Who gets to decide what law and order looks like in our Country continues to be questionable as we see disparities in the implementation.  Sir Robert Peel was the founding father of policing in England and his concept was brought over with the Colonizers.  The first principle of policing was to prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression of military force and severity of legal punishment.  Unlike the Northeast of America in the South, Slave Patrols were the model for policing as they gave White men the legal authority to hunt down the “property” of those who owned our ancestors. The disparities we see in the way laws are implemented aren’t difficult to notice. When White sports fans destroy urban areas as they “celebrate” national championships, African Americans are sprayed with toxic chemicals when we protest another killing of an unarmed person in our community.   

We have all seen tanks, police with ballistic shields, and AR-15s in our communities when there is “civil unrest” due to another African American being killed while going about their business. Not only do many of us fear the police but we also have civilians who think it is their job to police us. We are not safe in America when walking home (Trayvon Martin), listening to music at a gas station (Jordan Davis), or jogging in our neighborhood (Ahmaud Arbery).  These cases are about race, a social construct created to justify the inequality we continue to experience. When our community pushes back and demands justice we become the aggressors.  Too often we have cases/people that would not be prosecuted if we did not call attention to the crimes committed against us. 

Where were the police tanks during the Charlottesville Protest by White Supremacists with Tiki Torches yelling “I will not be Replaced”?  What about the insurrection on the Capitol on January 6, 2021? We all saw pictures and videos of White people beating Capital Police with Blue Lives Matter Flags as they stormed the building looking to do harm to our elected officials. What we didn’t see were tanks ready to plow through the crowd of protestors. Kyle Rittenhouse, a White male, drove across state lines to counterprotest a Black Lives Matter rally.  He killed two people and was found not guilty by a “jury of his peers.” While many White people are able to take policing into their own hands the same cannot be said for those with melanin in their skin.  Too often we are assumed guilty until proven innocent.  

How is it possible for White male mass shooters (Dylann Roof, Adam Lanza, and James Holmes) to be arrested by police without incident but African American men who are unarmed not making it home to their families (Mike Brown, George Floyd, and Michael Dean)?  The militarization of the police has come at the price of our security as a society but it seems to only negatively impact certain groups.  

The school-to-prison pipeline is another issue we must address as we continue to see Black and Brown students referred to law enforcement more frequently than their White counterparts for the same behavior.  As a nation, we have 5% of the world’s population but incarcerate 20% of the world’s incarcerated population. We spend over 80 Billion dollars per year on incarceration. One in three Black men will be under the control of the Criminal Justice System within their lifetime.  The concept of Law and Order obviously impacts different communities differently as we continue to see disparities. 

The increase in White supremacy within the ranks of police and the military is documented.  Often young White males are indoctrinated while serving in the military or while on the police force. We have people policing Black and Brown communities who have no understanding of the systemic racial issues that have negatively impacted our communities. They don’t live in the same areas as minorities and what they think they know of them they learn through sound bites via the media or their peer groups. We continue to be a hyper-segregated society based on race and socioeconomic status.

As a nation we need to rethink the militarization of the police, the continued impact of white supremacy, and if we truly are behaving in a manner reflective of God.  Too many people are using Christianity as a way to justify their behavior but the questions should truly be What would Jesus do?