Black officers: White culture impairs policing Blacks

The failed indictments of police officers who killed Eric Garner and Michael Brown have unleashed ideas that the Jim Crow era of racism is still disguised in U.S. society.
Recent images of hostility displayed toward mourning protesters in Ferguson, Mo. rehashed parallels to violent police tactics during the civil rights movement.
Those images ripped the Band-Aid off a sore that festered openly after a White police officer killed unarmed Brown. And while many police publicly defend the actions of cops, Black people across the country are angered by what many view as aggressive mistreatment.
To many, it seems as though the country had been set back six decades.
POLICING BLACK-ON-BLACK
It was 60 years ago that the career began for one police officer who served Miami’s Black neighborhoods on a segregated police force. Archie McKay, 89, has witnessed the evolution of policing Blacks — a task that before 1944 was restricted to White officers only.
McKay said White policemen would create havoc in Black areas then abandon them to return home to the White parts of town.
“Most time the only time you saw White police officers is when a politician wanted to raid a number house or something happened like a murder or robbery that a Black was accused of and you saw them run through like they were Gestapos,” McKay said. “You had White police officers who would come in the neighborhood and run rough shod over the people and get back on the other side. There was no communication.”
The lopsided power exerted by police on Blacks during the Jim Crow era mirrors phenomena targeting the same demographic today and throughout history. Relations between Blacks and the police in Miami have also been historically tense. Racist practices were central to police operation and kept Black and White police separated even 20 years after the city of Miami hired its first Black police officers in 1944.
McKay became a police officer 10 years later. In 1954 McKay was a tall, lanky young man who barely made the cut for weight at 145 pounds. McKay said the community’s perception of Black police was initially shaped by abusive White officers.
“Everybody didn’t accept Black police officers readily because of the way they were treated by White police officers. You were an Uncle Tom and ‘you’re just a White man’s snitch’ and all these kinds of things that were said,” he said.
‘WE ARE A COMMUNITY’
It took time for Black police to build the trust of their own communities. But McKay said two things were instrumental: the interaction from living and working in Overtown, Liberty City and West Grove and understanding Black culture.
“Most of us grew up in the neighborhood, attended the local schools and therefore we knew the parents, comrades, students and playmates,” McKay said. “That’s why we were so cohesive because we were a community in a small area designated to Blacks.”
Community engagement was key to that interaction Black police had, especially with youth. The police precinct held an annual ball, the Orange Blossom Classic Parade and started up the Police Athletic League. Segregation created a familial atmosphere that included even the Black men in blue.
Special to the NNPA from The Miami Times