[Dan27296]

In a white suburb, police are friendly and courteous, waving to children on bikes and soccer moms out for an evening walk. Not so in a ghetto or barrio. Many police, especially recent recruits, go into the ‘hood not to serve, but with the attitude that they’re going into the jungle to tame animals. In places like inner-city Los Angeles and New York, people get stopped and frisked for no reason. Someone who even remotely resembles a ‘thug’ gets harassed verbally and physically. Certain segments of the LAPD are coming under fire for misconduct, but even years before all this, such things were common knowledge in the ‘hood. I can name people who have been framed and are still locked up. I can name people who’ve never broken a law in their lives who were ‘thumped’ (that is, physically harassed) by cops. Basically, relations between the police and inner-city residents are under severe strain. Whenever an extraordinary event such as the Amadou Diallo shooting happens (a black man shot numerous times by New York police in 1999 after reaching for this wallet), the citizenry uses it as an opportunity to point out the state of it all. The majority of cops are good, and I am proud of the fact that I have family members who are police officers. But all I can say is that there is quite a bit of work to be done before the hatchet can be buried.

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Name : Dan27296, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal Christian, Age : 21, City : Los Angeles area, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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