By Michael Bell
Earlier this year, hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar released his critically-acclaimed album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” at the same time that America was reeling from protests surrounding the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police.
How do these two things correlate?
Kendrick’s album is a musical piece full of pro-black undertones that discusses the exploitation of black people by society, stripping them of their culture and value. On his final song, “Mortal Man,” Kendrick asks the question: “When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?”
The question asks — when things get bad, are you still proud of who you are?
With the tension between black citizens and police departments rising, one could ask that question to the black officers who stand on the line between the two sides.
Officer John Moore, an African-American member of the Baltimore Police Department, believes he stayed true to himself as an officer and black man during the protests last month.
Moore has been on the force for 39 years. At a young age, Moore knew what he wanted to do with his life.
“I always played cops and robbers as a little kid,” Moore said. “I joined to be a cadet right after high school.”
Being black and being a police officer has given Moore a different perspective. He said that he chose the job of a police officer to avoid the stereotypes that have plagued the black community.
“I had to make a decision [about] what I wanted to do,” Moore said. “I could have went the wrong way.”
Moore was one of the officers who patrolled the downtown areas of Baltimore during the riots last month.
“To see those people act that way, our people, it was sad,” Moore said. “It was a mob mentality.”
American police departments have been under criticism lately with cases like Freddie Gray and Michael Brown, bringing light to the idea that black citizens are treated differently by law enforcement than white citizens.
Moore said that police officers have the right to defend themselves in situations, but he understands that no system is perfect.
“We’re sworn to uphold the law, but sometimes, like other professions, we come up short,” Moore said. “Some of the officers may be scared, they may be nervous. It could be a societal thing. Officers coming from different areas may not know how to deal with certain groups of people.”
Statistically speaking, the demographic of the group that is being targeted by police is the same demographic of the majority of unarmed victims: young, black males in urban areas. Moore said that the stereotyping may be more of an area situation and less of necessarily a racial situation.
“There have been cases where I’ve approached someone and has been wrong and maybe I’ve had to apologize for stopping someone while they’re in the area,” Moore said.
Moore said that unfortunately, with the country’s current state, it is hard for black Americans to experience true freedom.
“Unfortunately we live in this country and you’re going to experience that type of thing all the time,” Moore said. “We didn’t used to act this way. We’ve come so far, we think we can do certain things that white people do and that we can get away with it and we can’t always do those things.”
As Lamar stated, “When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?”
Moore said that he will always be proud of his badge, but he will never condone the actions of those who use their power to abuse it.