Thread by @AHAMWORLDWIDE

POLICE BRUTALITIY IN BLACKFACE

..and now for another moment in #BlackGirlMagic

So Memphis police chief created the SCORPION police unit that brutally killed Tyre Nichols which is based on the REDDOG police unit she led in ATL. And who or what is REDDOG?
ajc.com/news/crime/tyr…

Remember that song "Dirty South" by Goodie Mob, which had the opening hook,

One to da two da three da four
Dem dirty Red Dogs done hit the door
And they got everybody on they hands and knees
And they ain't gonna leave until they find them keys

Anybody from Atlanta back in the day knows all about REDDOG which terrorized black neighborhoods in the 90s. Real talk, I got chased on my bicycle by REDDOG when they jumped out their unmarked cars on me at the corner Northside Drive & MLK near the old GA dome. True Story.

I had an REDDOG black cop put a gun 2my neck near the 75/85 S University Avenue exit near the old Braves Stadium just like that black cop did Cuba Gooding Jr. in BoyZ N the Hood. He tried to plant some shit on me too but some other regular cops pulled up.

So he just gave me a ticket, impounded my car& I had 2walk home from the expressway. I filed a complaint against da cop& when I went 2court, a black judge who also served as a local pastor on Simpson Rd. told me he didnt believe me& shook hands w/that cop later outside the court.

My complaint went nowhere. Nevertheless years later, I ran into that cop shortly after I was sworn in as an attorney in the Fulton County Courthouse in ATL. He had been arrested 4 domestic violence, fired from the police department & needed a lawyer.

Amazingly, he didn't even remember me. I will never forget his face& what he did to me that day all those years ago. Nevertheless, he asked me if I'd be willing to represent him, not 4 the domestic violence criminal case but in the divorce from his wife. I respectfully declined.

He said he'd be willing 2pay me handsomely. I explained 2him money wasnt the problem. He said, "what, U dont do divorce cases?" I said no thats not it. "Then I dont understand why U cant represent me." I replied, "I can't represent you b/c I'm representing your wife." True story.

I later preached a revival at a church on the south side of Atlanta & that black judge who was also a pastor happened to be in the congregation that day when I preached a sermon entitled "Jesus Judged UnJustly." By now, the judge pastor is old as fuck & on a cane.

Unlike that REDDOG officer, that black judge pastor remembered me. He asked me "Was that sermon meant for me" I replied, "shut yo old ass up & sit down somewhere before I snatch yo cane." So after the deacons helped his cripple ass up off the floor....

jus joking.

Seriously, I told him that it was 1 thing for that REDDOG officer to put a gun to my head. I could deal w/that although I'm traumatized 2this day over that incident. However, for a man of the cloth to treat me that way in court & side w/criminal behavior, I'd never get over that.

He held his head down & hobbled off. Years later after he died, his wife called me& cried a river about all the regrets he had trying to balance life as a judge & pastor. I was like, "Bitch, if U don't get off my phone w/all this bullshit, Imma come steal yo walker."

jus joking.

In all seriousness, I thought about all this while watching Don Lemon's softball glam interview of Chief Davis. Keep in mind the REDDOG police unit in Atlanta was disbanded for the same reason Nichols' family is calling for SCORPION to be disbanded.
cnn.com/videos/us/2023…

These overaggressive hyperescalation police units like REDDOG & SCORPION were the type of police glorified on shows like "COPS." We now have 2cities that have been traumatized by the actions of rogue police units created by the same person- Chief CJ Davis.
cnn.com/videos/us/2023…

This is not black girl magic. This is black girl tragic and Chief Davis should not escape accountability. Keep in mind, these officers claimed this was a part of their training, which means they were programmed to be aggressive. Them being black should not change our calculus.

Chief CJ Davis must be held to the same level of accountability for creating hyperagressive police units that we held her white colleague Erika Shields when she was forced out of ATL Police Department after Rashard Brooks death & other officer misbehavior.
abcnews.go.com/US/atlanta-pol…

Keep in mind, Erika Shields then wound up as police chief of Louisville, KY where Breonna Taylor was killed by the police. The point I'm getting at is that the police, like many institutions, keep recycling bad leadership. Softball glam interviews does no one any good.

There is a culture that is either imported or exported w/new leadership & w/ Chief CJ Davis, that culture shift has once again ended in tragedy. As a society we must stop glorifying leadership when good things happen but lower the accountability bar when bad things happen.

Yes the black male police officers who murdered Tyre Nichols must prosecuted 2the fullest extent of law& they should never see freedom or wear a police badge again. However, higher heads need 2 roll too. I'm tired of executives claiming clean hands when underlings do bad things.

We need an entirely new culture of policing that doesn't cast every incident as a beat-you-to-a-pulp lethal force matter. Doing this will require new innovative leadership and NOT recycling old leadership with outdating thinking.

I'm not sure why Memphis police department would include REDDOG proudly in Chief CJ Davis' online bio, as though it was a prestigious aspect of her resume& work history. REDDOG had a horrible reputation in Wakanda, I meant Atlanta. It was nothing to be proud of.

Theyre many black males who were as terrified of REDDOG as we were WayneWilliams in the ATL child murders of the late 70s. Never 4get Andre 3000s bar in Goodie Mobs "Thought Process"

"the only thing we feared was Williams Wayne
Never thought about hittin licks or slangin 'caine"

Getting beat up by police was a right of passage for many of us in Atlanta & what was worse, the cops look just like us, which is why I could never lay police brutality squarely at the feet of only white cops. My worst police encounters were w/black cops.
cnn.com/2023/01/27/opi…

Hell I'm not too old 2forget a black Mayor in Maynard Jackson & a black police chief in Eldrin Bell having helicopters tear gas bomb HBCUs & siccing huge police brigades on us as college students during the Rodney King protests. This was black people terrorizing black people.

I can't erase those memories & it made it more painful b/c these were our elders doing this to us. Many of the black pastors & their congregations had bought into the War on Drugs & sided w/government against "Us." Increased police brutality was a natural offshoot of all that.

We came to live and die by this police equation:

black + blue = white

Unfortunately, anyone in a police uniform, we deemed an extension of white supremacy & at any moment a black cop would lay down their life to do the bidding of white folks.

Hence, Booker T. Washington's words:

"if you ever attempted to overthrow a single slave plantation, the master's slaves would meet you at the master's gates to preserve the master's reign."

Growing up, we viewed all black cops in this manner.

This is why I am of the opinion that black cops should be held to the same standard we hold white cops. At all cost we must keep the same energy w/black cops & the black police chiefs who hire, supervise & train them. To that end, Chief Cerelyn "CJ" Davis must be removed.

The higher up one goes, the greater our accountability metrics should be. As the old adage goes, "To whom much is given, much is required." We should not allow ourselves to be seduced by the wand of #blackgirlmagic that casts a spell to abracadabra all accountability away.

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