JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Social justice movements in the last few years have been fueled by police interactions with the community, specifically communities of color.
Jacksonville historian and civil rights activist Rodney Hurst said what has been televised recently is barely scratching the surface to what police relations were like, dating as far back as the 1700s.
“The Second Amendment dealt with slave patrols. And it dealt with property owners, white property owners, being able to arm themselves to help the slave patrols catch runaway slaves,” said Hurst. “Blacks, when they became policemen could not arrest whites. Police departments, not only in Jacksonville, especially throughout the south, I mean Bull Connor and Jim Clark, Willis McCall. They were the epitome of racist law enforcement officials.”
Today calls for justice and police reform stems from police killings and excessive force used in Black communities.
Hurst said saying “black lives matter” does not mean it’s instead of anyone, but that it means black lives matter, also.
“But the response to that invariably is, ‘blue lives matter.’ Blue lives have always mattered,” he said. “Blue lives invariably have been white, and the white privilege and the white racism sets in, when you talk about blue lives, as evidence by the number of policemen who have gotten off with little or no penalty, even when there was a record showing that an unarmed Black person, male or female, was killed.”
904Ward, a Jacksonville group looking to create racial healing and equity, says in a 2020 Jacksonville survey from the Public Opinion Research Laboratory at UNF, 97% of Black people and 63% of white people somewhat or strongly disagree that Black people and white people receive equal treatment from the police.
In a statement from the Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police regarding police relations, the president of the organization said, “Our members work tirelessly every day throughout Jacksonville to build the goodwill that currently exists between the police and every neighborhood in Jacksonville. Clearly, our community and police enjoy a much stronger bond than in many large cities around the country in large part due to those efforts.”
On a state level, Florida Democrats are introducing 16 bills to “promote fair and just” police reforms.
Proposals in the bills would mandate body cameras be worn by officers in every state law enforcement agency set a training standard for police training in de-escalation tactics and require the FDLE to keep a database on excessive use of force by officers.
“If you really look at these policies they’re not antagonistic towards law enforcement officers. They’re not antagonistic towards anyone. They’re going to protect people. They’re going to protect people in communities of color and one thing that I don’t think folks are understanding is they’re also going to protect our law enforcement officers,” said Democratic Representative Evan Jenne.
News4Jax asked Hurst how communities can move forward and feel safely policed.
“We need to have more transparency. And we need to hold police accountable for how they patrol and police and interact with the Black community that has never happened,” said Hurst.
JSO and other law enforcement agencies do have outreach programs and transparency resources for the community.
We reached out to the FDLE for comment on the bill proposals, but they do not comment on pending legislation.