In 1989 David Dinkins was elected as the first black mayor of New York City. At that time in history the entire country, and New York City in particular, was embroiled in an environment of frequent criminality. The environment that fostered this behavior was complex and systemic. Mayor Dinkins was a testament to understanding and treating all aspects of these complexities, to the best of one's ability as a leader. In fact, he is probably one of the best leaders this country has ever had, but is rarely spoken or written about.
Mayor David Dinkins understood many things about what perpetuates and facilitates crime and suffering in the vacuum of the diverse, large, varied, and yet compact, claustrophobic, and singularly unified environment of a large urban city. Many people of New York, Chicago, Paris and London feel they are more New Yorkers, Chicagoans, Parisians, or Londoners than they do any sort of nationalistic fervor. The anxiety and struggle and beauty and closeness of a city offer a feeling of comradery in the face of adversity, in most cases.
Dinkins saw and believed in that comradery, and he identified the problems stifling it. He funded homeless shelters and community programs to keep people out of the cycle of homelessness. He kept public highschools open every night so dispossessed or otherwise hurt teenagers would have a safe place. He created Beacon Schools which are still operating. He properly funded the police force and integrally held them accountable to civilian review boards. That is what this article is about, accountability.
A researcher at an institution is accountable to a neutral ethics review board before they undergo any sort of project, due to abuses in the past. A medical professional is accountable to HIPPA compliance and neutral state medical boards, due to abuses in the past. Police officers are only accountable to other police officers, despite abuses in the past. Except for in Mayor Dinkins brief tenure, and in the tenure of other such enlightened leaders.
It is time to take the job of a police officer as seriously as the job of a medical professional, or a researcher at a university. Not to infer the same respect on the position, but to recognize the position as one that has the potential to endanger and take the lives of many people. It should be a job that requires years, not months of training. It should be difficult to be a police officer, it should require nuanced and intense education in our history as a nation and our racial biases. There should be severe background checks, and making so much as one allusion to a white supremacist organization should be grounds for non-hire, or if after hire, immediate dismissal.
Police do not require that level of oversight, but if they were required to answer to a civilian review board, they absolutely would. A board of accountability operated by the people, the police police, was the way Mayor David Dinkins considered the best path forward.
When Mayor Dinkins enacted the civilian review board there were mass ‘protests’ by police officers, over-dramatically condemning him for ‘stifling their ability to do their job’. If the police cannot do their job without being accountable to the communities they police then they should not be doing that job at all. If you cannot do your job without being accountable to someone other than your co-worker, you are not fit to do your job. People working at Starbucks, grocery stores, hospitals, universities and donut shops are highly aware of that,yet many members of the police felt the need to protest a simple measure of protection in the early 1990’s.
In Mayor Dinkins tenure as the first black mayor of New York City crime rates dramatically dropped every single year he was in office. Yet, he was defeated by Rudy Giuliani, the incumbent, who claimed he was a “crime-busting” candidate. Much like President Barack Obama was defeated by President Trump who claimed he would “Make America Great Again”.
What crime needed to be busted when the systemic work was being put in to make the people of New York happier, healthier, mentally well, and with places to sleep? When the work was put in to keep the police accountable for their atrocities? How has America become great, in any sense, under the insipid incompetence and malice of our current administration? America does not become great from a despot with a repurposed slogan. Crime is not busted by inducing a police state onto the citizens of New York City, as Giuliani did in the 90’s, and as the current administration is attempting right now on a grand-scale.
All of us who have professions that involve human life, require, nourish, and grow from accountability. It is the only ethical way to do that job.
I urge anyone who bothered to read this to donate to bail funds for protesters, BLM, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, funds for families who have lost loved ones. If you live in Chicago look into the Civilian Police Accountability council and the efforts made to enact this legislation. And if possible, push for similar reform in your local communities.
Thank you to Mayor David Dinkins.
