Police After George Floyd

After George Floyd was murdered as a completely casual act by the Minneapolis Police, America was literally lit up by protestors. People of color, especially Black folks, had hundreds of years of brutality and oppression burst out in the form of uncontrollable crowds. Crowds wanted justice for Floyd and punishment for Officer Chauvin, the cop who murdered Floyd and his three fellow cops who just stood there, not intervening for all of the nine minutes during which Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck, preventing him from breathing. Around four minutes after the knee was first applied, one cop checked Floyd for pulse and said he found none, yet neither he nor any of the other two officers, did anything to stop Chauvin.

How and why do these terrible things continue to happen at the hands of Police officers all across the nation?

What things need to be changed before a change in Police culture can be seen and felt?

Murders in Nice

When the Nice attack was first announce, I am sure I was joined by almost every Muslim in silent prayers that the killer would not be a Muslim but alas, he was! At today’s count, 84 people…men, women and children, were killed and over 200 injured.

 

Who even thinks of wreaking such havoc on innocent people who are out simply enjoying life? The roots of such actions are easy to track even though the answer to the “why” of such actions is much more difficult; the responsibility is shared between the US, the European countries and the Muslims living in the US and Europe, perhaps in equal measure.

Police, the Lovely and the Ugly

On May 26th 2011, I graduated from the Seattle Police Citizens’ Academy after attending a ten-week course designed to help civilians understand the workings of the Seattle Police Department. My motivation was to understand how the Seattle Police works and then to push Muslims to join the Police. I firmly believe that Muslims must get involved in the life and the workings of every country where they live, because that is the best path towards helping the non-Muslim majority populations understand who we Muslims are and to help them accept us as no different than any of them. How else can the departments be helped to a better understanding of who we are and how else are we to de-fang the myths that are promoted against us, by fear-mongers?

Towards this end, I believe Muslims must become volunteers, interns and members of law-enforcement departments (Police, FBI etc.,), political offices and service agencies wherever an opportunity should present itself.

At the end of the ten-week session, I found myself in a strange position; I still promote Muslims’ involvements in every field, but I am deeply disturbed by the training and attitudes that are ingrained in every Police officer. I was so torn between support of an agency whose goals are admirable and the training of their officers, that I kept putting off writing about my experience, week after week, because I was unable to work it out for myself.

It is time I wrote.

Planting Prejudice In Our Defenders

For the story behind this commentary, please  read from this link.

 

 

Prejudice goes a long way. After it infects the primary person, it is passed on the others at the same level, to juniors and to other impressionable people, until very soon, its effects can be seen across the board

 

Prejudice is corrosive at all levels, it is bad when parents share their prejudice with their children who make it their own, it is bad when friends share their prejudice with each other and exercise it against others, but it is especially bad when it is shared in training of people who have the power of freedom or prison; life or death.

 

Prejudice travels best when it is unopposed and when it is disguised as beneficial to neighbors or, to society, thus causing irretrievable damage.

This is how genocidal movements get their energy and how they succeed; just ask Hitler, Milosevic, Habyarimana…ask anybody who is in the hate-business and they will share their prejudice, cloaked as a blessing to humanity. The justifications for spreading prejudice, almost always include the protection of the innocence of a society against an inexorable evil.

 

One unintended consequence of promoting prejudice is, that once unleashed, it becomes uncontrollable and attacks the originators and the spectators, just as easily as the targets.

The Germans who watched silently as Jews were marched off to death camps, soon found themselves rubbing shoulders with the same Jews in the same camps; the Sunni Muslims who stayed on the sidelines as extremist Sunnis bombed Shia gatherings, soon found themselves and their own loved ones also being targeted and victimized by the same fanatics.

 

There has always been a latent prejudice against Muslims in the West and