By this point, the Harrisburg Police are no stranger to embarrassment during court proceedings for blatantly lying on allegations that can be easily debunked via their own recordings. Police officers accused and charged a local judge, Sonya McKnight, with tampering with a crime scene and abuse of her powers when she showed up to collect her son’s heart medication from his car after he was arrested.
Harrisburg City Police went on to state that she showed up belligerently, loud, causing a scene, using abusive language, making threatening gestures and removed medication without making her intentions clear. The police have repeated this story for a year now, including it in their official report.
Recently, during her trial, body cam footage revealed that the police misrepresented her actions as it shows her arriving, questioning the arrest of her son and her stated intent to remove her son’s medication so she could provide it to him later. Upon seeing the body cam footage, the judge dismissed all charges against Judge McKnight and chastised the police for their narrative.
This is is the same police department that escalated an otherwise celebratory event at my friend Kaye’s house, the night Biden was declared winner of the presidency, which ended with four of my friends being maced directly in the face as Kaye was pulled from her yard, arrested and charged with obstructing an investigation and disorderly conduct (in her own back yard!).
This is the part I remind you that the Police Chief of Harrisburg City Police is Black, the mayor is liberal, and none of this seems to help in bettering the police-community relations with the local residents. At it’s foundation, policing in this country is racist and no matter who is in charge, policing reinforces its roots and upholds white supremacy as it unjustly targets Black people who are seen as criminals, violent, wild and uncontrollable. Policing cannot, and will not work for Black people while this nation refuses to fully reckon with its racist roots, including the men who found it. Reform will not work; liberal policies plastered over systemic racism, is still racism. Think of it this way: if you discovered your house’s foundation was decrepit, would you build a nice house over it and considered it fixed? Of course not.
Sometimes, the very best thing to do is to tear it all down and begin anew.
Feature by: Clayton P. Carroll II.
