Keep on riding with us as we continue to broadcast the balance and defend the discourse from these hip hop weekly studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Ramses.
Joh he is Ramses Joh I am Q ward Man. Welcome back, if you're just if you're still with us, and if you're just joining us, thank you for tuning in the Civic Cipher.
We have a lot in store for you. I know what that sigh was, because we just for those that missed it, we just did our way Black History fact and it was heavy because a child was executed and the family is now one hundred years later trying to get justice for that. But stick around because this part of the show, we are going to be discussing how black people overwhelmingly want to maintain or increase police presence.
We came across an article that we felt had some really important data that we need to interpret and explain because you know, without that context, it might be a little alarming. But before we get there, let's discuss Baba becoming a better ally Baba. You wanna take this one?
Oh man, I mean you were right. I'm sorry for kind of still emotionally being stuck in our way black history fact. But this is sponsored by Friends of the Movement. You can sign up for the free voter wallet from fotmglobal dot com to support black businesses, allied businesses as well as make an impact with your spending again fotmglobal
dot com. This is from the Associated Press. Norway, Ireland and Spain said Wednesday they would recognize the Palestinian State, a historic but largely symbolic move that further deepens Israel's isolation more than seven months into its grinding war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel immediately denounced the decision and recalled
its ambassadors to the three countries. Palestinian officials welcome the announcements as an affirmation of their decades long quest for statehood in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel seized and neen sixty seven in the nineteen sixty seven Mid East War, and that they still control.
While some one hundred and forty countries more than two thirds of the United States I'm sorry, more than two thirds of the United Nations recognize the Palestinian State, Wednesday's cascade of announcements could build momentum at a time when even close allies of Israel have piled on criticism for its conduct in Gaza. Sometimes your humanity, an acknowledgment of another person's right to self determination, has to come out
of you. And I think that's why one hundred and forty countries have just said enough is enough.
Man.
I wish our country was one of them.
I wonder why it's not now to be fair. Joe Biden has said his peace there needs to be a two state solution, but not enough Joe.
All right.
So black people overwhelmingly want to maintain or increase police presence. They also want better police. This is the title of an article from Reason dot com. The article's author is a man named Billy Benyon. I looked his photograph up. This might have been a couple of weeks ago when I first got this article, and we were just now getting to it because you know, we only have an
hour a week with you, our listener. So I remember Billy being white, just so that you understand that, and we wanted to offer something that we can offer having
lived black lives. Right, I'll share a bit with you from the article, based on press coverage over the last several years, the author Billy Benyon would guess that a popular knee jerk response to that question would be straightforward bad whether or not in terms of whether or not black people feel good or bad about police, But new data challenging that notion, finding that while Black Americans do disproportionately fear cops, they expressed robust support or maintaining or
increasing police presence and spending.
Somebody made a joke to me when I was a kid, and as a matter of fact, Eddie Murphy then made a very similar joke with the same premise. If all you've ever had is a cracker, you'd think crackers are hitting, Yeah, but realizing that there's something better, more nutritious, healthier, more filling, would give you a better impression. If all you've ever had is crackers, and somebody comes along and says, hey, man, we're taking all the crackers away, your natural inclination is
going to be what are you? What are you talking about?
The crackers? We saw teens they help with the pain that I get in my listen.
So and this was our problem when when defund the police was first set out loud. Our problem was, man, that that's what we need, but we have to figure out a way to communicate that better. We have to come up with better messaging because this is something I
think we both could agree with. If I was in a position today me q Ward half of Civic Cipher where I felt in danger from someone that wasn't the police, and while trying to get to safety, I saw the police, even my inclination would be, man, if I can get to them police right there, I'm gonna be okay. And I think that that is the natural inclination of everyone. If that's all the information you have available to you at the time. It's always felt like we're safer when the police are present.
So I want to talk about that. Why does it always feel safer when police are present. Well, we've discussed on this show many times and it bears repeating. We turn a blind eye to police corruption. We're almost indoctrinated in this country because on the one hand, we see police as heroes, not just in movies. You know, copaganda and all that sort of stuff. We did a whole report on copaganda once upon a time for this show,
and it started with dragmed in Los Angeles. The Hollywood filmmakers wanted to work with real police stories and blah blah blah the police in exchange for painting them in the positive light that they wanted to be painted in. This is the LAPD mind you, okay, the Rodney King beating's lapd, right, But in exchange for those stories, they wanted to have some control over how they how they were shown, right, And that relationship with you know, police
in Hollywood, it just grew from there. So that term is called copaganda. So there's that subtle influence in the media that the police are the heroes and we see the cops stories and when we do see the police being corrupt, they look like Denzel in Training Day. So that has had its effect on us over the years.
Then when we look at stories of police violence police overreach, oftentimes we associate police violence with black and brown people, and because of other social socio political factors, we associate black and brown people with criminality, and so rarely do we go much deeper than that. You know, Granted, there are the stories that pop up every couple of years where it's a kid that died, or you know, there's like police violence where we're looking like, oh my god, this is good.
I hate to interject and cut you off. But I think the point that you just made is important. We see police violence against black and brown people. We see black and brown people as criminals. So the police are being violent, but they're being violent to the criminals. So it's too simple and a reason why it's important to point that out because people want to say that we race bait or we interject race where it doesn't belong.
But here's the facts. This past week, a very popular white golfer was pulled over, arrested, has mugshot taken, and millions of back the Blue people angrily changed their tune to those thugs should be arrested and fired because the person who was probably being handled in a way that was more aggressive than he deserved. I think people expect us to be like, yeah, rough up the white dude like you do us. No, no, no, no, nobody should
get roughed up. Give us the same benefit of the doubt and civility and human treatment that you give white people. We're not calling for you to treat white people worse. Just be as kind to us and as respectful to us as you are to them. People were up in arms because this guy was pulled over and asked to stop. And when cops were being out of line trying to pull him through his window, his fight or flight kicked
in and he tried to drive away. They then used him trying to drive away as a reason to justify treating him worse. Oh, now you've done it. Now we're definitely gonna arrest you. They put him in an orange jumpsuit, took his mugshot, resisting arrest, assaulting an officer, whatever the case, and people were up in arms. And the reason why it's obvious. People even got on you know, these internets
and said they'd never seen anything like that before. And people were like, yo, never seen anything, You've never seen any But what they mean kind of a Freudian slip, is that they've never seen a whit white celebrity importantly treated that way by the cops, and now they somehow see that it's wrong.
Sure, well, welcome to the real world. Uh so, yeah, this it's it's strange that police get the hero narrative without exception. You know, if you're an officer, you put the uniform on your hero, same with with like soldiers, you know, thanks thanks for your What is it when they say thanks for your service. Yeah, that's it. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with thanking a soldier for their service. I have a brother that's in the military, right, and I do recognize that they serve
their country. And I'd even go as far as to say that that the individual officers you know there, there's there's there's something to be said about that position having a modicum of value at least, right, as you mentioned Q, if you're running from someone and there happens to be an officer there that that their job is to help out in a tense situation. Right. The system they belong to is rotten, corrupt, and it disproportionately and negatively affects
black and brown people. And when it overreaches that's when, as you mentioned, other people get a glimpse into how this works. The culture that is at you know, that is present and policing as an institution. And because that narrative stands in contrast to the hero narrative that has resulted of that copaganda, often it results in in action, right, and it has historically resulted in action when it's associated with black people. Well, you know, they beat a black guy up. What wasn't he on drugs?
Wasn't he a criminal? Yeah?
Didn't remember? Well, this guy beat up his girlfriend, you know, eight years ago.
Didn't he have a gun? Wait?
What didn't y'all to Yeah, this America a second Amendment?
What y'all right to bear?
Don't everybody get one of those?
That's y'all right?
Said that?
Right? You have a gun too?
Right? Yes? So but he had a gun. You can't have a gun.
Oh, him having a gun is criminal?
Oh yeah, okay, because he looked like there you go God? Now yeah, okay, So it's a different set of rule.
Now we're now.
I didn't know now we yet, So now I know that with different anyway, we should do a play with with no words, just responses. I think we can nail it in any event. Uh, over time, as Q mentioned, you know, when all you're eating is a cracker, and the cracker is what is the only thing that you have to quell your hunger? Uh, the cracker becomes the sustenance that's that you you come to rely on. It, you recome. You can only conceive of a world where
that continues. Maybe more crackers so that you have more food.
I'll be Yeah, you give me crackers, I definitely be less hungry.
Yeah, so they're more food, So problem solve. Right. The thing is for those of us that work in an activism space, for people that are engaged politically and have a degree of intelligence and are data driven, uh, and they they search for objective facts in terms of shaping real outcomes for communities. For those people, which admittedly is a smaller group of people, those are people who have traveled. Those are people who have been to other countries and
see how they do it. Those are people who have eaten more than just crackers.
Yes, right, For.
Those people, people like me and you Q, we can come across a concept like defund the police, and once we get past the wording and the messaging, we can say, okay, well this is an attack on the again that primordial sludge that produces crime.
So even with us, he didn't have It was about getting past the words. We just knew a lot of people would stop. A lot of people wouldn't. They would stop reading once they saw that.
Yeah, we didn't have a problem with defunding.
We was like, yes, sure, opportunity, why excess resources, community centers, therapy, the stuff that will really use crime more jobs.
Let me tell you this, Even just reading that first headline about defunding the police, I'm like, oh, defunding the police. Before I knew any of that, before I knew what it meant to reinvest, they knew what they meant.
Yeah, but before before I knew, he knew what it meant to us immediately.
Well, so again just reading the headline defund the police, because I saw it at the protests and I didn't know what it meant, and I'm thinking, defund the police. Okay, so they get less tanks. Cool, because police don't need tanks, because I bet any amount of money I would not run up to a police officer if he had like a huge AK forty seven standing in front of a tank.
That's a whole different type of police officer. If I'm getting chased, I'm like, listen, I'll take my chance with what's chasing me right now, because I don't need a tank.
Because a dog I could kick that.
Yeah. So anyway, you know, this militarization of the police, this intimidation of the police, the police and riot gear and tactical gear and they look like soldiers at war does not feel like the sort of thing you want to run.
Up again at war with In most cases, when you see that gear, unarmed protesters boom, that look like us boom.
Right, So immediately that whole defund the thing. I thought it meant, just stop giving them money to buy more helicopters and more whatever. Because the more money you give police, you would think it impacts crime rates, and it just flat doesn't. There are data stuff, Yeah, they just have more stuff, right, But when you put money into programs and start programs.
Don't be fair. In some cases they hire more officers.
Yeah, but that even that doesn't impact.
But we know that that also doesn't affect crime ris.
Yes, And you got to think about police in terms of what they really are. Police only respond to crime, and I think it's like upwards of ninety five percent of cases the only thing police can do is respond to crime after it has already happened. I think it might be higher than that. I'm not sure.
Collect some information about the crime that already happened, and then in a lot of cases not solve it, not find the perpetrator, and not make any arrest.
Yeah, so don't hold me to this data because it might it might just be very localized data, maybe somewhere in California because they have a vague recollection of it, but please look it up on your own police I think they solve something in the neighborhood of like sixty seven percent of crimes. Right, And again that might not be universally around the whole country for every department, but that might give you an idea into exactly what we're
getting when we get police. More police doesn't mean less crime,
and it doesn't mean more crimes get solved. Right, So logical linear thinking people who have eaten more than just crackers might rethink the approach to public safety and say, well, instead of more police officers, because again, that doesn't impact crime rates and it doesn't solve crimes all in one hundred percent of instances, or even seventy percent of instances, let's invest this money, this police budgets into things that will really impact crime rates, that will lessen the amount
of crime rates. And as I was mentioning, head start programs, after school programs have a drastic effect on crime rates. Economic opportunities, job opportunities have a drastic impact on crime rates.
As of April twenty twenty four, the percentage of offenses cleared by arrest. And this just means cleared by arrest. This doesn't mean these persons goes to court and then is found guilty. Down from sixty four percent to fifty two. Boom, And that's for you know, murder nine, that's as a regligent homicide, as a twenty twenty four okay, aggravated assault down to forty one percent, crime down to thirty six percent, rape down to twenty six percent. So it's as a national average.
So that's the amount of crimes that get solved by police.
The amount of crimes that have that lead to an arrest. Okay, that doesn't even mean that the crime was solved, so its you got still people get arrested that didn't do anything. All the time. Sometimes the arrest is made so that the crime can be cleared. So we got somebody.
So so knowing that, knowing that the police aren't even remotely close.
At best, every other person just completely gets away with it.
There you go, and knowing that it doesn't impact the crime rates in the first place. So no crime rates are getting impacted, and the crime that is being have isn't being solved. I think the highest number you told you it was fifty two fifty two, so let's.
Call it half offenses cleared by an arrest.
So that's the highest number. So let me read the rest of this quote. Our key finding was that Black America prefer to maintain or increase police patrol and spending, and that this preference was not conditional on the described crime rates or policing reforms. This is written by Linda Barklova and Justin Pickett of the University of Saint Albany, sun y Amanda Graham and Sewn Patrick Roach of Texas State University, and Francis T. Cullen of the University of Cincinnati. Quote.
Most Black Americans reported that even if crime rates fell, and even if there were no new police reforms, they still wanted to maintain or increase police patrol and spending. Crazy, right, it.
Is well established and feel safe?
Right? It is well established the black people are disproportionately afraid of cops, particularly in comparison to their white counterparts. Black Americans are reportedly more than five times as likely than white people to fear excessive forced from the police. What's more, a study by three of the same researchers, Picket, Graham, and Cohen found that forty two percent of black respondents were quote very afraid police would kill them sometime within the next five years.
Eleven Stockholm syndrome right, only.
Eleven percent of why respondents feared the same thing. But in their more recent study, they found that such fear co exists, however, counterintuitively with that strong desire to keep or increase police presence and funding. According to their data, eighty one percent of Black Americans who say they are afraid or very afraid of cops want to maintain or increase police spending, while seventy eight percent of those respondents want to maintain or increase the number of cops in
their communities. Interestingly, non black residents were more likely to express openness to decreasing police spending when crime is on the decline. So it's wild that we black people can be subjected to the same influences and miss the same data.
That or completely disregard that data.
That is showing us that this is not working. But it doesn't mean that it's necessarily good for us. We all need more education, So we'll leave that one right there. Once again, I'd like to thank you for tuning into this episode. Of Civic Cipher. I have been your host rams this job.
I am Q Ward. We love y'all. Thank you for supporting us and for listening to us. But sometimes we just got to get stuff off our chest toobs.
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Peace.