“If you want to improve relations with the community, then you do so. You don’t come out with all these heinous actions and irresponsible acts and lack of accountability then say, ‘Oh we want to build a bridge with the community.'”
The focus on policing in poor communities of color obscures the economic root of crime itself, Muhammad pointed out, along with the often-ignored presence of officers behaving unethically.
“We can’t just say that this is all about crime prevention because a lot of the crimes are manufactured, and that deteriorates the bridge between the community and the police.
Because so many people in the community don’t trust the police officers, because there are too many bad police officers that have such a huge impact on the community, because they have so much in their favor — whenever anything happens,” he said, adding, “There’s so much hypocrisy here.”
Walmart announced Tuesday that it would stop selling t-shirts that bore the phrases “Black Lives Matter” and “Bulletproof,” after FOP president Chuck Canterbury wrote Walmart CEO C. Douglas McMillon saying, “I am concerned that allowing these articles to be sold in this way will damage your company’s good name amongst FOP members and other active and retired law enforcement officers….Commercializing our differences will not help our local police and communities to build greater trust and respect for one another.”
The shirts were sold through the Walmart website by a Connecticut-based apparel dealer, Old Glory Merchandise. The merchandiser, in its attempts to monetize a cultural movement, has no connection to the Black Lives Matter group and also sells “Blue Lives Matter” shirts. Whether the latter shirts have also been pulled from retailer shelves is not known.
Read more: https://sputniknews.com/us/201612221048856415-fop-wants-trump-increase-repression/