By Morf Morford
Tacoma Daily Index
Those of us who have lived in Tacoma for a while have almost certainly noticed a disturbing trend; crises or catastrophes, from train derailments, to political malfeasance to police brutality to contamination of local water supplies, as they rock and roil national, if not international headlines and social media feeds, unerringly find a corollary in or around Tacoma.
Events in Tacoma echo, or even predate, national crises.
Tacoma, as most of us know, is in many ways a very small town.
Virtually all of us are somewhere in the range of two degrees of separation from almost everyone in the city.
When it comes to law enforcement for example, it’s fair to say that each one of us know someone, or knows someone who knows someone, who works in law enforcement – or is, or has been, in some relationship to them. Or both.
Just by living here a few decades, I know police officers and those who are, or previously have been arrested or incarcerated.
I know police officers who are a tribute to the community and their local neighborhoods. And I have encountered a few who deserve no place of armed, or any kind of authority, in our, or any community.
Law enforcement holds a special place in any community. They, like politicians, have specific obligations and responsibilities – and, like politicians, they should be held to a higher standard.
Not lower.
When we have an event like the nonchalant, public and apparently deliberate killing of George Floyd that explodes across our screens and enflames our urban centers and consciences, most of us want to believe that such an atrocity could not happen here.
We, especially in a city the size and scale of Tacoma, where so many of us know and work with those of different backgrounds and priorities, want to believe and know that we are immune to such things.
Police brutality and cover-ups are in those cities far away we tell ourselves. It’s “a few bad apples” we say to each other.
Our own police corruption and malfeasance was a long time ago we say.
The killing of George Floyd was an exception, an atrocity that could never happen in our neighborhoods we tell ourselves.
Except that it already did. Too many times to name. (https://www.knkx.org/post/manuel-ellis-case-prompts-attorney-general-review-dozens-deadly-force-cases)
What happens in Tacoma, doesn’t stay in Tacoma
As we all saw in the last week in January, it’s rarely a good sign when Tacoma is on the national news.
Tacoma, for the most part, escaped the urban violence that rocked Baltimore, Portland, Seattle and several other cities in 2020.
We have not been so lucky in 2021.
“Protect and serve” is the near universal motto for law enforcement – and many, I’d like to say most, uphold, or at least aspire to uphold, that ideal.
One thing I’ve never understood about law enforcement is their almost universal “protection” of their “bad apples”.
You’d think, or at least I would think, that an agency as crucial, high-profile and public as law enforcement would have a literal “zero-tolerance” for corruption, unwarranted violence and racism within their ranks.
And, as one media commentator put it, if any other agency or branch of local government brought on so much pain and economic damage to a community (how many multi-million dollar lawsuits and year-long investigations can we afford?) those agencies would certainly be reformed or investigated.
In and out of Tacoma, we need to ask ourselves how many “isolated incidents” does it take before we see that we have a pattern, a culture of accommodating the worst, instead of nurturing the best; in others, in our community and in ourselves.
On a nationwide level, many of these local law enforcement agencies have been investigated – and the results are not encouraging – in fact the findings are appalling. (https://www.npr.org/2021/01/25/956177021/fatal-police-shootings-of-unarmed-black-people-reveal-troubling-patterns)
As the study revealed, for many of the officers, this was not the first, or last, racially influenced killing – virtually all of them of unarmed victims.
No matter where you find yourself on the “Blue lives matter” spectrum, these results are, by any standard, unacceptable.
To put it mildly, we are in a very different world from the sketchy undercover deal done in a dark alley.
Every act, every conversation and confrontation is on camera. Body cams are only one element.
When every bystander, witness or even victim holds an active camera (and potentially crucial evidence) behavior, and policies, need to change.
Again, how many multi-million dollar lawsuits do we need to motivate us to do what should have been done years, if not decades ago?
What is it that we are in fact preserving and protecting?
One of the ironies of the car-racing events of January 23rd was that no one was injured until the police arrived.
Yes, street racing is, of course, illegal and dangerous, but one has to ask, how serious of a crime is it?
With dozens of cameras on the action, both automotive and legal, would anyone imagine that, no matter what happened, it would NOT become public information literally within minutes?
Another irony is that we had a crowd of young people acting just like young people (and not so different from many of us, not that many years ago) and a police officer acting like, well, I don’t even know what; certainly not my model of what a police officer should look like.
Besides most, if not all, of us being at two degrees of separation from law enforcement and those arrested, virtually all of us are two degrees of separation (or less) from our city council, city manager and mayor.
Many of us know and have worked with them. And I’m guessing that several of those participating in the street racing event know them too.
Tacoma is a small town, and an event like this, and its repercussions, will live on in our collective memory for many years.
We as a community have had challenges and problems before, and as most of us know, bland assurances and evasion of responsibility is, all too often, our go-to response.
We cannot afford the rending of our community, the continuing, if not increasing distrust of our law enforcement and of course, the seemingly unending parade of lawsuits.
If you have followed the standard response to difficulties, you find the same sterile and abstract terms; officials are “deeply concerned”, this incident is “being taken very seriously” and authorities intend to “ensure that everyone involved is held accountable”.
Our city officials “continue to support your right to use your voice to advocate and demonstrate peacefully” and of course the ever-present “we are strong and that we will get through this together”.
There must be a master-class in effusive, evasive and palliative writing. I see these same phrases in every TV series, and cliched movie about clueless politicians.
We don’t need more soothing words. We need to know that we, all of us, are indeed being protected and served by those “blue lives”.
We don’t pay them to protect themselves. They are, or at least should be, the front line protecting us.
We need our policies, and our behavior, to stop blaming the victims, stop defending bad cops, and yes, insist on the best, and allow nothing less from all of our public servants – especially the ”blue” ones.
