By Joe Maniscalco

Four years ago, the police crackdown on New York City demonstrators protesting the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota was so bad, some people of color making their way home from late night jobs in the building service industry openly feared having problematic run-ins with cops.

Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio had tried imposing a 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on city residents in response to the protests.

BIPOC members of the NYPD, also realizing what could be in store for them once they slipped off the uniform and clocked out, expressed similar fears as well.

And while some cops chose to drive their police cruisers through demonstrators, citing perceived threats to their safety, others were taking a knee and embracing protesters in a bid at diffusing rising tensions on the streets.

Maybe even in a bid at something like solidarity amidst the turmoil.

Whatever was truly going on in 2020, it’s clear that the occasion demanded some level of examination into how people making their living as police officers here in the 21st century should be doing the job.

That kind of introspection and examination is surely what’s needed now following the deadly police shooting of 36-year-old mother of two Sonya Massey inside her own home in Woodside Township near Springfield, Illinois on July 6.

Earlier this week, Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell told local residents that his department had “failed Sonya and the community” and asked for their “forgiveness.”

That’s an expression of contrition that someone who understands the fundamental difference between right from wrong would make. It also opens the door to further examination into that obscene July 6 incident in Illinois—because how exactly did the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office fail Sonya Massey and the community?

Did the office fail them by allowing somebody onto the force who could walk into a woman’s home after she called 911 for help and shoot her to death? Did it fail them by fostering a culture where the public is increasingly viewed as a mortal threat to everyone carrying a badge and a gun?

What exactly is Sheriff Jack Campbell seeking forgiveness for now? Not doing enough to recognize that now-terminated Sangamon County Deputy Sheriff Sean Grayson was the kind of person who could do what he did? Not caring or not recognizing that the over militarization of his profession has long ago, gotten out of control and brought us here to this terrible place?

Does Sheriff Jack Campbell seek absolution from the community he’s sworn to protect because there are inherit ills baked into the very notion of policing in this country that he never bothered to question or address?

After Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in the presence of three other MPD police officers four years ago, many trade unionists inside the house of labor thought it was time to kick police unions out of their ranks. Many still do.

That’s also a question that demands further examination—especially in this moment in time where we now have decades upon decades of recorded police actions in response to worker uprisings in one form or another to closely inspect and critique. 

More protests, demonstrations, strikes, and street actions are coming. How people who make their living as police officers approach those events will largely determine the course of this country.

That’s something you think about when it’s your job to report on these kinds of things. Hopefully, it’s also something that more people who make a living as police officers are also contemplating at this moment, too. 

They may work for heavily structured, hierarchal institutions, but they themselves are not a monolithic bloc. They are individual people and personalities who have their own families and own personal reasons for choosing to do the job that they do.

Maybe, the job isn’t turning out to be what they thought it was gonna be when they initially joined. Maybe they came to that realization years ago, and have been trying hard to make things better ever since. Maybe, they’ve had enough and are ready to do something else.

Each of them is on their own journey. Maybe that explains, at least partly, why we saw police officers reach out to protesters with gestures of shared humanity and respect following George Floyd’s murder. Maybe there’s just too much readily available knowledge out there now to ignore institutionalized injustice.

However challenging and problematic technology and social media has become, it is now easier for us to talk to each other and share thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Social media platforms can harden existing silos, but they can also seep through and around the edges of those silos and enlighten people. Once you know what came before, you know—and it becomes harder for authorities to conceal and cover up the knowledge. 

It’s being reported that Sonya Massey, according to surviving members of her family, was a descendent of a shoemaker and conductor on the Underground Railroad named William K. Donnegan who was killed in the Springfield Race Riot of 1908.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, when he spoke at Massey’s funeral, likened body cam footage of her being shot to death on July 6, to photographs of 14-year-old Emmett Till after he was lynched in 1955.

That’s a lot of pertinent and contextual knowledge that everyone impacted by Sonya Massey’s killing must confront.

More acts of contrition and gestures of shared humanity between people who make their living as police officers and the rest of us who earn our living doing other things—are just what these increasingly turbulent times demand.

They do not need to happen at some officially sanctioned and easily co-opted meeting or conference somewhere, however. 

Solidarity between human beings happens on the street. And the opportunities to express it are happening all the time. 

Editor’s Note: Do you work in law enforcement? Got something to say about it? Work-Bites wants to hear from you. Please send us an email at WorkBitesNews@gmail.com. Anonymity guaranteed upon request.