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Detroit free press opinion
Detroit free press opinion








Some of my white colleagues refused to speak with me during shifts, dared not eat near or with me, and frequently used the N-word to describe me and the African American citizens they were sworn to protect. Some made cardboard dividers in patrol cars - designating the “white” section from the “colored.” Others used Lysol to “disinfect” seats where black officers sat. Many white officers refused to ride alongside black officers. That day, I promised myself that I would become a Detroit police officer and change the Detroit police force from the inside.Īfter graduating and serving four years in the Air Force, including a deployment to Vietnam, I joined the Detroit Police Department on Aug. 2, 1965.Īs a rookie officer, I encountered overt and casual bigotry and routine denigration and brutality. I ran home crying but did not tell my parents, fearful that it would put them in danger. I was 14, the same age as Emmett Till when he was killed in Mississippi two years earlier. Time seemed to stand still as I saw the anger on their faces and the horror on the faces of black people who gathered around us, yelling for the police to stop.Īfter what felt like hours, they told me to get my ass out of there. Officers in the feared “Big Four” were well-known in the black community for brutally maintaining their kind of “Law and Order.” The more I screamed, the more they beat me. As I walked home after speaking with my favorite teacher, four white police officers jumped out of their cruiser, threw me against it and beat me severely. In 1957, I was a freshman at Cass Technical High School. That was my first thought when I saw the video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin choking the life out of George Floyd. Watch Video: Qualified immunity: How it protects police from civil lawsuits










Detroit free press opinion