Living in Ramsey, with little racial mixed occupancy, the exurbs turning to outer suburbs, police here are well disciplined public servants, and badges do not weigh heavy. One police encounter years ago, speeding, was handled professionally and there is gratitude in being left with a warning, not a ticket, after a driver's license and insurance check; no outstanding warrants or other cause to detain; all detail of that incident has to be representative of a force well disciplined, top down; bottom up. A force not predicated on fear and mayhem, no "warrior training" bullshit, but sound civic management in practice and in theory.
But white MPD cops terrorizing the black community has led to reaping what was sown. Mayor Frey now has the mandate he should exercise quickly to begin his upcoming cleaning of the force, and in advance we can thank him for what he will do. He will take on Bob Kroll's incitement and affection for Gestapo policing tactics, to better the city permanently after unrest lessens.
It was already past time before, but Frey lacked strong community backing.
After the spectacle of Gestapo-style murder in front of citizens with smart phones, the world saw. How much before this - 1968 in Chicago, Kent State's and Jackson State's unprosecuted Guard murders, the list goes on - how much would have led to lasting reform, were the technology to document and show misconduct available then?
LA Times published a 50 yr "retrospective op-ed in 2018. source of the above screen capture
Politico, 2017:
The violence even spilled over to the convention hall, as guards roughed up some delegates and members of the press. Writer Terry Southern described the convention hall as “exactly like approaching a military installation; barbed-wire, checkpoints, the whole bit.” CBS correspondents Mike Wallace and Dan Rather were roughed up by security guards — Wallace was punched in the face. Both incidents were broadcast live on television.
For the rest of the convention week, violence followed the pattern set at its start. An exception: protesters were joined on Aug. 28 by the Poor People's Campaign, led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Ralph Abernathy. This group had a permit and was split off from other demonstrators before being allowed to proceed to the amphitheater.
On the convention floor, several delegates assailed Daley and the police. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn.) denounced the use of “Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago” in his speech nominating Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) for president. Television cameras captured Daley, who was seated up front on the convention floor with the Illinois delegation, mouthing an obscenity at Ribicoff.
When Daley subsequently sought to justify the police action at a news conference, he said: “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder.” In 1996, when the Democrats next held their presidential convention in Chicago, some police officers still on the force wore T-shirts proclaiming, “We kicked their father’s butt in '68 and now it’s your turn.”
Subsequently, the Walker Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence assigned blame for the mayhem in the streets to the police force, calling the violence a “police riot.” Nevertheless, the so-called Chicago Eight were arrested on charges of conspiring to incite the violence. Their trial was held in Chicago in 1969, sparking waves of violent protests in the city.
Bless Abe Ribicoff. If cops don't learn, they need to be taught. The badge must be respected as an honor to hold, and not a license to intimidate. When the likes of provocateur Bob Kroll are tolerated one inch, the present chaos is the crop thus sown.
The story is really simple: Ramsey cops, good. Kroll cops, bad.
End of story.
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UPDATE: Were my encounters with police over time since childhood different, non-benign, it would traumatize - read this to understand. FURTHER. Go figure.