Baltimore Ex-Cop Michael Wood gives brutally honest interview on institutionalized racism - General

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHb23-puvLI[/media] There's not a lot of talk about this online from what I've seen, and it has a shamefully low viewcount. The way he articulates his experiences and particularly how police get drawn into a continuous cycle is really eye opening. I can only hope that there's a lot more people in the force speaking up like this. I'd encourage anyone who has the time to watch the whole thing.

Would like to see an uncut version, and this seems more a critique on the failures of the correction system, not necessarily racism. If you stop arresting the kids on the corner with the dime bags, the problem will run rampant.

I haven't found an uncut version so far. The cornerstone of his criticism is institutionalized racism but the overall argument is also about how it bleeds out into everything. Later in the video he talks about how the situation is perpetuated specifically by a racist ideology. There's an important differentiation between racism and institutionalized racism.

I really only see racism and institutionalized racism and the things that follow it going away if the majority of everyone involved decides at once to move on and keep an open mind. I really don't see that happening anytime soon, but as a public safety professional I keep an open mind and an equal opportunity criteria for my enforcement stops just in case it's the one that sparks moving on into motion.

[QUOTE=Sonador;48484267]Would like to see an uncut version, and this seems more a critique on the failures of the correction system, not necessarily racism. If you stop arresting the kids on the corner with the dime bags, the problem will run rampant.[/QUOTE] You're pretty naive if you don't think the problem isn't already running rampant on baltimore streets. Or most urban centers for that matter. Honestly all arresting kids for 35$ baggies does is keep the vicious cycle of the urban drug trade going. Like there's some truth to when people say "Police turn people into real criminals" I've seen it with my own eyes, people getting raided by the cops and all their supply and potential profit taken from them. And almost always they immediately step up their game so they can get their money back quick, And that could mean anything from selling harder more expensive shit or armed robbery that kinda thing. It's not just the dealers & kingpins that make the drug game what it is, it's the way police have handled it since Reagan too.

The answer to getting raided by the cops for manufacturing and selling dope is definitely not to resume manufacturing and selling dope It's taking the resource packet you're given on discharge and working with your civil services and EDD to get a job and start piecing your life back together

[QUOTE=Sonador;48484422]The answer to getting raided by the cops for manufacturing and selling dope is definitely not to resume manufacturing and selling dope It's taking the resource packet you're given on discharge and working with your civil services and EDD to get a job and start piecing your life back together[/QUOTE] Please watch the whole video because this is addressed and shot down quite easily

[QUOTE=Sonador;48484422]The answer to getting raided by the cops for manufacturing and selling dope is definitely not to resume manufacturing and selling dope It's taking the resource packet you're given on discharge and working with your civil services and EDD to get a job and start piecing your life back together[/QUOTE] Not everyone thinks like you though, in fact i'd wager most people actually involved in this kinda thing even small time don't. It's easy to say "Stop selling and get a real job loser" when you're a middle-class white male with a sparkily clean record not a impoverished black kid from a East Baltimore block, surrounded by drugs and the drug trade their whole life. when you're living in that situation selling drugs is seen as just another way to make money, to make your own in the world. And plus once you do get raided, and you do have a trafficking charge stamped on your record, do you have any idea how much that hurt's your potential employment opportunities? Plenty of people get into the game thinking it's just another way to make some quick money, but quickly realize once you're in it, you're in it, the drug game especially once you've got shit relating to it on official records is incredibly hard to get out of. And do you think in the big drug busts they're bringing down the kingpins? fuck no, the guys that really run the show are never even in the same room as the drugs/guns, The people that end up dead in gang wars or end up in jail are just the kids taking orders, the "soldiers". It's not as simple as "Get a real job you drug dealer". And if you're gonna take the stance of "Yeah well drug use is bad, drugs are bad, everything to do with drugs is bad" like yeah they're bad for you and they'll fuck you up, but that doesn't put aside how widespread they are, throughout all of history and everywhere you go somebody is always going to be trying to get high, on what who knows, but that's not my point. Illegal or not the cunts that want to get high are gonna get high. And the guy touches on it himself, this whole drug war has done nothing except prevent police from acting like real police. Think about how many drug busts their are in comparison to how many Homicides mostly of young black males actually get solved. Is busting some poor 15 year old from a shitty neighborhood really worth more than solving you know a murder?

[QUOTE=Slim Charles;48484435]Not everyone thinks like you though, in fact i'd wager most people actually involved in this kinda thing even small time don't. It's easy to say "Stop selling and get a real job loser" when you're a middle-class white male with a sparkily clean record not a impoverished black kid from a East Baltimore block, surrounded by drugs and the drug trade. when you're living in that situation selling drugs is seen as just another way to make money, to make your own in the world. And plus once you do get raided, and you do have a trafficking charge stamped on your record, do you have any idea how much that hurt's your potential employment opportunities? Plenty of people get into the game thinking it's just another way to make some quick money, but quickly realize once you're in it, you're in it, the drug game especially once you've got shit relating to it on official records is incredibly hard to get out of. It's not as simple as "Get a real job you drug dealer". And if you're gonna take the stance of "Yeah well drug use is bad, drugs are bad, everything to do with drugs is bad" like yeah they're bad for you and they'll fuck you up, but that doesn't put aside how widespread they are, throughout all of history and everywhere you go somebody is always going to be trying to get high, on what who knows, but that's not my point. Illegal or not the cunts that want to get high are gonna get high.[/QUOTE] That's all well and good, but this has nothing to do with my opinion on drugs. Simply put, if you get arrested for something, quit fucking doing it. There's no rational argument to this, it's the whole point of getting arrested, it's a penalty for violating the law. You don't go right ahead and do it again. Drug pushing, purse snatching, loitering after curfew, or murder, if you get jacked up for doing something by the police, quit fucking doing it. It IS that simple. I really don't care what the cunts that want to get high think, in my experience they don't do much of it in the first place, anyway. There is much to be said that the corrections system absolutely an unequivocally must be overhauled in a great number of developed nations to actually be a corrections system, not a brand you for life as a criminal system, especially for nonviolent and first time offenders. There's also something to be said about old-school community policing where the cops are part of the solution and actually doing their part in educating people coming from walks of life where the 'drug game' is inherent as to how deep they're going to get mired in it if they don't get out early. Legalizing drugs is only a partial and optional part of solving the drug problem, you remove the criminality of production, possession, and consumption, but abuse will continue to be intrinsic in the system given most drugs are addictive and have severe affects on mental health. Yes, this includes pot, and spare me your pandering, I was on the wrong end of pot addicted parents for 16 years of my life.

The "good" moral solution to the situation is there, but the people in those kind of situations in those kind of mindsets aren't going to think that, that's incredibly idealistic. it's not how people work, to really solve this problem it's going to take more than just people on their own decided they don't want to do this shit. Also spare me all that shit about how the law provides soft drug charges. In Western Australia you could be 16 years old, get caught with two 1.6 gram bags of weed, that's a juvenile precaution, you are now on parole, you get caught doing any kind of crime, may that be something as petty as trespassing you are going to juvy, and going into that place and coming out changes you, most of the time for the worst. And you ended up in their just for having a stick bag (the 1.6 grams/25$ worth) and being in a abandoned building and getting caught, some stupid shit like that and now you're a actual criminal. Also pandering? what? I said drugs are bad and they fuck you up I just said there's not much point in trying to fight them like we do now because of how widespread they are all you can do is educate people on them and they will make their own choice. Also I came from shitty beginnings too, I'm from a shitty outer suburb in Western Australia; Drugs, Beatings, Murder, Meth Lab's exploding you name it probably happened in Southlake. And I've got my own scars both literal (My mum sliced me open a fair amount of times to name one thing) and mental. My Parents smoked too I never really had a problem with that though, but we're all different in different situations don't think I hold at that against you. Like we all have our own problems I don't really know why you brought that up. I never said complete legalization is the way to go either, I just believe the way we're "fighting" the drug war is wrong and I sense you do to. Do I know how to solve it? Fuck no that's for someone smarter than I to come up with. All I can do is provide a little insight into what it's actually like because I was around this sort of thing a lot of my life.

[QUOTE=Slim Charles;48484554]The "good" moral solution to the situation is there, but the people in those kind of situations in those kind of mindsets aren't going to think that, that's incredibly idealistic. it's not how people work, to really solve this problem it's going to take more than just people on their own decided they don't want to do this shit. Also spare me all that shit about how the law provides soft drug charges. In Western Australia you could be 16 years old, get caught with two 1.6 gram bags of weed, that's a juvenile precaution, you are now on parole, you get caught doing any kind of crime, may that be something as petty as trespassing you are going to juvy, and going into that place and coming out changes you, most of the time for the worst. Also pandering? what? I said drugs are bad and they fuck you up I just said there's not much point in trying to fight them like we do now because of how widespread they are all you can do is educate people on them and they will make their own choice. Also I came from shitty beginnings too, I'm from a shitty outer suburb in Western Australia; Drugs, Beatings, Murder, Meth Lab's exploding you name it probably happened in Southlake. And I've got my own scars both literal (My mum sliced me open a fair amount of times to name one thing) and mental. They smoked too. Like we all have our own problems I don't really know why you brought that up.[/QUOTE] It might be incredibly unrealistic, but the fact that it is unrealistic is part of that problem. If you'd read my post, you'd note that I said that the corrections system [I]needs to be reworked[/I] to provide proper rehabilitative and corrective services for nonviolent and first time offenders, not that it [I]does.[/I] Forgive me for thinking preemptively you'd step up to defend pot, your title is a giant green weed reference.

I edited my post a little bit to include a bit more. Honestly I sense we're essentially saying the same thing just we misinterpreted each-other at first. [editline]18th August 2015[/editline] I didn't buy my title my mate did :(

It's enough that we both agree the problem's on all sides. There's a lot of working that needs to be done, and I honestly think, at least in the US, we're about to see another flip from law enforcement being robotic arrest and incarcerate institutions to proper community policing with a larger picture on actually eliminating badness instead of scraping off the top layer at street level. At least, that's what I hope.

I think for a start the Police should go back to being actually part of the neighborhood they police, Actually talk to people, be apart of the community. [editline]18th August 2015[/editline] Police are demonized in poor communities mostly because the only time you see a Police Officer is when you've fucked up. [editline]123[/editline] And the "Drug War" itself is a outdated relic from the Cold War that just needs to stop, you can't even call the War on Drugs a war really, wars are supposed to end eventually.

That's pretty much the definition of community policing. If you watch the old 70's show ADAM-12, you'll see what my idea of policing should go back to is. It'll be hard with all this wanton violence against cops recently, but I think it's worth a try. There's probably a happy medium in there, if we can't go back to the "Mayberry Days." They need to get more foot patrols going again - putting cops in cars was one of the worst ideas in policing history. All of them, anyway. Give this a read, it's pretty great: [url]http://www.policefoundation.org/publication/the-newark-foot-patrol-experiment/[/url]

It's definitely going to be hard at first because the streets aren't like what they used to be, it's a lot more fierce out their now. But honestly it's the only feasible chance we've got to at-least start and try to fix this massive cluster-fuck. [editline]18th August 2015[/editline] Also America's policing problems apply to most of the Western World, It's definitely not as tough here in Australia ever since the gun buy-back. But pretty much all the Policing problems America deals with we deal with too in some Semblance. People are just people really. [editline]123[/editline] Here is the uncut interview for anyone interested and hasn't seen it yet; [hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndg-JGmYryA[/hd]

I'd like to add that drug use being a criminal offense is a totally arbitrary and made up thing. As stated in the video it's creating criminals out of victims of addiction. That viewpoint is extremely toxic towards forming empathy for these people. Whether or not anyone thinks drug use is okay isn't relevant when it's not something that will ever go away. I'm totally in agreement with what's said in the video. A scientific stance needs to be taken, and people need to have legal methods for getting drugs if we're ever going to end the violence surrounding them. They also need to have a strong system in place to help those who are addicts and to prevent addiction while providing a safe environment to use.

Yeah plus drugs being illegal causes a whole bunch of other crimes to happen, like people robbing, beating, stabbing and shooting drug dealers because the drug dealers have no legal recourse. [editline]18th August 2015[/editline] Drug dealers are people too :v:, some people tend to forget that.

people have unironically told me this whole issue was caused by rap music