Inequality Under the Law

During my time as an activist in Santa Cruz, I have had the opportunity to work closely with our local police department. Unlike some activists, I came to believe that the department did not employ racially or class-based biases in their enforcement of the law and seemed evenhanded in their relationships with people of color and people experiencing homelessness. But what I have seen recently and the pattern that I fear is emerging has shaken that belief to its very foundation.

I have borne sad witness to incidences in which African American residents have been singled out for attention and disparate treatment. I have seen homeless people descended upon by a swarm of officers for behavior reflecting nothing more than their status as unhoused. And I have seen civil law created that openly seeks to exclude those we find undesirable from our parks and open spaces. But most troubling of all is the license to discriminate against these groups that I see being granted by our community under the guise of protecting public safety.

Belief in a fundamental truth is difficult to restore once eroded or even profoundly questioned. Once I believed that community policing could bridge the chasm between the citizenry and law enforcement. Once I believed that race or class were not factors in the application of the law. And once I believed that every level of society received the same level of protection under the law.

I believed all this once. Our collective future as a community will determine if I can ever believe it again.