Defund The Police — A view from both sides:

My uncle has a unique Black experience that we all can learn from no matter what side of the issue of #DefundPolice you are on. His experience provides greater clarity and thoughtfulness than any hashtag. I am publishing his letter to the Fraternal Order of Police as a conduit for constructive conversations that lead to positive solutions.

His letter as follows:

My name is Dennis A. Williams. I am a proud African American. I am also a member and retiree (1987-2012) of the Metropolitan Police Department Washington D.C. I am a paying member of FOP Lodge #1 D.C. This letter is in response to a piece written by G.G. Neil, current President of FOP Lodge.

Mr. Neil piece purports to speak for all our officers who are currently serving in this time of heightened national unrest. Let me be perfectly clear, he does not speak for me and most certainly does not speak for all the black and brown officers who currently serve. Additionally, he doesn’t speak for those who have previously served and have had the fortune and privilege to make into retirement. He writes about how many of our police brethren have been injured during this time and how our politicians, as well as members of the public, do not support us. The tone of his tome is that “it is us against them“. He concludes by saying “We must band together to take back these streets, Law and Order!”.

I am those I “protect and serve”: a retired police officer, a young mother, a young student, a small business owner, a nurse, an American citizen. Allegedly “99% of the officers patrolling our streets are great people” and we only need to get rid of few bad apples. We must first acknowledge that the vast majority of people who are on the streets protesting are law-abiding American citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble and protest. We are paid and have sworn to protect their rights. We must figure out how to deal with those few bad apples who loot and pillage.

In the second part of my response, I am going to take G.G. Neil and his ilk on a journey of what it has been like to be on the other side of law enforcement in this country.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York (Brownsville) Howard Houses public housing. In 1967, at the age of 7, I along with some of my neighbors were given an opportunity to bussed out of our area to a more affluent white school in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. On my first day of school, I watched in horror as a crowd of white citizens with chains, dogs, bottles, spewed vitriol, and attacked and shook our bus. NYPD officers, mostly white, stood by laughing as this took place, and only after the news stations started coming into the area did they escort us out. This went on for weeks.

As a youth, I witnessed the riots of 1968 in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. I can still smell the burning of my neighborhood. As a teenager, I can remember being stopped and frisked by police for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not one time during these interactions with the police was my humanity acknowledged.

My first day in college in Albany, New York my roommate and I were stopped, handcuffed, and placed in the back of a patrol car walking back from a local mall. Supposedly we fit the description of a pair of robbers (mind you I am a freckled-faced black man that just happened to be wearing shorts and a tee-shirt with barely five dollars between my roommate and I). I have lost count of how many times I have been stopped in a car for being in the wrong part of town or driving period!

I challenge my white brothers and sisters in blue to try to imagine what it feels like to be stopped in a vehicle when you are approached by an officer with their hand on their weapon. You know that any wrong move can send you to the cemetery. Despite, or because of this, I chose to become a Police Officer in 1987. In my capacity as an officer, I served in Patrol: fifteen years as a Violent Crime Detective and my last seven years as a Patrol Sergeant in the 7th District Southeast, Washington, D.C.

I have served my community to the best of my ability. I have arrested some of the most violent and predatory offenders imaginable. However, I can count on one hand how many times I have had to draw my weapon. Do you know why that is? It is because I was always cognizant of the awesome power that we possess as law enforcement "the power to take someone’s freedom or life".

Too often, too many of us take this awesome responsibility for granted. I have heard too many times from our brethren in blue "I rather be tried by twelve than carried by six”. That is the pervading mindset. The “us versus them" thought process that must be changed! No amount of training is going to fix some of the inherent bias that you bring to work with you. However, we must pay attention to the citizens who pay us to protect them. They are speaking loudly that they want us to change the way that we do our jobs and the way we treat our citizens of color in this country.

In closing, I would like to leave the discussion with the immortal words of the former Chairman Of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca, " lead, follow, or get out of the way" The winds of change are upon us. Where will law enforcement stand?

Sincerely,

Dennis A. Williams