Resources and Ideas for Police Officers Who Want to Leave the Force

I am compiling a set of articles gleaned from the internet focusing on people who have left the police force, or want to leave the police force, and how to go about it. Most of these articles were published before the George Floyd incident. In light of what we're seeing during the protests for George Floyd, the "few bad apples" line that gets thrown around about bad cops, doesn't seem to be playing out. "All bad apples" feels more accurate right now.

But you're one of the good ones, and you can't stand what you're seeing and what you're being asked and forced to do. And I get it, times are tough now, we're in the middle of a pandemic, and unemployment is high. But there are still jobs to be found, and you can go find one of those.

If you're already wondering if this is still the profession for you, if you're starting to question if you're perpetuating a system that is doing more harm than good, then you've already made your decision. You just need to get ok with it. So, without further ado, here is the list:

Why Leave Behind Police New Industry

Reasons Cops Quit

Other Career Options for Former Police Officers

Another List of Reasons Cops Quit

Comprehensive PDF Article from 1990, Still Relevant Today

A First-Person Perspective on Leaving

8 Reasons You May Need To Leave Your Department

Consider A Career in IT

A Thread Regarding Other Industries and What to Put on Your Resume

Possible Career Paths For Ex-Police Officers

Why I Left The Police Department

Jobs For Retired Police

Why These 20 Cops Decided To Quit Their Jobs

Why I Hated Being A Cop

Chattanooga Police Chief Urges Officers Who Don't Have an Issue with George Floyd's Death To Quit

Burning Walls, Building Bridges: Antisemitism

Ever since starting this blog project, I have wondered where antisemitism fit in with it, or if it fit in at all. Is it racism? Is it institutional racism? I am not Jewish, and there isn't a large Jewish community where I am, so it's not something I've really had to think about or deal with before. It's not like I have have an issue with Jewish people. I respect the religion, culture, history, and cultural aspects like the food and holidays. I mean, I know antisemitism is a thing that happens, I don't disbelieve it. I see it on tv and hear about it all the time. I've just never seen it up close before. I think here in Seattle, we think of it as something that happens "over there". "Over there" probably meaning the East Coast. We're more laid back over here. We don't care about things that divide us like that over here. People are just people. I mean, of course we have racial divisions, and segregated neighborhoods, but in our minds, Jewish people are mostly white, so they're white people. Plain and simple, right? That's what I thought, until discussing it with an online friend who is Jewish and has white skin, but doesn't identify as white. This was very confusing to me and I didn't really understand it at all. But then I read things online from nationalist groups and other racist hate groups who say things like "Jews aren't white" and that made me think that must be what it's about. But how can white people not be white? Why the big distinction? And then last Saturday, there was a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and eleven people were killed. I felt awful, I felt helpless, and all these questions I've been pondering recently came to a head and I knew I had to write about it for this project.

I am ashamed that I've lived this much of my life without really ever thinking deeply about this before. I don't know if I've been an idiot or just woefully naive about this, but I am making up for lost time and educating myself on this subject. I just wish it hadn't taken the lives of eleven people to spur me on.

The following are links for anybody looking to learn more about antisemitism. I would encourage people who haven't ever experienced antisemitism to study up on this. In order to not accidentally contribute to it, we need to be fully educated on it.

First up, a brief explanation on the proper spelling and punctuation of the term "antisemitism." "Anti-Semitism" or "antisemitism"? Which is correct? The article is a few years old, and I just tested it on a blank doc file and Microsoft has fixed the issue since this article was published.

This is a great source of answers to basic questions about Judaism and all things Jewish. I highly recommend this one!

Here is the Anti-Defamation League's definition and explanation of what antisemitism is.

This is has good information on racially-based antisemitism. This plays into the idea of antisemitism as racism.

One of the things that confused me, is the idea of how white privilege works with being Jewish. There is an ongoing debate in the Jewish community of how much white privilege affects or doesn't affect white Jewish people. Ultimately, it's not up to me to make a decision on that or even to have an opinion on it. Definitions of "the thing" are to be made by the people affected by "the thing," not by people on the outside or those inflicting "the thing" on others.

I think one thing I need to work on to make sure I don't contribute to more confusion or antisemitism of my own, is to remember that while a lot of Jewish people are white, a lot of them are not. Assuming Jewish=white is racist. And that while white Jewish people have white privilege in some situations, it is negated in others. It's sort of a "gray" area, if you'll forgive the pun. I will try to do better with that from now on.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg has an excellent Twitter thread on the topic of white privilege within the Jewish community.

This opinion piece from The Jerusalem Post explores the idea of antisemitism being racism, whether or not it is institutional, and also speaks to white privilege.

There is good news and bad news about antisemitism. The bad news first-It's still very much a thing, as last week's shooting shows. The good news? We no longer live in a world where information is hard to find and share. There is so much information out there about this issue that there really is no longer an excuse not to become educated about it. And as knowledge is power, the more we know about it, the more aware we'll be, the more we'll be able to see it, and hopefully, the braver we'll be to stand up against it. We just have to hope and pray that the people fighting against it far outweigh the people perpetrating it. So, go out there and learn all you can about this! If not for yourself, then for these people:

Source

Open Letter to White DNA Test Takers

By now, most of you are probably trying your best to ignore anything coming out of the Elizabeth Warren-Donald Trump camps regarding Warren's newly-released DNA test results showing a small percentage of Native American DNA in her admixture. I would like to encourage everybody to stop paying any attention to that, whatsoever, and return their attention to the very real issues of voter disenfranchisement in North Dakota and recently a judge in Texas struck down a law that aimed at keeping Native American children in their own communities by disallowing white people from adopting them. These very real, very in-the-moment issues affecting Native Americans today and for many tomorrows to come, need our attention and action far more than the latest nonsense those two white politicians are lobbing at one another.

But in the meantime, since you're here, I would also like to take a moment to share my thoughts on the Warren-post-DNA-test-result-sharing fallout. I think a lot of us, probably most of us, can see that it hasn't gone exactly how she'd planned it to go. Her motives are being highly scrutinized, and rightly so. But she's not the only one who has taken a DNA test and had interesting results. A lot of us are taking tests, and some of us, like myself, are finding small amounts of non-European DNA in our results. This leaves us with a lot of questions and emotions and nobody to talk to. It's a lonely, isolating experience, and there are no rules of etiquette for how to handle this. DNA tests are still very new and the amount of white people finding themselves in this situation, is relatively small. Of that amount, only a small percentage are even willing to acknowledge it and want to embrace it. Those people need some guidance, and I would like to offer it to them. As a white person who has been navigating through this new situation for a couple years now, I have gleaned some knowledge that I will share now, in the form of an open letter.

Dear White Person,

So, you took a DNA test and just got the results and found out that you have a small amount of non-European DNA in your admixture. And you don't really know where to go from here. You may or may not have expected or anticipated these results, but here you are. You might be thrilled and excited, or disappointed and apprehensive. I cannot help those feeling the latter, but for those of you in the former category, might I offer you some advice as to how to begin your journey of learning your full past and incorporating it into who you thought you were?

First and Foremost: You were white before you took the test, and you are still white. Your white privilege is very much still intact. You do not get to claim yourself as (Fill in the blank) American. You are a white person with (Fill in the blank) ancestry. This is the distinction you need to make. Basically, don't start changing how you fill out the census or applications, etc.

Things that are OK for you to do:
*Learn the history of POC in your family tree, what they endured, and the history those people have in this country.
*Find ways to honor those ancestors by acknowledging them in your own personal life. I have researched my family history and the history of the countries that showed up on my tests. I have learned about how these people came to the United States, and about their history once they arrived. I have incorporated certain elements into my life that I feel honors them. I will not share them here, they are private. It's my own way, and you must find your way.
*Continue to honor your ancestors by working to dismantle racism in this country and in yourself by actively working to rid yourself of white privilege.
*Educate yourself about POC in this country and what they go through today. It isn't their job to educate us. The information is out there, you only have to use google and a library to seek it.
*Once you are educated enough to begin, use your voice, knowledge, and desire to honor your ancestors to speak out to other white people. You have a voice they will listen to, so use it. Go to white spaces and amplify the words of POC by sharing them with others. Your job is not to take a space in a community of color, but to work in white communities from the inside.
*Educate yourself on the concepts of cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation and do your best not to appropriate what isn't yours. But don't beat yourself up if you mess up sometimes. Just keep trying to do better next time.

Things that are not OK for you to do:
*Jokingly or seriously inquiring about how to gain from this discovery. No questions or jokes about qualifying for scholarships, etc.
*Do not try to worm your way into communities of color. You are not Rachel Dolezal. However your family's history happened, is yours to explore and embrace, but the now you live in is a now in the white community, with full white privilege. There is no place for you in a community of color.
*Trying to gain anything from this knowledge about your family's history. Politically, socially, economically, just don't. Seriously, don't. There's really no way this doesn't qualify as cultural appropriation, no matter how you try to justify it.

Things to look out for:
*Who and why you reveal this knowledge to. Are you excited about it? Trying to get pity/attention/sympathy/cool points for it? Denying your heritage is wrong, but acknowledging it must also be done in a balanced way, and your motive must always be considered. Personally, I reveal it when it is relevant to the discussion. Talking about DNA tests, for example, when others want to know how they work, if they really work, etc. Discussions about genealogy. Or if I am explaining to somebody how I became involved in educating myself and working to dismantle my white privilege. Most white people aren't interested in this, so it does stand out sometimes. These are appropriate times to discuss it. It is never appropriate to use it as a way to compare yourself to a person of color or their life experiences. You have never, and never will, know what it is like to be a person of color in this country, so stop pretending that this is some type of leveling measure.
*Understand that it's not wrong to acknowledge this information about yourself, but sometimes, keeping it to yourself is ok, and it's enough. It's ok to keep this to yourself if you know that you will come across as self-serving otherwise.

Be Prepared For:
*Everybody to question your motives. These questions are not rhetorical. Be fully prepared to answer them. This means that you have to fully question yourself and your motives, first. Nobody should question your motives more than you question them yourself. Always take a moment to consider the outcome of revealing this information, before you make a final decision to or not to.
*There will not be a consensus of the situation you find yourself in now. Each person, regardless of their race, will have a unique take on it and will react accordingly. You must learn to roll with the punches.
*I have been navigating my way in the world for a couple years now since finding out about my small amount of non-white DNA. I have researched my family history and done what I could to track down my ancestors of color, with only a small success so far. If you research your family history, depending on where your ancestors of color came from, you may have more or less success in tracking them down. Be patient and know that this might take a lifetime to figure out. If you ever do manage to figure it out at all. Keep in mind that for a lot of people of color, this frustration and inability to track down ancestors, is for their entire family tree, and not just one or two isolated ancestors. Keep it in perspective.

Well, I think that's enough to get you started. I wish you luck as you try to figure all of this out. One day down the road, maybe there will be an official set of rules for people like us to follow, but until then, hopefully this can help.

Signed,
Somebody Who Knows Exactly How You Feel Right Now

Burning Walls, Building Bridges: Voter Disenfranchisement

I normally do these posts every other week, but with the news this past week of various voter disenfranchisement coming to light in places like North Dakota and Georgia, I thought I would do a "special edition." Or maybe it's more of an "emergency edition." With the election less than a month away, we all need to know as much as we can about voter disenfranchisement and what is has to do with racism in this country.

Changing the rules to ensure that only one group of people (white Republicans) can vote and remain in power, is the very literal definition of institutional racism. Add to this, when other white people choose not to fight against it, they are aiding in the maintaining of institutional racism. Sorry if that sound harsh or guilt-trippy, but it's the truth. Even if white people are good, kind people, they can and usually are, racist in the sense that they don't mind living in a racist system. It works for us. I don't have to worry about my vote being purged from the system. I'm a white Democrat voter in Seattle. We're all pretty much white Democrats here, so it's all good. But the entire nation isn't comprised like that. Much of the country is comprise of white Republicans, and as the discussion is ongoing since the Weepy McDrunkface Kavanaugh confirmation, Republicans seem to be fans of using cheating, bending the rules, or doing literally anything it takes to remain in power, while the Democrats are debating what level of "dirty" fighting we should engage in to combat it.

Maybe this is how I "fight dirty". I call out people on things I would normally hold myself back on. It's not polite to tell somebody they're racist or a bad person for trying to cheat the system to remain in power, right? I might hurt somebody's feelings, and they're probably generally a good person as long as you ignore the racism part. But compared to the cheater, is it really all that rude? Isn't it rude of me not to point it out? It's definitely helping to maintain a racist system not to...So, no more sitting back and thinking, wow that sucks, but what can I do? I might not be able to fix the country and make it more fair for everybody, but I can at least use my words to put together a blog post to express my fury over the situation.

I have two thoughts for how to combat voter disenfranchisement, but no way to enact them. First: I think all states should move to a mail-in ballot system like my state has. It makes it stupid easy to vote, and voting should be stupid easy to do. This of course is probably why some states don't want to do this. It makes it more difficult to find ways to disenfranchise voters when you don't have the chance to turn them away at the polling places and can see what color their skin is. Second: I think activists need to organize a system where we can donate money to give to people in places with ID laws. When a person would otherwise lose their ability to vote because they can't afford an ID or the time it takes to get it or the transportation to get to the DMV, then this organization would provide money to pay for it. And/or help arrange for transport for the person as well. If we have to play the cheaters' game while we work on legal means to undo their unethical laws, then I think we should. If anybody out there knows how to make this happen, please do so!

I don't really know how to make the voting system more fair for everybody. I don't know how to make people care about others enough to get them to do the right thing. All I can do is help amplify people who have studied this more than I have or have been victimized by it. So that's what I'm going to do today. I am going to put links to articles that explain all of this better than I can.

Article 1
This ACLU article from last month gives information on the disenfranchisement in Georgia that we heard so much about this past week. Read about the tactics the state is using to "follow" the rules while working to maximize the people disenfranchised.

Article 2
A two-year old article from The Root explains various forms of voter suppression and how to combat them. Sadly, the article is still completely relevant today.

Article 3
Here's an article from July of this year with even more ideas on how to fight voter suppression.

Article 4
Here's one from the Washington Post in 2014 with ideas on how to reduce voter fraud while increasing voter participation as well. I'm not sure I agree with the premise of this article and I think it comes from a very white-privileged place, but there are some good ideas in it, regardless. Just go into it knowing it's coming from a privileged place.

Article 5
This has good information for people who have been disenfranchised to be able to vote next month. If you or somebody you know is dealing with this, please share this information with them.

Article 6
This is a very old article, but it's still relevant today. Disenfranchisement of felons in this country might not be racially-motivated in a technical sense, but the people convicted of felonies in this country is definitely racially-motivated. It's time to change the rules.

Article 7
Another article about felony disenfranchisement from May of this year. There are some very compelling reasons listed as to why we should reconsider this practice and reinstate these people's right to vote.

I think one thing that's important to remember is that since there are so many people who will be unable to vote in this next election, those of us who have not been disenfranchised have an obligation to exercise our right to vote. Vote for the people who aren't allowed to. Vote so that the right people can be elected who will do something about this. And we continue to protest and speak out and talk about it. We demand that our elected officials care enough to do something about it. We expect our elected officials to create laws to protect voters and if they refuse, then they no longer get our votes. We fight, however we can so that one day, we really can be a democracy in this country.

DNA Test Results and Isolation

I had my parents take Ancestry.com DNA tests a few months ago and have enjoyed seeing the results and learning more about myself and my family's past. Probably the biggest revelation was from my mom's test results which says she has about 3% African and 4% Iberian in her genetic makeup. This means I have up to 50% of those percentage points in my own genetic makeup. This is actually fitting in with what I know about the family line this comes from, but after getting some additional information from some DNA experts*, I am now questioning if I actually have only one Afro-Hispanic ancestor, or several. Based on what the expert said, the amount my mom has in her results is actually too high based on when the first person in that line would have been able to "pass" for white. What this means: I probably have more than one Afro-Hispanic ancestor, possibly several.

The term that has developed recently as more people take these DNA tests and white people discover they have African ancestry in their genetic makeup, is "Hidden African Ancestry." Some people try to write this off by saying, "Well, everybody has African in them because of how humanity evolved and traveled out of Africa." This is not what that means. While it's true that if you go back far enough, that is the case, but we're talking a hundred thousand years+ for that. These DNA tests go back about 250-300 years which is far more recent. Think 6-7 generations back. It's not that far at all. One percent DNA generally means that you had one full-blooded ancestor of whatever ethnicity, about 6 generations back. If this ancestor was half-blooded or less, then you're looking at more than one person to make up the difference. My mom, at 3%, could have any number of less than full-blooded ancestors of African descent. The interesting thing about all of this is, they are finding that about 4% of white people who take these DNA tests, discover that they too, have hidden African ancestry. This is opening up a lot of questions about just how race relations were 200-300 years ago and if we have been making a lot of assumptions about the past based on how we live in the present.

So, what do you do when you find out you're one of these people with hidden African ancestry? Some people ignore it. Some people are ashamed of it, for various reasons. Or, if you're like me, you were always suspecting it, and so you become excited to have it confirmed. Then for a bit, you're sad to realize that you are now a part of a terrible history that you always thought had never involved you. Those people must have lived such hard and horrible lives, and all you want to do is go back in time and protect them from it. But maybe that's just me.

After that initial shock and taking it in, you start to realize that, things are different now. My skin is still white, my white privilege is still intact, but you realized there is more inside you than you ever realized before. And it's always been there. There's an antiquated rule that was used back in slave days called the "one drop rule," meaning, if you even had one drop of African American blood in you, than you were considered black. I guess this means I've been passing my whole life, but didn't know it. "Passing" is generally looked down upon, by everybody. Depending on what color you were, it was seen as crafty and insinuating, or as betraying and abandoning. I sort of see it as surviving by any means necessary, but I can see how people would see it those other ways.

This is where the feeling of isolation starts to creep in. When I tell other white people about this part of myself, most of the responses I get are none at all. See, as white people, we have the privilege to ignore things like this. Pretend it's not there, pretend it didn't happen. It's not like it shows or affects our lives in any way, right? It's been my experience that most white people don't want to hear about this. Even non-racist white people seem like this just creates more drama than they want to deal with, so it's best to just leave it be. And I would never presume to speak to an African American about this, as though comparing this to what they have lived their entire lives experiencing makes us somehow equal or on equal footing. My white privilege is still very much intact. So, I'm on my own to process this and navigate my way through whatever emotional responses come up with all of this.

What do I do with this information? I understand the idea of not wanting to go overboard with this and try to appropriate cultures that aren't mine. I don't get a voice in the Black Lives Matter movement because of this. But to ignore this piece of me feels disrespectful to the lives of the ancestors who existed and were real flesh and blood humans. They are a part of me. They make up who I am. To continue to ignore them doesn't seem right to me.

So, what can I do? I can educate myself about the countries that showed up on the DNA tests. I can better educate myself about this country's history, and  continue to learn all I can about my own heritage. And I realized that I am in a unique position in this country, to have conversations about race and white privilege, with white people. I can get into white spaces and speak to other white people in a way that a person of color cannot. This isn't taking over the Black Lives Matter movement, it's supporting it. Being able to teach others about racism is one thing I can do to help change the world, and to honor my ancestors who were victims of a racist system. Maybe helping to make the world freer and more equal for everybody who will be born into it in the future, is the best way I can honor them, and that small part of my past.

* The letter I wrote to Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr, and the response.

White Privilege and Helplessness

Each morning at my bus stop, a young man on his way to high school, talks to me. He jokes that I'm his therapist. We talk about school, college, and working, so he can get an idea of what's to come for his life. He talks about his family, classes, and friends. I think he likes having an older person outside of his family, who has nothing to gain or lose from hearing what's going on in his life, that he can turn to. I'm a safe person, I suppose. It felt awkward at first, since I don't have kids of my own, but now, it feels like an honor and a privilege that he trusts me enough to talk to me. I won't reveal his name or anything about him, except to say that he is a young black(his preferred adjective) man.

Today, though, he told me something that I had no idea how to respond to. He told me that he'd been feeling a little down lately, the last few months or so. I thought maybe it was a typical teenager depression issue, like I had, or maybe seasonal related, since we're just coming out of winter. But he told me that he'd been experiencing a level of something he couldn't really define, until I told him the word. He said that when he was younger, he thought everybody was the same, and fine with one another and that he had a future as bright as anybody else. But lately he'd heard statistics from somewhere that said white people preferred the company of their own kind most. As a young black man who had almost always been the only black kid in his class, this seemed to fill him with uncertainty. I imagine he was now thinking, were people only putting up with him and not really liking him? Add to this all the news we see lately of violence against African Americans, particularly men, in this country, and I think it sent him into a tailspin. I told him that I thought the word he was thinking of, was "disillusionment". When he asked me what that meant, I said it meant that he was seeing the world for the first time for how it really is, and was leaving him sad and disappointed. He agreed with that assessment. He looked at me with such helplessness, wanting advice for how to handle this tough situation, and all I could do was shrug my shoulders and say, "I am so sorry I can't give you any advice about this. This has not been my life experience..." My white privilege slapped me in the face and I had never before felt more unable to help somebody.

Once we get on the bus, we part ways, I get off sooner to transfer to my other bus, and he stays on to go to his school. But our conversation stayed with me all day today. I realized that there are two levels of tolerance and acceptance in this country. There's the governmental level. The level that makes rules that says we have to hire people based on their abilities, not the color of their skin. Laws and regulations that make it more fair for everybody to find employment or education opportunities. But there is another level: a personal level. This is when two people openly and honestly talk about race, and issues that affect us, and what we're trying to do to stop hate. This is the more important level, really, and often overlooked, I think. Because if a person gets a job they fought hard to get, what does it matter if everybody they work with resents them and makes it really difficult for them to feel included and welcomed and able to do their job well? The government can force open doors, but it cannot force the people already inside those doors to love and accept the people coming through them. That is up to us.

Today's experience was eye-opening to me, because I never knew there was an added level of anxiety and sadness that a teenager could experience when he realizes that the idyllic world he imagined he would come of age into, doesn't exist at all. But I get to go on with my life as it is, it's not affected by this young man's sadness. I could just go on and pretend it's not my problem. I can't do that though. The problem is, I'm not really sure what to do. All I can do, I suppose, is continue to open my heart and mind to others, listen to what they say, and incorporate it into my life. Now I have a story I can tell others to hopefully help open their hearts and minds. That way, one day, when the young men and women of color today get through those doors, they'll be met with people eagerly looking forward to them. It's literally the least I can do.