Some Black Americans Hate Cops!

Back in 2004 a new Correction Officer started working in my prison and for the sake of protecting his identity, I'll refer to him as Bill. Bill grew up on the "inner city" streets of Dayton Ohio. Now, Dayton isn't exactly L.A. or N.Y. but it does have a high crime rate in some areas. In one of these areas is where Bill grew up and still lives to this day.

Some of the other officers (Black and White) didn't like him because of the tattoo he sported on his arm (Obviously Gang Related). Me, I tried to keep an open mind. I like to form an opinion of a person myself. I like to find out what a person is about before I pass judgment on him/her and I don't readily fall in with the crowd. I didn't care about his skin color or his tattoo, to me the surface is just that, the surface. The tattoo everyone made a stink about...well, I just chalked up to youthful indiscretion, hell who hasn't done something stupid in their youth.

I'll never forget the first time I met Bill, and it will probably never leave my mind, because of the things he said seemed so outlandish to me. I was totally stunned to say the least. The first time I met Bill was on the job, he hadn't been there too long, and I was relatively new myself. I think I had maybe a year and a few months in at the time. We were working Segregation together one night, with another officer, we'll call her Jill. Jill was also relatively new, at the time. Anyways, as is always the case in segregation, we sat around between rounds and bullshited with one another, just to get to know each other and pass the time until the next round. This is just about the only post where you have more than one officer stationed and it's nice to have some peers to talk to now and again. I asked them, being that we were all relatively new, "What they thought about the job?" and then I asked them, "What they would do if there was a problem and they needed to use force to save an officer?" I was just trying to get a feel for them both.

We talked for awhile longer and the subject naturally shifted from our job to that of Police Officers. Then we started to talk about the TV show Cops. We were sharing stories about some episodes we had seen and I brought the one up about a female officer that was beat almost to death in a traffic stop. To refresh your memory or to give you the details if you didn't know:

"...Officer Jeter stopped a van for speeding. A large (black) man was driving and was wanted for traffic warrants. He exited his vehicle with his young daughter. She (Officer Jeter) had no back-up but asked to search his vehicle. During her search, she finds drugs. She gets ready to handcuff the suspect, but he turns around and punches her. She falls to the ground and he gets on top of her and beats her unconscious. He then tries to remove her gun from her holster but a good Samaritan stops at the scene and the criminal gets back in his car and flees.

Officer Jeter was in a coma for six days and needed facial reconstruction for a crushed eye socket and broken cheek bones...." (Crime Commission Update, http://www.ncc.ne.gov) It was one of the most savage beatings I'd ever seen a women take.

After I told the story, Bill looked at me and said (with enthusiasm), "Yah, I was hoping he was going to kill that bitch!" I just sat there speechless (which rarely ever happens) with a disgusted-dumbfounded-expression on my face, just sat there staring at the female officer that sat across from me. Well, needless to say, she had the same expression on her face. I guess he noticed the way Jill and I were looking at each other and realized he had just stepped over the PC boundary with us. He paused for a second then said, "But I guess I have to change my way of thinking, now that I'm on this side of the badge." Finally my wits caught up with my expression and I said, "How in the F@#k could you wish that on anyone, dude? Your just f#*kin' twisted!"

After he realized that both of us were pissed off at him, he tried to explain why he felt the way he did. He said, "You got to understand, I'm from the hood man and we see cops beating up and harassing people all the time. It was kinda nice to see one getting their ass beat." After that, I lost all respect for him and after awhile he was ostracized from the other C/O's and ended up quitting before he got fired. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy...really it couldn't. That whole conversation sticks with me till this day and makes me respect the job that police do everyday, even more. With people out there that think like that, God Bless and keep the Cops safe.