The Thin Blue (Silent) Line

In “Questioning the Color of Authority” (Dec. 27, 1992), a Korean resident stated, regarding Koreatown: Minority lieutenants and captains would help “promote a different attitude in the community” but as far as South-Central is concerned, one of the Police Department’s Anglo captains expressed it more accurately: “Although it is desirable that you mirror the community, the most important thing is that you have a service heart.”

A “service heart” can only exist when there is respect and trust between Los Angeles Police Department officers and residents.

The residents of South-Central do not know police officers and the officers do not know the residents. And because the residents do not know them, they have formed beliefs and opinions on their own.

Beliefs such as: Police officers have a “macho, John Wayne mentally” and bad tempers, are mean and crooked, hostile, judgmental, conceited, egotistic, controlling, arrogant, stressed-out, trigger-happy, alcoholics, womanizers, wife-beaters, adulterers, dogs, pigs, and the worst spouse anyone could want. And some people believe the police are financially well off only because they take bribes. Moreover, some people believe that L.A. police officers are so crooked that they will plant something on a person just to have a reason to make an arrest.

I’m sure you have heard as many others criticisms as I have. Nevertheless, to generalize and to label police officers is to be narrow-minded.

Some residents of South-Central, their family members or friends have had run-ins or negative experiences with police officers and have passed their negative encounters on to others. The media are partly responsible for these negative beliefs because the good deeds police do are often overlooked, while negative incidents are often blown out of proportion. And because the residents of South-Central do not know the officers personally, they do not know what to believe, so they just go along with the majority.

Los Angeles police have never encouraged open communications with the residents of South-Central. I know people who have lived there for 50 years and do not know one single police officer, man or woman. And neither do I or anybody else I know.

Residents of South-Central know that most L.A. police officers live outside the community. But it would help the residents and the officers to get to know each other, just as residents know their mail carrier. If police want to find out who is doing what, they need to get with the people.

As unemployment rises and opportunities diminish, survival becomes more difficult. Residents are frustrated. Residents are oppressed. Residents feel betrayed by the system. And they also feel that as black people, they do not get justice.

Residents feel discounted as people and see police officers as the adversary. Residents do not want to be looked upon or treated like second-class citizens or criminals. If police want South-Central residents to give them respect, they should be willing to do the same.

And the residents of South-Central need to take another look at police officers. From my brief encounters, they appear to be intelligent, intuitive, polite, chivalrous, confident, courageous and have extremely good manners.

Last March, I went to Atlanta. A gentleman I met in church took me to the Underground, a mall under the city that is lined with jazz clubs and musicians. He and some police officers conversed from the time we hit the street, all through the mall and onto the subway. I was flabbergasted. They knew him and he knew them.

One officer held a conversation with me for about 15 minutes, telling me how he and his wife wanted to move to California to live in Diamond Bar because it is cheaper there to play golf than in Georgia. One policewoman amused me with her tales of heroism.

On another occasion, a friend and I were leaving a restaurant when we spotted two officers at a table. We waved and walked on out to the parking lot. By the time we got to her car, they had caught up with us. After introductions, they told her the must-see hot spots to take me to. They wanted to treat us to dinner before I left, but I had other plans.

I was baffled. Los Angeles police never approach South-Central residents and introduce themselves unless there is a problem.

When people say that Southern people are warm and friendly, they are telling the truth. They are good-natured people, and so are their police officers. The people there aren’t intimidated by the police. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here.

There is no question that we need police officers in the community, but officers with the right attitude. Residents understand the police officers’ need and reason to be cautious. As a police officer, one never knows when someone is armed and ready to take you out. But police do not have to patrol the streets and stalk the neighborhoods like they’re in a war zone.

When we get to the day residents say, “Here come Robert and Carl” instead of, “Here come two cops,” police will have bonded with the people. Then Los Angeles will be the kind of city people across the country believe it to be.