In light of our ongoing national crisis with law enforcement…
In light of our ongoing national crisis with law enforcement, it is ironic that two weeks ago Chicago native and police officer, Tony Parker, agreed to fly to New York and drive, as the second driver to Boss Murphy, back to Chicago and the Ravinia Festival. Boss and I were going to hear the U.S. premiere of my Violin Concerto written for the great Nicky Benedetti and the venerated Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Tony did us a solid.
If Officer Parker had known that our nation would once again erupt in outrage over two more clearly documented and publicly viewed cases of unnecessary abuse of police authority, he would not have come, just to avoid hearing my mouth on the 14 hour journey. If he had known that a Mark Essex style gunman would take the lives of some innocent police officers to retaliate for the deaths of innocent citizens, he would definitely have stayed home, if just to mourn in solidarity with his brothers and sisters in blue. But, we left New York last Friday at 4pm, and there we were on Highway 80 west at 2am on Saturday morning, still heatedly discussing it.
Tony is a 26 year veteran with the Chicago Police Department. Before that, he spent 5 years in federal drug enforcement administration. He has functioned as a plain clothes officer, a certified police instructor (who was voted top instructor by the recruits 4 years running), a high school liaison officer and, he has been a street cop on the West and South side of Chicago (some of the toughest neighborhoods in the country). We have known each other since 1982 or 3, and he will officially retire from 32 overall years in law enforcement this coming Friday. I was the best man at his wedding and we have been extremely close friends for many years.
We have had decades of talking and arguing about policing and problems in the hood and perception versus reality and on and on. Me from the perspective of personal experiences and the view from my couch, him from daily personal experiences on the front lines. Though we many times disagree, we have discussed it with the familiarity and closeness of brothers, so these thirty some years of conversation have not been politically correct or filtered in any way.
Because he sees so many heartbreaking crimes against citizens everyday and experiences constant disrespect at the hands of the criminals who menace those citizens, he almost always defends police actions. Down through these years I have tried to stump him with blatant cases of injustice to egregious for even him to dismiss.
When some of the police crimes of last year were filmed and the cops were still not prosecuted, we started talking more seriously about this age old problem. In the throes of a recent discussion, he was forcefully defending police action in what I thought were some clear cut cases of abuse, so I asked him, “How long have you been a cop?”
“A long time.”
“I’ve been with you and people in the community love you.”
“Yep. They know me.”
“You see the worse street criminals in the US everyday, huh?”
“Yep.”
“How many have you shot?”
“None.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to shoot nobody.” Feeling that he had just proven my case, I start laughing sarcastically and say, “You see. I don’t WANT to shoot people…..want.”
He dismissed my comments and continued, “My academy instructor Zenford Mitchell was famous for jailing the arch New York gangster, Nicky Barnes. Zenford taught us, ‘Always give people a way of getting out of stuff before you try to kill them.’ The cops you’re looking at are shaking the tree until the gorilla falls out. And when it does, they kill it and think that’s police work.
I never wanted to shoot anyone and thank the Lord I never really had to.
Veteran officers would say I got a pass and I am truly blessed to have survived my career, one that asks so much of you, and you get so little in return. I use to say to the people I would meet in the street ‘Look me in the eye.’ and what I saw touched my soul, it would touch yours too, if you looked long enough to see. Man, every night, I would come home and I would walk in my kids room and they would be asleep, and I would kiss each one of them. I would sit in the living room and say to myself, ‘I am always gonna put myself in a position where I can come home and close both of my eyes. And I was lucky and did.”
I asked him later, “Can I post what you said?” He said, “No man, that’s for me and you.” But I’m still posting it.
Wynton
Comments
We need not look beyond the recent incident in Miami, where a behavior therapist (black man) was shot while tending to a man with autism.
I have two sons with autism and could spot someone who was severely autistic100 miles away based upon behavior.
If it had been a white behavior therapist tending to a white man with autism, would he have been shot if he had acted in the same way. We can’t answer this question for sure, but likely not.
It is sad that we have to spend our time arguing that there is a problem rather than spending our time debating about solutions. The fact that we have to argue about the problem reflects broad denial of it.
We cannot advance unless we say we have a problem. And it is our problem, not just the problem relegated to the police, one race, or the poor, or men, or women, or children. We live in a society tainted by violence, and we have little trust in people whom we should be able to admire and trust.
Well meaning police officers need better training and community support. Bad police officers need to be dismissed. Children must be shown life beyond violence and crime.
We need to come together to meet this challenge.
Lead on Wynton – I will do my part.
Greg Burgess on Jul 28th, 2016 at 12:59pm
Dear Wynton!
Thank You so Very much for all You are doing! KEEP ON! I like every thing You do. Perhaps Your classical CD’s is that I love most!
You seem to have a good, helthy perspective of life. I am so sorry for all, that The humans do, to distroy all happines and make it to hell for our sisters and brothers on this planet. What for?? It’s useless!!
I am writing this from my homecountry, Sweden.
Bless You Wynton!
With love from Sweden and
Sylvia
Sylvia on Jul 25th, 2016 at 8:24pm
Let me start out with this caveat: I do not have the words to adequately convey my deep admiration and respect for you. That said, this blog post is one of the reasons why I absolutely love and adore you, Wynton. I have been listening to your music for decades and it has never failed to elevate both my mind and my spirit. It is truly transcendent. I’ve only had the privilege of hearing you live a couple of times at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. But I like listening to you talk almost as much as I enjoy your music. I have many of your CDs, but I am grateful for YouTube because that is where I go to listen to interviews you’ve given. Your keen intellect and command of any subject put before you is impressive and inspiring. And I came to your blog knowing that you would have something to say worth hearing about the ridiculously cruel and horrifying tragedies we have witnessed the past few weeks, any many of us have been witnessing for years. And I thank you for saying it.
I’ve not heard anyone say this (no doubt because it’s unspeakable), but it’s my belief that what we are witnessing in the U. S. today is a manifestation of the Dred Scott decision which, while officially overturned, unfortunately has not been overturned in the hearts and minds of many people in power. How else can one explain why, absent a loud outcry from African-Americans, cops will not ever be indicted, much less convicted, of killing a black man even with video evidence of their brutality? Yet they can apprehend an armed white man who just slaughtered 9 black people during Bible study, without harming him at all. I hate to say it, but this is Dred Scott writ large.
Carolyn Odom on Jul 21st, 2016 at 4:58pm