White Cops 14, Ebola 2… by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #385 | @MDWorld

December 15, 2014 Mike Gold 1 Comment

Now that we’ve seen over 100,000 Americans of all races and ages and both sexes take to the streets to make a stand against the current fad of white policemen murdering unarmed black men and boys, let’s take a step back from our legitimate anger and look at a solution for the problem.

There is a solution, you know, and it has nothing to do with conquering our inner-Klanboy. I suspect most police are going to hate it, at least at first, even though it is practical, simple, doesn’t involve citizen oversight (which is still a good idea, but that’s a separate matter), and doesn’t take away their guns or their jockstraps. It does involve a lot of walking.

The solution to the problem is to have policemen and women go back to walking the beat. Actually, they won’t be going back at all: it was their grandparents and great uncles who walked that beat. These folks knew the names of the shopkeepers, they knew the names of most of the local miscreants no matter what their race and age, they knew who was sick and needed assistance. They heard what was going on from the citizens on their beat; if there was a dangerous pothole in the alley or somebody going around stealing cars, they knew about it.

They were a part of the community, and the community was part of them. They enjoyed a shared responsibility with that community for keeping order and making it a place that was worthwhile.

Let’s bring that back. I’ll bet you we save some lives, reduce street crime some, and save a lot of money on gasoline and patrol cars. I’ll bet you within a year the policepeople on the beat will be seen as members of the community… and those that aren’t will be held accountable. The police will enjoy something they haven’t had, by and large, for many decades: respect.

I know. It’s sort of like signing the Ghost of Christmas Past to a five-picture deal. But it will work.

Speaking of which… happy holidays to one and all.

Except Pat Lynch and Daniel Pantaleo. They can choke on it.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com as part of “Hit Oldies” every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information. Gold also joins MDW’s Michael Davis and Martha Thomases as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.