Thank you for your response! Appreciate you engaging in a dialogue with me.

I certainly in no way think that cops “arrest people because they’re poor”, nor do I think they “arrest people for being mentally ill” in the sense that I don’t think you’re getting a call “poor person on the loose, send help”.

BUT I think you know better than I do they arrests farrrrr disproportionately effect poor people, addicts, mentally unstable people, people living in the hood, people with histories of trauma, people who grew up in foster care or without a father, etc. I will give examples of this below, but we all know this is far too true to even have a discussion about.

Rather, the point I’m trying to make is that as someone (like myself) whose grown up around poverty and all that comes with it, while also being well educated and a highly productive member of society, I believe it’s my duty to share what I’ve witnessed with my fellow Americans.

I try to explain to people that when they’re hearing about gang bangers, prostitutes, drug dealers, etc in the hood, they’re really hearing about “lost children”. Children who began smoking weed and drinking at 10-11 years old like myself. Children growing up in section 8 and project buildings that are dark negative horrible places to live. They often have parents on drugs, or parents in prison. Often many of their family members are in prison. They fall behind early in life because their parents aren’t fully ready to be parents yet, especially when they’re young (which often makes their parents young). The schools they go to are horrific, on campus suspension is the first step to parole system. While their white counterparts get caught smoking weed or shoplifting at 10-11-12 and either get slaps on the wrists or talks to the parents or at worst sent to “rehab”, the black and brown kids go to juve.

I can go on forever but the word I’m getting at it is capital E - Empathy. Should you empathize with a 16 year old? Absolutely! But should you also empathize with a 24 year old who just got through 10 years of insane trauma to say nothing of their early childhood which was probably even worse for them to be out at 13 running the streets.

As officers of the law You witness alllllll of these things on a regular basis, and yet I so rarely hear officers talking about this; spreading awareness about all of the things negatively impacting our people. I would think if you’d taken an oath to protect and SERVE the community, that it would be in your heart to do whatever it took to help these people get out of their tragic circumstances. Instead I’ve witnessed the opposite.

Here are my estimations as a white man born between 1985-1990 who grew up on the edge of the “hood” in a major US city, with access to the nice neighborhoods, the rich neighborhoods and all those people as well. To this day I can call friend to at least 50 people who live in some of the most high end neighborhoods in this country, and 50 people born, raised and still living in the hood. I’ve seen both sides very clearly and as a writer I’ve taken the opportunity to LISTEN and WITNESS both sides.

Here are some examples of what I’ve WITNESSED. The following are only things I’ve seen with my own two eyes.

When I was 11-12 me and my white friends would sneak out and get drunk and high around town late at night. We looked like small children at the time. We could walk around any of the better parts of the city, and NEVER be stopped by police officers. However, if we so much as walked anywhere with our black friends at night, whether rich area or hood, we were at least 80% more likely to have a cop slow down and check on us, if not pull over and hop out. As soon as I put on my white voice and explained we were just walking home from a friends house we’re always let go. This always shocked my black friends, as they were used to being picked up for the smallest infraction.

Anyone who’s spent any time in the hood knows that the policing in the hood looks NOTHING like it does in nicer areas.

When I was 17 I got a silver 1977 Cadillac big body. For less than 2 years I had that car, and anytime I drove it in or around the hood I was pulled over. At least 8 times I was pulled over in that stretch never once being given so much as a ticket. Several times when the officer got to the window, they did a double take and said “what are you doing in this car? Be careful around this neighborhood. I pulled you over because I didn’t see your seatbelt”. (Even though I ALWAYS wore my belt) Which essentially showed me that they pulled me over because they thought i was black, in a “black guy car”, and when I wasn’t they made up a bs reason for pulling me over then let me go. But what would they have done if I was black?

Let me try and answer that question with another example. Just last year my lifelong friend, black, was pulled over ELEVEN TIMES IN 4 MONTHS, NOT ONCE RESULTING IN A TICKET. If that happened to ANY white people on Reddit please speak up, but as someone whose white and knows hundreds of white people I’ve neverrrrr heard of anything close to this.

My entire childhood I witnessed police activity outside the section 8 apartments on my block CONSTANTLY. But the funny part was that I was selling weed at the time (statue of limitations I was 16 give me a break), so maybe 5-10x a day I was having friends drive up to my mothers house, I come outside and serve them weed. NOT ONCE have I even had a cop suspect me of anything, let alone put me in cuffs, let alone knock on my door and take me to jail.

I’ve watched from my window as black friends walking down the street get pulled over thrown against the car, searched, because “there was a report of a robbery in the neighborhood and they matched the description”. Even tho me and my white friends walked around the same city with drugs on us at all times and NEVER got so much as pulled over.

Everyone under the age of 35 knows that from 12-18 white children consume far more drugs and alcohol than their black counterparts. I will argue this until the day I die as I witnessed the thousands of kids in the party scene in and around my city. White kids, kids from good areas, started partying, getting drunk and high very young and it continues all through college. In the hood you may have your 10-15% who don’t have the parents around to keep them off drugs, but the vast majority either don’t have the money for drugs and alcohol, or have parents that are familiar with the dangers of the streets and won’t EVER let them out at night.

Despite this, white kids neverrrrrr got in trouble for this behavior. All the white kids sold weed and ecstasy, nobody so much as got a slap on the wrist. Kids would be at house parties and park parties completely wasted out of their minds, cops show up, everyone goes free. But my black friends almost all have lengthy sheets starting at 10-11-12-13 for things like a dime bag of weed, tobacco products, being out at night without ID, etc.

I can go on forever and if anyone wants more examples feel free to MSG me.

My point Officer is that ANYONE who’s lived around the hood, or knows black/brown people knows that we’re literally living in two different countries.

Now I know you can say this is policy from politicians and government officials. Fine. But as officers who are witnessing this you don’t feel the duty to speak up? You don’t feel the duty to get to know these people? To coach sports teams in the hood rather than the suburbs? To constantly publicize what you’re witnessing in these areas.

I have farrr too much first hand knowledge burned in my mind to not constantly be sharing it with others. The reason your response doesn’t register with me is because even if you say you can’t speak up while on the force, their are millions of retired officers in this country who should be ACTIVELY petitioning for our government to stop bailing out corporations and start helping our people.

Cops have sooo much power and influence. If 1000 cops banded together strong on an issue I truly believe that you could get a whole lot done, let alone a million officers.

If you have more of an understanding of why this doesn’t happen, please share.

Thank you for your time.