When it comes to law enforcement in America, there are two culture wars under way.
One has been championed at the federal level by the Trump administration: an effort to rigorously defend police and shift public policy away from punishing officer misconduct. But the second, less visible—and, in some ways, opposite—war has been ongoing at the local level for over a half-century, with African American officers working to mitigate racial bias and abuse of power from within the profession.
President Trump and other tough-on-crime advocates argue they are “backing the blue.” This obscures the fact that many law-enforcement leaders openly share activists’ concerns. Although not all black officers back criminal-justice reform, and many who do are not black, African Americans have a long history of advocating for change in their own departments. Despite the current cultural and governmental challenges facing policing reform, some of the biggest obstacles are not particular to the Trump era, leaders told me. Rather, they are much older conflicts that aren’t easily influenced by federal politics.
[For more on this story by TAYLOR HOSKING, go to https://www.theatlantic.com/po...-from-within/547457/]
Photo: Chicago Policeman Eddie Cooper (left) places his hand on the shoulder of a man who protested a Chicago-area civil-rights march in August 1966.
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