Roundtable on DOJ Findings

1 Comment

1. Yambu says:

   August 13, 2016 at 10:26 pm

   I agree first things first, and the first thing we should focus on is ourselves, in any of the areas we need to address. We must first first take control of that which is more easily to control and that is ourselves. Much of our problem is cultural in nature. Money will not solve our problems. Many are calling again for self economic empowerment, but ignore the face that there is a vibrant economy in our communities – the drug trade. What has all that money done for our communities? Those who engage in it have a job or a source of income, so it ain’t so much about lack of jobs in our communities. Most unemployed people don’t commit homicides to survive. If our lives really matter we should be addressing the large numbers of homicides committed by us against us. Is it unreasonable to think that we should be able to change the behavior of ourselves and our people, as opposed to someone outside of our group. How effective has all that’s been done been, to stop police from committing these unjustified killings and shootings? One of the solutions being throw around is so-called community policing. What is that? Should not community policing mean the community policing itself? Put police out of business. Stop the crime. It is bad for our health, well being and lives, and also bad for business. The concept of a ‘Peace Dividend’ should be proposed. Stop the killing and crime, and the money saved will be diverted to life affirming things like jobs, education, health-care, etc., as opposed to things that should not be necessary like police forces, prisons, and to higher health-care cost, because of emergency room treatment, rehabilitation and disability payments. We also need to first change our attitude and outlook about education. We just don’t seem to value it as much as other groups. We have to establish order in our schools, and create a healthy learning environment. That’s an obvious point, so why have we not achieved something as simple as this yet, or something more simple such as keeping our communities clean? Maybe it’s because we never critique our way of doing things. Some of our practices and thinking grew out of the slavery condition, and some of them, I believe do not serve us well. How can we change anything that we do that is not serving us well – things that are ingrained in us? I think it will take a national campaign, involving all our institutions and organizations, spearheaded by our artist, celebrities and activist. We may need to focus almost entirely on one problem at a time – something more easily achieved. Demonstrate that we can accomplish that, and we may have the unity confidence and strength to tackle the more complex problems. The DOJ is already suggesting millions be spent to re-train police officers, when that money is sorely needed in many other areas. How complicated is it for someone to act humanly? We should not have to be using our resources this way. We must stop the insanity of doing the same things, over and over again, and approaching problems the same ways, and expecting different results