The head of New York City’s police “union” is whining that cops think Mayor de Blasio’s statement on the Garner verdict ‘threw them under the bus’, a cliche he repeated more than once as he is given more to brutality than to eloquence. Oh cry me a river!

He also said we have to teach kids not to be afraid of cops & “to comply with New York City police officers even if they think it’s unjust” as it most often is. The NY Civil Liberties Union reports that since 2002 over 5 million New Yorkers have been subjected to stop & frisk interrogations. Nine out of ten accosted were completely innocent of anything. Just in the first three quarters of 2014, nearly 39,000 were stopped. Almost 21,000 were Black (54%); 11,000 were Latino (27%); & 5,000 were white (12%). Overall, 32,000 were innocent of anything. What the other 7,000 did to merit detention is anybody’s guess. They might have had a joint in their pockets. Oh whoop-dee-doo!

Numerous studies show NYC police target Blacks & Latinos. Can anyone think of a good reason why they should be taught to respect that? In truth, we should not teach children to respect or comply with harassment; we should teach them to resist oppression every inch of the way. We should teach them to be judicious if nailed by a cop–in the same way you are if cornered by a rattle snake. We should teach them to respect themselves, respect justice & fairness, but for heaven’s sake only a fool would teach them to respect racist authority.