Civic Cipher 101522 How Corrupt Can One Police Department Be? (Part 2)

Kansas City Police Department. Also, we're gonna tell a little story about a black couple who helped build the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which you may know of as Black Wall Street. You know, for our way Black History fact, we tell stories to give you some context, so you know that our story runs a lot deeper. And we're not just We didn't just start in the eighties with EASYE you know. We you know whatever you might think,

we got to bring some game to you. You're not getting it in school, so as what we're here for, so stick around for that. First up, we're going to discuss ba ba bah blah, how to become a better ally Today's BABA is sponsored by the Black Information Network Daily podcast that can be found on iHeartMedia or at binnews dot com, where you will find discussions and interviews on topics and news stories important to the Black community, hosted by Yours Truly and featuring sometimes Qward Aunt Maggie

Bie Nooan. Today's story comes via Black Enterprise and we are going to clap for these folks stepping up as a launch employer. In twenty twenty P and C Bank, I actually bank with those guys. We have our business accounts, my family. How's our business council. The pn C Bank has announced that they have achieved the Management Leadership for Tomorrow Black Equity at Work Certification MLT, earning recognition as

the first financial institution to achieve the certification. Achieving certification demonstrates that P and C is on the right course, but this is not the finish line, said P andc's Chief Diversity Officer, Gina Coleman. She goes on, we remain focused on and committed to continued progress. We have a responsibility to our employees, stakeholders, and the community to continue our journey toward equity with the goal of being a

better company, better employer, better neighbor, and better investment. The certification focuses on people, purchasing, and philanthropy and centers on five pillars representation, compensation, workplace culture, business practices, contributions, and investments. To learn more about achieving the Black Equity at Work Certification for your organizations at MLT dot org. Also, because I know she would like for me to say it, Bank of America treats black people badly. Moving on, let's

talk about a very brief timeline of one police department's corruption. Okay, so the timeline starts for our purposes. Of course it runs a lot deeper. But for our purposes, we're going to tell a story. Starting in twenty twenty one, And in twenty twenty one, Jay Z's Team Rock files a lawsuit against the Kansas City Police, citing a laundry list of complaints about abuse. Now, if you've listened to the show before, you recognize that we talk about police about

as much as we talk about politics. Those are the two big pillars upon which this show was founded and the reason that the show exists. I remember us saying this early on, we wish we didn't have to do this show. We wish we could do another hip hop show. That's where we come from. We used to break new music and you know, we're DJs. This is where we come from. And the reason we do this show is

because it's necessary. Nobody talks about this stuff in long form format in this space on hip hop radio formats. And I know that we have some other formats around the country that carry out program as well, and we appreciate all of you, but these conversations, they don't exist in the circles where we come from, and we felt like we could contribute something meaningful. Again, if you listen to our show, you recognize that we talk about policing

a lot. Policing is the one thing that a lot of Black people brush up against, a lot of brown people brush up against a lot of our Native brothers and sisters, brush up against even our Api brothers as sisters, you know what I mean, And it doesn't feel it doesn't. And then you know, for black people especially there is like like statistical evidence that shows that we aren't treated fairly.

So when we talk about another police department to you, it may sound again, if you listen to the show, to you, it may sound like here we go again again, right, But seldom do we get to do a deep dive like this where we can really pick apart exactly how deep corruption can run, exactly how much is covered up and for how long, exactly how much harm can be done to a community by what are effectually bullies who have blown community support from a not insignificant part and

segment of the population, namely the population whose interests the police protect and defend and espouse. In other words, if you look like the police officers. Yeah, I'm trying to say something without saying it, so please hear between my words. If you look like the police officers, you might not see what the effect of policing can do and the

extent that they go to cover it up. And you are espousing this group of people who are perpetuating harm on a community that you may have turned a blind eye to because you don't live that life.

counts related to the rape of two women accused. He was accused of raping two black women and forcing them to perform sexual acts on him in his vehicle and at their homes while he was working for the Kansas City Police Department. So we haven't even talked about the laundry list of stuff from the Rockefeller or the jay Z lawsuit. Right, this is a whole new thing, right from the same police department. This is a detective, police

detective and he was raping black women. Looks like this was an ongoing thing, and he was doing this in uniform in his car. Right.

this is the sort of thing that happens. And again, folks, especially when it's black people, folks call it, you know, collateral damage. They say it's a few bad apples, they say. They don't realize that a system that gives blind loyalty, what do you call it? You call it carte blanche, and you call it something else where they there's no consequences.

I love how you say it. Impunity. That's another one where it's like, you know, if you were the bully in high school, if the girls didn't like you in high school, whatever, whatever it was, your story is, and you get a little older and you decide, I'm going to be a police officer. There's nothing to screen these people out. And even if there was, it's so easy to get through a screening process. You ask, answer a couple questions the right way, and you know, boom, your

here's a badge and a gun. Go out and do whatever right. And the problem, I think is that when we're dealing with police officers, when we're dealing with people that have this type of authority that can move with impunity, and we empower them, we support them, we call them heroes. Right, it's a job. A hero, in my opinion, is when you do something above and beyond your job, like there

was no money involved, you did something truly heroic. You know, being a hero because you put on a certain uniform. I feel like that's you know, that's set in the bar kind of low, you know what I mean. I wouldn't call myself a hero unless I did something heroic, right.

But as far as the story with this officer and these people, the collateral damage part of it, the few bad apples part of it, that's the part that makes it very difficult because oftentimes when we tell black stories, this is the way that the opposition to our narrative frames it. Well, you know, there's some bad apples, there's you know, and they don't look at a system that blindly support like that empowers these people, makes them feel

like they're gods among men. And when we look at examples like this over and over and over and over.

racial discrimination against black officers. According to a letter sent to the agency Monday, quote our investigation is based on information suggesting that KCPD may be engaged in certain employment

practices that discriminate against black officers and applicants. The letter provided to CNN by the police department reads, investigators will be looking into allegations involving race based disparities and hiring promotions, detective assignments, disciplining officers, and maintaining a hostile work environment. The DOJ said in the letter, police commissioners welcome federal

civil rights investigation into the KCPD. The president of the police board says commissioners welcome a federal investigation and the US Department of Justices civil rights investigation may be the result of a number of recent lawsuits by police officers

accusing the police department of racial discrimination and retaliation. Last month, a police detective sued KCPD, claiming he was punished for reporting another officer's illegal search, and April, a sergeant sued over alleged racial profofiling during a traffic stop, and two black female officers sued the department alleging discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment. Okay, so I want to take

a moment to talk about black officers. Let's talk about black officers in the Deep South, but you know all over you know, the South. We have recent examples of black officers in the South doing some real anti black stuff.

Right when you're policing a community where everyone looks like you, what we have to say out loud is that bad people exist because matter of what color they are, you know what I mean. So police officers are going to encounter some people that are bad, that are black. The same is going to be said in the reverse. However, being a police officer does not remove you from being a person. So just like bad people exist, bad people

can become police officers, ladies and gentlemen to them. I hate to have to say that to you, like you're a fourth grader, but sometimes we remove our own logic from the idea that just by nature of having passed, you know, whatever screening and that was involved to become an officer taking an oath, that you are by nature a good person because of it. That's that's just not

how life works. The interesting position that you're put in when you're a black officer in the community where no one looks like you versus being one in the community where everyone looks like you, and how different that might be if your partner does or doesn't look like you, And just all the different challenges that come from upholding a system that is biased nature decide, designed to put its boot on the face and the neck of people

that look like you. It's a really really interesting, dynamic, and really complex set of circumstances for black police officers, not just in the Deep South, but more specifically in those environments that are that have polarity. Right.

to have more black officers in the community. So let me help you with this. So let's take the Kansas City Police department.

is threatened. All of that, all of that, and that happens to to white officers too. But I want to make a point about black officers here. Now watch this, and this is why I wanted to make sure that you knew that if you think that black officers, more black officers is the solution to the systemic issue, that you had an idea framework. We can do the stought

experiment together. So let's say you are not a good person and you happen to be black, and you don't want to report, you know, on the other officers in your department that are misbehaving. Put it kindly, mildly that at best means you're complicit, and at worse means that you're doing everything in your power to fit in with your white fellow officers, meaning that you are perpetuating the same type of oppression, the same type of white supremacy

as the white officers. It's very easy for a black person to perpetuate white supremacist ideas and bring harm to communities. It's very easy for people to feel like they are above other people. That's not a police and normal person. Think that's also a black officer over other black people. Thing that badge and that gun. We've elevated these folks. And the thing is the reason I keep saying this that you might think that this is normal. Yeah, well

you get a little bit of authority bubble. That means to me that you haven't traveled between me and Q we've seen most of the earth. They don't do it like that in other countries. In other countries, the police fear the people. The police work for the people. Now, your mind might short circuit when I say that, because you're like, well, police shouldn't be afraid of the people.

The police should be the ones in charge. Of course we need order, and of course, you know, and when you're dealing with you know, an individual, you know, Yeah, the police at the end of the day should have the final say that. I think that's true in most parts of the world, you know, because there are people who, you know, overstep and we need folks to come in and say it's right, recognize that right. But there's a healthy concern for police if they don't do their job

the right way. In other countries, they are afraid of the people plural right, more often than is true here, or the people singularly.

I think it's more. I see what you're saying that account ability is there and you can't just do whatever you want because you feel like it, because you might not just lose your job, but you might end up in prison as well.

The system I believe is, you know, we need to change it fundamentally, but the human beings are not beyond redemption. I do believe in forgiveness. I do believe in having love at the center of the narrative. And this is how this conversation sounds. And I don't really know how else to put any more sugar on that one for you, but I don't think you need it, because that's pretty.

Media and our story comes from history dot com. Before the Tulsa race massacre, where the city's black district of Greenwood was attacked by a white mob, resulting in two days of bloodshed and destruction, the area had been considered one of the most affluent African American communities in the United States for the early part of the twentieth century.

The Massacre, which began on May thirty first, nineteen twenty one, and left hundreds of Black residents dead and one thousand houses destroyed, often overshadows the history of the Black enclave itself. Greenwood District, with a population of ten thousand at that time, had thrived as the epicenter of act African American business and culture, particularly on bustling Greenwood Avenue, commonly known as

Black Wall Street. Founded in nineteen oh six, Greenwood was developed on Indian territory, the vast area where Native American tribes had been forced to relocate, which encompasses much of

modern day eastern Oklahoma. Some African Americans, who had been former slaves of the tribes and subsequently integrated into tribal communities, acquired allotted lands in Greenwood through the DAWs Act, a US law that gave land to individual Native Americans, and many black sharecroppers fleeing racial oppression relocated to the region

as well in search of a better life. Post Civil War, Oklahoma begins to be promoted as a safe haven for African Americans who start to come particularly host emancipation to Indian territory, says Michelle Place, executive director of the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. The largest number of black townships after the Civil War were located in Oklahoma. Between eighteen sixty five and nineteen twenty, African Americans founded dozens of

black townships and settlements in the region. Old W. Gurley, a wealthy black landowner, purchased forty acres of land in Tulsa, naming it Greenwood after the town of Mississippi. Credited with having the first black business in Greenwood in nineteen oh six, he had a vision to create something for black people, by black people. Gurley started with a boarding house for African Americans. Then word began to spread about opportunities for black people in Greenwood, and they flocked to the district.

Gurley would loan money to people who wanted to start a business, and had a system where someone who wanted to own a business could get help doing that. Other prominent black entrepreneurs followed suit. J. B. Stratford, born into slavery in Kentucky, later became a lawyer and activist, moved to Greenwood in eighteen ninety eight. He built a fifty five room luxury hotel bearing his name, the largest black

owned hotel in the country. An outspoked spoken businessman, Stratford believed that black people had a better chance of economic progress if they pulled their resources. Aj Smitherman, a publisher whose family moved to Indian Territory in the eighteen nineties, founded The Tulsa Star, a black newspaper headquartered in Greenwood that became instrumental in establishing the district's socially conscious mindset.

The newspaper regularly informed African Americans about their legal rights in any court rulings or legislation that were beneficial or harmful to their community. Demands for equal rights were an ongoing mission for Black Americans in Tulsa, despite Jim Crow oppression. Greenwood itself had a railway track running through it that

separated the black and white populations. Consequently, Gurley and Stratford's vision of having a self contained and self reliant black economy came to be not only by desire, but by logistics quote as a practical matter. As a practical matter, they had no choice as to where to locate their businesses, said john said Johnson. Tulsa was rigidly segregated, and Oklahoma

became increasingly racist after statehood. On Greenwood Avenue, there where luxury shops, restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, jewelry and clothing stores, movie theaters, barbershops and salons, a library, pool halls, nightclubs, and offices for doctors, lawyers, and dentists. Greenwood also had its own school system, post office, as savings and loan bank, hospital, and bus and taxi service. Greenwood was home to far

less affluent African Americans as well. A significant number still worked in menial jobs such as janitors, dishwashers, porters, and domestics. The money they earned outside of Greenwood was spent within the district. It is said within Greenwood every dollar would change hand nineteen times before it left the community, said place. It wasn't long before the affluent African Americans attracted the attention of local white residents, who resented the upscale lifestyle

of people they deemed to be an inferior race. I think the word jealousy is certainly appropriate during this time, says Place. If you have particularly poor whites who are looking at this prosperous community, who have large homes, furniture, Crystal's, China linens, etc. The reaction is they don't deserve that.

With the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, black residents in Greenwood Beard racial violence and the removal of their voting rights, The Oklahoma Supreme Court for years routinely upheld the state's restrictions on voting access for African Americans, subjecting them to the poll tax and literacy tests, and lynchings proliferated across the count The countries are particularly during the Red Summer of nineteen nineteen, where anti black riots erupted

in major cities across the United States, including Tulsa. In response to Tulsa, Star encouraged Black residents to take up arms and to show up at courthouses and jails to make sure black people who were on trial were not taken and killed by white lynch mobs. But the heightened racial animosity and Tulsa erupted in nineteen twenty one when nineteen year old Dick Roland, a black shoe shiner, was accused of attempted sexual assault of a seventeen year old

white elevator operator named Sarah Page. When an angry white mob went into the courthouse to demand that the sheriff hand over Roland. The sheriff refused. A group of about twenty five armed black men, including many World War One veterans, then went into the courthouse to offer to help guarding Roland. As word of a possible lynching spread, a group of around seventy five armed black men returned to the courthouse,

where they were met by some fifteen hundred whites. After clashes between the groups, the black men retreated to Greenwood. Mobs of armed white men then to sit in our Greenwood, looting homes, burning down businesses, and shooting black residents dead on the spot. With millions in property damage and no help from the city, the rebuilding of Greenwood began almost immediately, thanks to the assistance of the NAACP, other black townships

in Oklahoma, donations from black churches, and a resilient Greenwood community. However, some businesses, like the Tulsa Star newspaper, were permanently shuttered in the wake of the violence. The Greenwood District still exists today, but after decades of urban renewal and integration, the area's demographics and business resemble little of its story the past, and that'd be.

he was willing to be slapped in the face. We're not even willing in a lot of cases to be talked bad about. Our people were taking arms and literally putting their lives and the lives of their families on the line to further our causes. And we can't even say black lives matter without it being a contentious Well.

expand them. You're gonna fight the slander with the proper propaganda.