By Phoenix Calida (July 21, 2015)
I was having a convo via pm. Someone suggested I do a ride along with police to “see the other side.” My first instinct was to laugh, but then I realized most people online don’t really know much about me, because I rarely talk about myself as a person.
I generally talk about yarn, politics, and social justice. So I figured I’d talk a little about myself to explain why my stance is what it is.
1. I’m not an angry negro. I know you can’t convey tone over text very well, so I’d recommend folks listen to our podcast. I mean, you should listen anyways cause its awesome; but listen to my voice for a few minutes. It might shock you. I dont sound like the stereotype of am angry black person, at least not vocally.
2. I am very critical of police, and talk about things like race, sexism, and poverty a lot. I don’t trust the government, police, or most of society to help fix these problems.
I’ve mentioned before, I was adopted. I was put into a very respectable white home. There was some serious poverty early on, but after a couple years dad had serious promotions, older kids moved out and I spent my tweens and teens living like an upper middle class kid.
Because of the job/status my father had, I was able to be in a privileged position. I lived in a wealthy county, knew my state representative on a first name basis, the states attorney, coroner, mayor, police chief, fire chief, and had met most ppl who were in supervisory positions within the county. I’m not saying this to brag, but to make a point-
When I talk about government corruption and police brutality, I’m talking about shit I saw and heard first hand.
I heard supervisors on the fire department joke about raping a lesbian paramedic. I heard police laugh about how it was fun to sit in a specific apartment complex because all the illegals were there and cops could hit their ticket quota. Men in the coroner’s office made jokes about beating their wives, and complained about how illegals and niggers could never afford to bury their own.
We would have parties, weddings, backyard bbqs and I would hear jokes about how niggers are good at football because they have practice stealing watermelons, how all the blacks are involved in gangs, even if they weren’t in the gang, they knew gang members and couldn’t be trusted. How illegals trashed apartments and homes they lived in. You should never rent to a Mexican. Never rent to a queer, they’re all pedophiles and drug users. Nobody wanted to go on calls where queers got hurt cause theyd give you AIDS if they bled on you.
Can’t rape a sex worker, but anal is like stealing lulz! She has an obligation to suck you off because if you sell sex, you can be forced to give it on demand- that’s just a job risk, but it’s not rape. How it’s fun to confiscate women’s cell phones and look for nudes. How women with arrest records will fuck you to avoid anther arrest. How easy it is to catch a feel after you handcuff a broad
Then there was the cop who got in trouble for affairs while on duty, and decided to retaliate by beating his wife for airing dirty laundry. Or the cop who hit one of those illegals in his car and tampered with evidence to make it the Mexicans fault- hilarious story when told over a beer! The one black guy who was a drug dealer was an easy ticket, you could always find a reason to pull him over and threaten to tell his PO if he acted up. Sometimes you gotta smack someone around, but we really call it an attitude adjustment. If you only leave the takedown lights on, you won’t be on the dashcam, and you can do whatever. Those blacks and Mexicans and illegals on section 8 are ruining the community. If we police them harder, we can make them leave. If we stop them enough we’ll find something and the benefits will get cut and they’ll have to get jobs and stop leeching. Wanna learn how to get good aim? Shoot a nigger. It’s hard to hit moving targets and man, can niggers run!
All this shit was said in police offices, fire offices, BBQs, friendly gatherings…. By cops, fire fighters, elected officials, and people that ran local government.
If these things could be said in front of me (and other friends and family) what was said behind closed doors?
So no, I don’t need to do a ride along to get another perspective, I already know how the other side operates. They gave me unfiltered views on how they view people of color and non respectable women and the lgtbq community. I dont need more insight.I need to stay far away from them
And this also means when I read stories or watch the news, and see cops in nyc choking people to death, cops in L.A. passing around nudes from cell phones, Holtzclaw raping women… I realize what I came up around is *normal* police behavior. I saw the norm, not the exception. And even though most officers didn’t actively participate, they KNEW what the “few bad apples” were doing and stayed silent and pretended racist punchlines were funny.
I have first hand perspective of their side, and it’s terrifying to know these are the people with guns and badges.