Metro
Detroit has always been one of the more notorious areas in America for police
misconduct and brutality. In my parent’s generation, there was systematic
brutality and racial profiling, from the Detroit Police Department’s notorious
Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets (S.T.R.E.S.S.) unit and routine
harassment of black men driving west of Wyoming St. by the Deaborn Police
during the era of Mayor Orville Hubbard.
Since
then, we’ve had numerous events ranging in severity and media scrutiny, from
the fatal beating of Malice Green in 1992 by Detroit Police officer Larry
Nevers, to Grosse Pointe Park Police suspending five officers last year after
it was revealed that a black man with diminished mental capacity was made to
make ape sounds while in police custody.
Last
week, dashcam video was made public regarding an incident in which a Dearborn
Police officer is seen kicking an unarmed Lebanese immigrant who was being
restrained on the ground. The man who was kicked multiple times barely speaks
English and has diminished mental capacity, similar to the gentleman who was
humiliated last year in Grosse Pointe Park.
These
incidents, spread across decades, makes one wonder if there’s a greater law
enforcement culture issue at hand.
Sure,
there are many honorable officers serving in our region and being in law
enforcement is never an easy task. However, the reflex in which police chiefs
have to defend their officers, seemingly at all costs, helps perpetuate actions
such as what took place in Dearborn.
But
thank God for technology.
We
can lawfully take smartphone video of officers in action, and many police
vehicles are outfitted with dashcams, which pick up audio and video of police
interactions.
All
officers, as public servants, should be mic’d at all times while on duty.
Officers’ interactions should be public record, except for detectives
investigating sensitive cases and/or taking official statements of witnesses to
crimes. Every sheriff and police officer’s car in Michigan should be compelled
to have dashcams.
For
many people, behaviors do not change without consequences. Greater
opportunities to scrutinize the behaviors of law enforcement officers may serve
as a deterrent against police misconduct.