How I Learned a Political Lesson and Why LEOBOR Needs to Go - Raymond Two Hawks Watson

How I Learned a Political Lesson and Why LEOBOR Needs to Go - Raymond Two Hawks Watson

My journey to police accountability has been an interesting one. My youthful experiences with law enforcement were conflicting. While I personally knew family members and friends of family who were active law enforcement and, to my knowledge, always conducted themselves with integrity and respect, I also witnessed and experienced misconduct on the part of local law enforcement throughout my teens and early twenties. Assessing the contempt for law enforcement that most of my friends consistently expressed, I was squarely on the side of “most police are no good.” when I began my term as the Executive Director of the Mount Hope Neighborhood Association in Providence.

Taking on the role of ED of the Center in 2006 forced me to develop professionally on several levels. Despite having completed my Masters in Community Planning, my experience was programmatic, not administrative. As ED of the Center my duties now included balancing budgets, covering payroll, taking care of facility needs, program support, and of supreme importance, fundraising. As much as the hardcore activist in me hated to admit it, the Center couldn’t function effectively without funding, and the City of Providence was a key source for the Center. So I started learning about and digging into the City’s budget. Examining the allocation for the City’s community centers in comparison to the allocation for the City’s Police Department slapped me into the reality of how much political influence the Providence Police Department apparently had with the Mayor and the City Council.

Soon I began to realize that my position as ED of the Center afforded me much more leverage when addressing issues related to police misconduct. Responding to a physical altercation that erupted between Providence Police Officers and community residents at the Billy Taylor Park, I worked with former and City Councilman Kevin Jackson to organize a community police forum to address the situation. The forum was productive in that there was acknowledgment on both sides that things should have been handled differently, and also a decision to continue to host monthly forums. Personally, however, I felt empowered because I was able to effectively organize around an issue as important as police officer misconduct.

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At the forum, I was introduced to former Lt. David M. Schiavulli of the Providence Police Department.  Lt. Schiavulli was in command of district three, which included Mt Hope. Lt. Schiavulli agreed to continue to attend the monthly meetings, and utilized the space to provide public safety updates and listen to the concerns of Mt Hope community members. During these meetings and in ongoing conversations with the Lieutenant I obtained a better understanding of the law enforcement perspective. The Lieutenant and I disagreed on several issues, but what I respected was that on several occasions, I witnessed Lt. Schiavulli act by holding officers in his district accountable for their misconduct toward Mt Hope community members. Once again, the activist in me was challenged. To my knowledge, most police were no good . . . but here was a Lieutenant consistently demanding professionalism from his subordinates. Lt. Schiavulli didn’t seem to fit the mold.

While supporting Kobi Dennis’ work with Project NightVision I was introduced to former Lt. Daniel Gannon of the Providence Police Department. To be honest, if I had not been told that Lt. Gannon was a police officer, I would not have guessed it on my own. Lt. Gannon always engaged with the community as if he was a part of it, and he consistently demonstrated a sincere interest in supporting Kobi’s efforts. Once again, Lt. Gannon didn’t seem to fit the mold and the activist in me was challenged.

Kobi began advancing the conversation around community-police relations by hosting a series of statewide community-police forums. At first I was reluctant to participate; remember, “most police are no good.” Eventually, however, my respect for Kobi’s vision won the day and I began to participate. Kobi’s forums provided opportunity to engage in tough dialogue with respected law enforcement agents and officials from around the State, most notably former Col. Stephen O’Donnell of the Rhode Island State Police. Once again, these were individuals with whom I disagreed on several issues; but the space where we all seemed to meet, and where I was beginning to see the most potential for effectuating change, was in the realm of addressing police officer misconduct.

Beyond the forums, I watched as Kobi consistently partnered with certain law enforcement agencies to provide support for his youth development initiatives, while simultaneously calling out misconduct on the part of other law enforcement agencies. This was intriguing to me. Didn’t all cops just always stick together and back each other up? If so, then what was going on? I felt even more empowered when I realized I could engage in a similar fashion and I began to take full advantage of the space; once again the activist in me was challenged.

A final piece to the puzzle was when I met Charles P. Wilson, former Chairman of the National Black Law Enforcement Officers. NABLEO is a nonprofit that focuses on “representing the issues and concerns of African American law enforcement officers in CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, and RI . . . [and] serv[es] as an advocate for the concerns and issues of law enforcement officers of color throughout the United States and the communities they serve.” (https://nableo.org/membership.cfm) NABLEO’s website expressly states that their mission is, in part “[T]o eradicate[e] police misconduct and abuse wherever it exists. This type of activity is an embarrassment to our profession and a scourge to our neighborhoods.” (https://nableo.org/mission.cfm ) Mr. Wilson was a staunch proponent of authentic community policing, was fully acknowledging of the concerns raised by the community and has continually conducted himself in this regard. Further, he represented an advocacy organization of law enforcement officers who generally agreed with my position; law enforcement misconduct was unacceptable. The activist in me was convinced; the problem wasn’t just that “most police are no good.”

So what is it? Why does law enforcement misconduct occur so frequently and such outrageous ways? What enables the misconduct to continue? What makes a supervising officer slam a civilians head into the pavement after he’s been cuffed? What emboldens an off-duty police officer to attack an unarmed woman at a political rally and then claim that he was acting in his official capacity when he committed the act? What makes many memebrs of the community feel like “most police are no good.”

It's the lack of accountability. It’s the fact that you can blatantly assault a civilian and then incredulously argue you did it to uphold our oath; or the fact that you can arrest a civilian over a parking ticket and then slam his head into the pavement after you’ve cuffed him; or the fact that you can do either in public and on video but still invoke LEOBOR to get a paid leave of absence from work. It’s the fact that neither the Police Chief, the Public Safety Commissioner, nor the Mayor have the power to outright fire a police officer that they know is problematic . . . and the list goes on and on.

It's the lack of accountability. Nothing can change until there’s more accountability for law enforcement misconduct, and there won’t be more law enforcement accountability until the General Assembly decides to act.

Respectfully, focusing on the good that officers are doing can’t fix the problem, if the system simultaneously refuses to hold the bad police officers accountable.

It's the lack of accountability . . . and that’s why LEOBOR needs to go.

That’s my three cents.

Raymond Two Hawks Watson