefit to community youth, but also exposes law enforcement personnel to the persons that they police, providing a familiarity and fostering a comfort- able working relationship to decrease tensions and foster growth and “bridge building” opportunities. We’ve identified four additional steps, but I’ll report back on that progress at a future time.
Q: What is your profession?
30 | SUMMER 2017 THE JOURNAL
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