A video produced by the NYPD sergeants union claiming that police officers are victims of “blue racism” is being picked apart online, with critics calling the segment both offensive and laughable.
“You don’t understand racism and that’s a pretty big problem,” Alexandra Halaby tweeted to the Sergeants Benevolent Association after seeing the 4-minute video online.
Tweeter Mr. Matthews agreed.
“You could, you know, stop being a cop,” he wrote. “I’ll be black and therefore a target for the rest of my life.”
Others simply made fun of the video by posting images of Smurfs, the Blue Man Group and the Na’vi, the blue-hued aliens from the movie “Avatar.”
The video was posted on YouTube on Sunday.
The clip shows NYPD cops, both on and off-duty, as the narrator describes police officers as fathers, mothers, church-goers and community volunteers.
“The average person doesn’t see those things that make me human,” the narrator said. “They don’t even label me on being African-American, Latino, Asian, Caucasian and so on. They tend to see me through a broader stereotype, through a more even racist lens.
“Because I am blue, increasingly I am vilified,” the narrator said. “I am still a minority as this strange form of racism continues to engulf the country.”
The video shows images of Black Lives Matter protests and news footage of the murder of Police Officer Miosotis Familia, who was shot to death while she sat in an NYPD command vehicle in the Bronx on July 5.
Other images include Sgt. Hugh Barry — the cop accused of shooting and killing mentally ill senior citizen Deborah Danner instead of using a Taser on her during a confrontation in the Bronx in October — at court, where he faces murder charges.
The narrator said anti-cop sentiment is so high across the nation that he is “afraid to say in my private life that ‘I am blue’ for fear of physical injury, death or the safety of my loved ones.”
“I, too, have dreams, aspirations, and a job to do,” the narrator said. “Surely, we haven’t lost the ability to discern the facts from whatever might arise. Surely we haven’t lost the ability for civil discourse, grounded in mutual respect.”
The video ends with a butchered line from Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have A Dream,” speech, changing the words “color of their skin” to just “color.”
“Racism of any kind will not be tolerated,” the video also noted, while condemning the actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va.
Besides stumped social media surfers, civic justice groups also maligned the video this week.
“To say that members of law enforcement are victims of ‘blue racism’ because of the color of their uniforms is offensive and uninformed,” the NAACP. Legal Defense Fund tweeted on Monday.
“Let’s break it down for @SBANYPD,” the NYCLU tweeted. “It’s not racist to criticize the NYPD because the NYPD isn’t a race. It’s an institution with policies.”
SBA President Ed Mullins was shocked by all the negative comments the video has received.
“I’m surprised there wasn’t a lot more of positive response online as compared to the emails that I received,” he said. “The video wasn’t designed to be divisive. It was designed to highlight what’s happening … and to really stress the fact that this has to stop.”
Still, Mullins agreed that “racism” was the wrong word to be used in the video.
“Maybe ‘bias’ would have been a better word because the whole point was to draw attention to the issue without people being offended,” he said adding that the Familia’s murder this year, as well as the assassinations of Police Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in 2014 prove that cops are targets.
“Because we wear the uniform, we have people come up, assassinating police officers.” Mullins said. “I’m talking about people sitting in their cars, being gunned down, simply because they’re police officers.”
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/