The Duke of Windsor—the famous British King Edward VIII, who abdicated his throne to marry “the woman I love”—in his memoir, A King’s Story, tells the story of a voyage he took, as a young man, to South Africa, in the year 1925. It had been more than twenty years since the Boer War had been fought between Great Britain and the South African Boers, a war the latter lost. But tensions in South Africa remained high between the Dutch Afrikaners and the British.
As the then Prince of Wales tells the story, “The Boer War had left a lasting bitterness between the Dutch and British communities [which] made itself known to me…in the cold declaration of [a South African Minister]…that he could never forgive the British for what he called their wanton attack upon the Boer republic.
“‘But surely,’ I remarked to this Minister, ‘this bitterness will eradicate itself as the generations move further away from that war’?”
“No, Sir,” was his emphatic answer. “Never.”
I’m reminded of this when I consider the resentment some people in Oakland harbor against the police department. You see this frequently on nextdoor.com. Here are some comments from people on one of my recent posts that illustrate this anger:
-How otherwise could OPD at this point erase from people’s minds all of the negative associations of their legacy to-date? They have to evolve into something brand new and better that isn’t just following the same policies that have already been shown to lead to this point.
-I fear those with memory issues will never, ever come to realize the dark history of the "Riders", rogue bad cops all sent to prison, except for one who fled to Mexico will forever be etched in the minds of a lot of residents who hold on to it,
-Throwing more money at the police department is misguided. Clearly the status quo is not working. We do not want more of the same.
-Why throw more good money at a bad system. Some folks cannot let go of the idea that if we had more police, we'd have less crime. There's a low correlation there, actually.
-Cops are vile creatures, not to be trusted or funded with $1 more until accountability and oversight becomes a real thing.
-Of course, often absent in these threads on Nextdoor, is the plain fact that more police may make you feel safer, but they make others feel less so.
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People often refer to the Riders, the infamous case of crooked cops that occurred in Oakland more than twenty years ago, as their reason for mistrusting the department. This is the “dark history” someone mentioned…the “bad system”…”memory issues”…“The negative associations.” I do not dispute that it happened, and that it was bad. Nor do I dispute, as another commenter noted, that some Oaklanders feel less safe in the presence of police. But I ask this: How long will this resentment of OPD exist in people’s hearts? To put it another way, is there an expiration date for hating cops?
I believe there is. Christian charity, Buddhist teaching, Jewish philosophy, Islamic forgiveness, plain common sense and democratic American values tell us that at some point we have to forgive those whom we think have trespassed against us. To see what happens when people refuse to forgive, we need only look at the Middle East, where both sides continue to play out millennial-old resentments, with predictable results. Of course, forgiving is a lot easier when your “enemy” confesses his errors, expresses regret, and engages with you to prove that he’s changed his ways. But this is exactly what OPD has done and is doing. Chief Armstrong is the living embodiment of that pledge. He’s guiding his department through an unprecedented period of training, self-examination and renewed relationships with the community. Surely, any fair-minded person would consider that we’re dealing with a new OPD in which the Riders are ancient history.
Sadly, some Oaklanders just can’t or won’t let go. The profiteers of hatred—you know who they are—continue to peddle their mischaracterizations of the police. They make big money and achieve big power in pushing this big lie. The entire Oakland Police Department could suddenly turn into winged, haloed angels, radiating love and light, and the professional cop haters would still be out there, like Trumpers insisting their fuehrer won the election.
All I’m asking is for people who can’t get over their distrust of cops to take a deep breath. Educate yourself what’s going on in OPD. Listen to your neighbors who want more cops in the neighborhood. Will your bitterness ever eradicate itself? Or is your answer, as was that long ago unforgiving Boer’s, “Never”?
Steve Heimoff