Archive of Hope by Milk Harvey

Author:Milk, Harvey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520275492
Publisher: University of California Press

. . .

Some people argue that there should be no need for an organization such as the Police Community Relations. They say that the fact that it exists means that something is amiss. They say that there should be no need for a group to improve relations between the police and the community. They are right. But if they were to continue their logic one step, they would also have to say that there should be no need for police. The very fact that there is a police force means that something is amiss. They are right.

But things are not as they should be. People do steal, rob, mug, kill, rape, etc., etc. Thus, there is a need for the police. And because of some police, there is a need for improving attitudes between the police and the community. Because of the nature of man, we need police. Because of the nature of man, we also have come to need Police Community Relations . . . but a meaningful PCR and not tokenism. Things must change. Man must stop his robbing, his killing. The police must stop their misuse of power, i.e. their attack on last week’s anti-Viet Nam demonstrators and the press, the Castro Street Sweep, their harassment of gays. It adds up that on both sides, there is a percentage of people who abuse the rights of others. The question is what can be done to help change the thinking of the percentage of the people?

There always will be some who will not play by the rules. There always will be someone who will take advantage of others. There will always be some who, for many reasons, will create an unsafe atmosphere. There are deep rooted reasons for this . . . lack of education, lack of of job opportunities, frustrations, etc. These are paramount problems that will only be solved when our elected leaders get the guts to attack the problems instead of the crises. No PCR unit can hope to solve these deep rooted problems. What a PCR unit can solve is the attitudes on the surface and the attitudes that exist for lack of understanding on both sides. The PCR can bring their various communities together and work on improving attitudes. It is no easy task. There will be no fast solution. The Eureka Valley PCR is correct in trying to solve some of the local problems before trying to solve the citywide problems. If you can not improve your own area, how can you have the ability to solve things on a larger scale? A great opportunity to improve relations has been formed—the local seminar. It will offer the police the chance to explain in detail the problems that they face—and they do have problems. If the gay community is able to get a fuller understanding of the police, maybe some of the confrontations will lessen. The burden will then be transferred to the police to understand the life style and the frustrations of the gay community.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.