Just Sayin’…A new police chief

Come on now, if every druggy out there knows who the dealers are, why don’t the police? If the community knows who the thugs are, why don’t the police?
Many of the shootings are being done in broad daylight, yet most of these homicides and shootings go unsolved. The criminals are saying to the community and the police that no one cares, that they aren’t afraid of the police because they know no one is going to talk in the community because they are either scared or don’t trust the police to do the right thing. They believe the police aren’t going to do anything about it because it’s just another Black person being shot.
If the mayor, public safety director and new police chief want the community behind them, then they need to work harder at solving the homicides and shootings, and be held accountable for their results. Then they need to put together a committee, group, program, or whatever you want to call it, to figure out how to get Black police officers on the force now— not 5 or 10 years from now. Part of the lack of communication and effectiveness of the police in urban communities throughout this country is the lack of Black and female police officers. Period.
The third thing they need to address is how to discipline rogue cops. I don’t care how great the new chief is, if something isn’t done to discipline these few bad apples then all is lost, because they can undo all the good work of a great chief or police force. In order to do this it appears that new state laws may have to be implemented to repeal old laws. Right now, the police unions have entirely too much power. They run the force. Power needs to be given back, not to the mayor or chief, but to the people who are paying the bills.  I’m still trying to understand how one man, an arbitrator not elected by anyone, can overrule 85 percent of the voters on police having to live in the city.
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On the international front, ISIS has the entire world in an uproar.
They are another super radical Middle Eastern group emerging in Iraq and Syria fighting for power. This group was created and attained its power because of blind democracy.  Yes, blind democracy. When Saddam Hussein was executed and replaced in Iraq, the new government put in place by the U.S.—but recently forced out —was headed by the Sunnis, who make up the majority of the country chose to exclude the Shiites who formed the minority.
What the leaders of Iraq did was simply put the majority group into power, and forced the minority group, who supported Hussein, out. Yes the majority of voters belonged to the ruling party, but the problem was the minority had no voice so they took up guns to protect themselves and their property from the government and Sunnis.  There should have been some kind of system set up to include all segments of the population when the government was formed. Well the ISIS crisis forced the western world to realize that they had to make a move to make sure all ethnic groups were represented in the country’s government, and more importantly, the wealth. One of the reasons ISIS is able to move so easily in Iraq is that the minority group isn’t going to die for a government that doesn’t include them.
So now with a new government that includes all the people, not just the majority, look for ISIS to be soundly defeated by the people of Syria and Iraq without American or Western powers having to send their young men and women to give their lives.
Yes, we will need to go back into Iraq, but not on the ground. We will send people to train, we will provide equipment and we will attack them through the air, but not with ground troops. But all this could have been avoided if the U.S. had demanded that any government formed included all segments of the population. After all, isn’t that why we killed Hussein?
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)