Submitted by Esther Mendoza, Aug 22, 2008 14:44

As usual, Dr.McWorther is right on target regarding the culture of intimidation and reprisal that infects the confrontations between black males and police officers in New York City. Modifying or eliminating the War on Drugs (which I take to mean "de-criminalizing the sale of recreational drugs") might lessen these encounters, but I think the real reason has more to do with the absence of stable fathers or father figures in these neighbors.

By way of explanation, let me offer an example from my own childhood. (This occurred in the early 60's when my family lived in a Bronx housing project.) One evening after he came home from the one-man delicatessen he operated, my father found a boy who appeared to be around eight years old throwing rocks at his blue Impala. He immediately gave the kid a slap on his behind and that was the end of the mischief. A while later we heard a knock on our door and there was the child again, wailing as his father held him tightly by the arm. "I understand that you disciplined my son because he was throwing rocks at your car," he said. "Yes, that's true," was my father's response. As the boy wailed even louder, his father thanked my father for what he had done and told him that he could give his son another whack if he wanted to then and there. Then both men shook hands and the children from both sides looked on with gaping mouths. It didn't matter that we are of Puerto Rican descent or that the other family was of African descent: these were two reasonable American fathers who knew right from wrong as well as the value of setting a good example. Where are such men today in these neighborhoods? Police officers and surly drug dealers cannot replace the fathers these children never had in the first place.

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