BLACK COP HAS HEARD ENOUGH; FACEBOOK POST FRAMES RACE ISSUE PASSIONATELY, PRECISELY
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 13, 2016) — Most any fair-minded person would find it both incredible and incredulous to read the many inaccurate, inflammatory, and in some cases hysterical claims about how this nation’s police forces are stacked with trigger-happy muscle heads who want only to gun down minorities, especially blacks. The rhetoric becomes further engulfed when yahoos from the other side bite the red meat and respond in kind. THE PLANET wonders: Is the issue of race no longer amenable to reasonable debate and discussion?
Perhaps as a result of the mainstream media’s sensationalism of racial issues, too many otherwise reasonable people swallow whole the claims made by political movements that feed off of racial bias, inequality, and injustice for the purpose of self-justification and another helping of their 15 minutes of Warholian fame. Again, this applies to both sides, although the one winning out in the battle for its quarter of an hour of notoriety is undoubtedly the Black Lives Matter movement.
Too much? One black police officer has had enough.
Meet officer Jay Stalien of the Riviera Beach, FL, police force. He laid out his feelings in a long, heartfelt, anguished post on Facebook. His missive has gathered a smattering of attention from the media, BizPac Review and Fox Media to name two, but in Berkshire County, where The “New” Boring Broadsheet staggers in its descending death spiral, you probably missed the story.
Here is a digest of Officer Stalien’s post. Take particular note of his facts.
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Suspect- Black/ Male, Victim-Black /Male.
I remember the countless times I canvassed the area afterwards, and asked everyone “did you see who did it”, and the popular response from the very same family members was always, “Fuck the Police, I aint no snitch, I’m gonna take care of this myself. This happened every single time, every single homicide, black on black, and then my realization became clearer.
I woke up every morning, put my freshly pressed uniform on, shined my badge, functioned checked my weapon, kissed my wife and kid, and waited for my wife to say the same thing she always does before I leave, “Make sure you come back home to us”. I always replied, “I will”, but the truth was I was never sure if I would. I almost lost my life on this job, and every call, every stop, every moment that I had this uniform on, was another possibility for me to almost lose my life again. I was a target in the very community I swore to protect, the very community I wanted to help. As a matter of fact, they hated my very presence. They called me “Uncle Tom”, and “wanna be white boy”, and I couldn’t understand why. My own fellow black men and women attacking me, wishing for my death, wishing for the death of my family. I was so confused, so torn, I couldn’t understand why my own black people would turn against me, when every time they called …I was there. Every time someone died….I was there. Every time they were going through one of the worst moments in their lives…I was there. So why was I the enemy? I dove deep into that question…Why was I the enemy? Then my realization became clearer.
Complaint: Police always targeting us, they always messing with the black man.
Fact: A city where the majority of citizens are black (Baltimore for example) …will ALWAYS have a higher rate of black people getting arrested, it will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting stopped, and will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks getting killed, and the reason why is because a city with those characteristics will ALWAYS have a higher rate of blacks committing crime. The statistics will follow the same trend for Asians if you go to China, for Hispanics if you go to Puerto Rico, for whites if you go to Russia, and the list goes on. It’s called Demographics
Complaint: More black people get arrested than white boys.
Fact: Black People commit a grossly disproportionate amount of crime. Data from the FBI shows that Nationwide, Blacks committed 5,173 homicides in 2014, whites committed 4,367. Chicago’s death toll is almost equal to that of both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. Chicago’s death toll from 2001–November, 26 2015 stands at 7,401. The combined total deaths during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2015: 4,815) and Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan (2001-2015: 3,506), total 8,321.
Complaint: Blacks are the only ones getting killed by police, or they are killed more.
Fact: As of July 2016, the breakdown of the number of US Citizens killed by Police this year is, 238 White people killed, 123 Black people killed, 79 Hispanics, 69 other/or unknown race.
Fact: Black people kill more other blacks than Police do, and there are only protest and outrage when a cop kills a black man. University of Toledo criminologist Dr. Richard R. Johnson examined the latest crime data from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports and Centers for Disease Control and found that an average of 4,472 black men were killed by other black men annually between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2012. Professor Johnson’s research further concluded that 112 black men died from both justified and unjustified police-involved killings annually during this same period.
Complaint: Well we already doing a good job of killing ourselves, we don’t need the Police to do it. Besides they should know better.
The more I listened, the more I realized. The more I researched, the more I realized. I would ask questions, and would only get emotional responses & inferences based on no facts at all. The more killing I saw, the more tragedy, the more savagery, the more violence, the more loss of life of a black man at the hands of another black man….the more I realized.
I haven’t slept well in the past few nights. Heartbreak weighs me down, rage flows through my veins, and tears fills my eyes. I watched my fellow officers assassinated on live television, and the images of them laying on the ground are seared into my brain forever. I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been me, a black man, a black cop, on TV, assassinated, laying on the ground dead,..would my friends and family still think black lives mattered? Would my life have mattered? Would they make t-shirts in remembrance of me? Would they go on tv and protest violence? Would they even make a Facebook post, or share a post in reference to my death?
I realized that they refuse to believe that most cops acknowledge that there are Bad cops who should have never been given a badge & gun, who are chicken shit and will shoot a cockroach if it crawls at them too fast, who never worked in the hood and may be intimidated. That most cops dread the thought of having to shoot someone, and never see the turmoil and mental anguish that a cop goes through after having to kill someone to save his own life. Instead they believe that we are all blood thirsty killers, because the media says so, even though the numbers prove otherwise. I realize that they truly feel as if the death of cops will help people realize the false narrative that Black Lives Matter, when all it will do is take their movement two steps backwards and label them domestic terrorist. I realized that some of these people, who say Black Lives Matter, are full of hate and racism. Hate for cops, because of the false narrative that more black people are targeted and killed. Racism against white people, for a tragedy that began 100’s of years ago, when most of the white people today weren’t even born yet. I realized that some in the African-American community’s idea of “Justice” is the prosecution of ANY and EVERY cop or white man that kills or is believed to have killed a black man, no matter what the circumstances are. I realized the African American community refuses to look within to solve its major issues, and instead makes excuses and looks outside for solutions. I realized that a lot of people in the African American lead with hate, instead of love. Division instead of Unity. Turmoil and rioting, instead of Peace. I realized that they have become the very entity that they claim they are fighting against.
I realized that the very reasons I became a cop, are the very reasons my own people hate me, and now in this toxic hateful racially charged political climate, I am now more likely to die,… and it is still hard for me to understand…. to this day.
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Here’s the full text of Officer Stalien’s Facebook post:
Jay Stalienon Saturday |
I have come to realize something that is still hard for me to understand to this day. The following may be a shock to some coming from an African American, but the mere fact that it may be shocking to some is prima facie evidence of the sad state of affairs that we are in as Humans.
I used to be so torn inside growing up. Here I am, a young African-American born and raised in Brooklyn, NY wanting to be a cop. I watched and lived through the crime that took place in the hood. …
THE PLANET praises Officer Stalien for raising vital points that, given the situation, others have been too timid to make.
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“One and one and one are three.” — The Beatles, “Come Together” from the Abbey Road album.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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THIS
If you are unemployed and addicted to alcohol or your in denial about why a cop stopped your car or arrested you and you cant handle those facts nobody will ever change your mind about what your doing to contribute to this problem.
One day here in the Tyler street hood a police officer will face a drug addicted drunk gangster with a gun.What happens next could get national news coverage.Then ignorance will flood the television.
And months later teachers will be telling Kathy Yon that they need more money because Lenox pays top step gym teachers 92 ,000 bucks.Nothing makes sense.
Finally an enlightened poster has arrived at the root of the problem. Teacher salaries.
I think she had a very good post. Greedy certainly describes many in the educational system here in Berkshire County especially Pittsfield.
It all stems from Moral Decay in our Country. Top to Bottom. Cut throat, Backstabbing, Greed, Corruption, Lack of Respect, Family breakdown……….War amongst ourselves.
I agree. The breakdown of the family has been a major problem leading to all kinds of issues in society. We need our politicians to begin addressing the issues in these cities that are leading to all of these encounters with police. The politicians need to dig deeper to find solutions and not make things worse.
The police chief in Dallas, an African American man, continues to receive death threats because he is a cop. This man stands for law and order and understands the needs of his community and what is happening in his community. He says the police are being called upon to solve all of these societal problems and it’s impossible.
It all stems from lack of hope and no realistic way to climb out of desperate situations. And by realistic, I mean there has to be decent paying low skill jobs. Not everyone is going to college, that’s a fact. The days when u could graduate from high school and work at a mill, buy a house are gone with the active fundamental change of our economic system to globalization. Globalization benefits the few at the expense of the many. Dilute the labor pool and crush the middle class.
Absolutely…….true…….Cause and affect. The entire collapse of Moral Principles……Everything this Country was built on…. is diminishing.
Sorry, can’t take a man seriously who struts in front of the camera. He’s exactly the same as the punks posting pictures flashing gang signs and guns, except he gets paid a lot more.
I’ll take the man who strutted in front of the camera to tell a side of a story that isn’t being told enough . No different? He will lay his life on the line for you if needed. Gangster will take your life if needed, just because. I don’t believe we would have heard from the policemen if not for the out of control situations that have consumed our country.
The only answer is jobs.Trumps biggest strength. Its not Hillarys weight or pretense of her being a criminal.
Trump keeps talking jobs he will rise in the polls and the election conversation will be the best in history ,if he talks stupid he just get s white men…jobs jobs jobs and I will cross party lines for a jobs candidate.If its stupid Clinton bashing then he running on nothing but the anti_ Clinton vote…he loses
Hillary is crooked and she does have a very fat ass.
Go Trump!!!
Trumps lack of preparation for his speeches scares me… He is either too lazy to prepare, or doesn’t care and wings it .. its disrespectful of the Presidency … if doesn’t even care to prepare for a speech.
Well I love his speaking style. Breath of fresh air. Spontaneous. Trump has my vote. Crooked Hillary? No way.
The problem with the arguement presented above, and the Post stuff too, is that it uses facts of convenience. The officer cites “it’s demographics” (with an implied DUH) when talking about Black crime in Baltimore where black people are the majority. But his own statistics he cites later are pretty damning; black people comprise 12% of US population yet comprise 24% of the police killings. Blacks then are slain by police at twice their population density. It’s demographics, DUH. A problem obviously exists. It’s complicated, and articles like this which essentially deny existence of a problem do not contribute to moving things forward, although frankly the Post has not advanced any discussion since Alexander Hamilton was editor.
Drivers get 100% of the speeding tickets. This is unfair. Pedestrians should receive their share of speeding tickets.
An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow.
Shh making nonsense remarks
Fewer people would get shot if they did not try to out wrestle the cop when they were stopped. When you resist and give the cop a bunch of shit you do increase you chances of escalating the situation.
and yes there are some way to aggressive cops.
The facts the officer brings out seem to be too much for some people. Probably because it destroys their fanciful story line that police are out to get blacks because they are blacks. (from the article) Complaint: More black people get arrested than white boys.
Fact: Black People commit a grossly disproportionate amount of crime. Data from the FBI shows that Nationwide, Blacks committed 5,173 homicides in 2014, whites committed 4,367.
While I agree with much of what the officer said, his definition of ‘grossly disproportionate’ is not very impressive. It amounts to 54% to 46%. 70-30 is grossly disproportionate… not 54-46.
How dare you. Are you espousing that if a common group categorized by race commits a disproportionate number of crimes, that such a group will in turn have a equally disproportionate number of contacts with the police ? Makes elementary sense, but… but…Oh my !, Lions and tigers and bears, and disillusionment.
Racism is real. There is no question. I have empathy for that. WE have good and bad in all walks of life …..in all skin colors…… We need to be better people…..and the only way to make it better, is to come together as a whole. The Rich and Powerful have stepped on the heads of all of us. Jack Welch has a heavy hand in destroying the workplace….. in my opinion. That’s where the backstabbing and Power grabbing grew into a Cancer, and crumbled.
The Rich and powerful are also the politicians.
Resisting arrest shouldn’t be punishable by instantaneous death.
For any person.
that happens way less than 1 percent
i’m still waiting for the Hess Forest Clean-up and what is that big sign pole laying in the back? That looks real good?
One thing at a time. The mayor has Kentucky Fried looking great (remember when she launched her campaign from there). Look at it now.
Now it’s vibrant and dynamic and people collaborate there.
Jake says we have or had a 100 homeless students…Explain? if the need for an attendance officer is related to this, why are there 100 homeless students???
12 guage ,hillary is a criminal and has a fat butt and HAIRY forearms….and the repubs will blame media if Trump acts dopey
FACT: More Whites are killed than blacks because whites are usually waiving weapons around or acting suicidal by cop. Blacks and Hispanics are more likely, when adjusted for population, to be killed by a cop when they don’t have a weapon.
Keep your obsession with rear-ends and enemas over on Topix.
Even though blacks commit eighty percent of the murders they never wave weapons around.
Hillary’s behind is not a thing of obsession ( ask Bill) but like an elephant in the room it can’t be ignored.
Collingwood is the one who sell enemas…I would not buy one.
You sound like Sherwood Gurnsry
Shh. As always you make no sense. Go back to topix
Hillary never acts dopey, she is dopey and it’s no act.
I hope trump does not pick christie…unless he wants the overweight vote which will put him over the top
Didn’t Christie prosecute Trumps’s daughter’s Father in Law. Hillary will win on the lesser of two evils tickets, like we have in Pittsfield.
Morandi tell the Schools the City is in financial stress, yet Amused-so and Company hardly flinched when the Budget skyrocketted.
Thanks for the Stalien post. It is difficult for police today with the demonizing and consistent distortion of facts. This is not to say that the shooting of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile were justified. We do not know the facts and can conclude nothing from videos. Indiana University has a police academy and I see the cadets every day in a classroom near me. I admire these women and men who are idealistic enough to think they can do a job that is growing more difficult because of Black Lives Matter and other activists. We need to support the police and hammer those cops who violate the law.
..and the TV Celebrity has no idea how to create jobs. His proposals will through this country into a depression…
NEWSFLASH: For many areas of this country, including the Berkshires, we are in a depression.
Depression? Maybe you should read some history. You obviously know nothing about the depression.
I think you know what I am saying. Businesses continue to close in Pittsfield. Hardly any new ones. There is now a big fight in the city about a Super Walmart, but the suits are unable to bring in anything else. Berkshire County has definitely seen better days!!!
Maybe he’ll start a department of spelling.
Not according to the Mayor or Witty Clowncil.
Pittsfield is rich man poor man…Rich men go on vacation poor man pays the taxes….this mayor had personal money goals and has achieved them…she won we lost
These private daycares are intrusive to privacy environment, why should neighborhoods be subject to noisy kids, our taxes should let elderly home owners live in peace.
Why isn’t the Health Board holding Hess Forest at Planet Valenti Gardens accountable for that Mess down on Tyler Street, they won’t give an owner a Cigarette License while cleaning up the area, but they let the property on Tyler which is a disgrace.Don’t they have a nuisance inspector?
If you think an $85k year salary is ‘rich’ then you will always be poor.
Like you SHH?
I make over $85k and I consider myself treading water.
Doubtful you do
The GOBSIGS are back.
Shake ,please read pittsfield per capita income….you look from the top down.You lost your perspective .
I never forgot where I came from.
The sewer ?