[Christin Spoolstra]

Hello, Fellow Chefs!

The ACLU is hosting a Racism in Policing Course by email; Lace has suggested we all sign up to focus group the class for potential launch to the broader cafe.

The course is free but they are asking for donations. You can sign up and check the syllabus at this link: aclu.org/racisminpolicing

I’ve signed up and am looking forward to discussing what I learn!

Discussion

[Rhonda Freeman]

I signed up, too. Have you gotten the first assignment/lecture, yet?

[Christin Spoolstra]

I got it yesterday. I’ve started a response but want to go through some of the supplementary materials first

[Rhonda Freeman]

I have been thinking about the section in the first week’s materials about the police being in white communities only when we call them. Brought up in a primarily white suburb of Flint, Michigan, I was taught strongly that the police were there to help. My first introduction to the police was when I was about five. A dog was in our garbage and I tried to get him away. He promptly bit me. My mother called the police and I got to ride around in the patrol car looking for the dog. I remember they were really nice to me. I vaguely remember being told we wanted to find the dog to make the dog didn’t have rabies. I was five. This is unclear. Any way, all these years later, I wonder why my Mom thought it was ok to call the police for such a thing. Why not the local ‘dog catcher’ or equivalent. Surely, there was no crime committed by the dog getting into our garbage? And we knew the Chief of Police in Grand Blanc Michigan for years. I am still not aware of any scandals or complaints about him in all those years. He used to say that he believed his job was to keep everyone safe in the community as best as possible, even the people that got in trouble, and broke the law. I know I want to think of him as ‘one of the good guys’. I realize this is rambling. I guess I want it to be that Mark Heidel is a good guy and he is part of a system that it is imperative that we change.

[Author]

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