Racists Must Be Purged From the Military and Policing

Enough.

It is time to purge all white supremacists and overt racists from positions of official authority and power.

Without exception;
Without mercy or sentimentality; and
Without delay.

They have declared war on the best principles of this nation. It is time we return the favor.

These are not 17-year old high school students posting stupid shit on TikTok because their brains aren’t cooked yet. I’m not talking about someone who works at a fast-food joint and makes some racist comment in a private text to a friend.

And I’m not talking about “microaggressions” or simple conservative views on immigration or affirmative action.

I’m talking about overt racism and extremism.

And I’m talking about people in positions of power and authority, who by virtue of these can do significant damage, and whose jobs require of them an ability to treat people equitably lest real injury come to those against whom their biases are activated.

We must be especially unsparing with law enforcement officials and those in the military.

These are the only two groups in America whom we give license to kill and, in the case of the latter, whom we train for that purpose.

To allow bigots and those who belong to extremist organizations or support them in any way to receive such training at taxpayer expense is obscene.

To give such persons the right to kill or brutalize others is perverse.

And yet, both policing and military service are career choices in great demand among America’s white nationalist set. And both law enforcement and the military have significant numbers of overtly racist members in their ranks.

Sadly, little of substance has been done about the problem up to now, with police being allowed to stay on the job or being rehired despite their extremist connections and racist views.

Most recently, the Pentagon announced an updated set of rules for dealing with such matters, but it remains to be seen if these will suffice to rid the service of racist extremists and prevent the entry of more.

Of course, even the relatively minimalistic approach proposed by the Defense Department — for which there is no counterpart in domestic law enforcement at all — will be too much for some to support.

“Free speech,” they’ll cry, as they demand that soldiers and cops have the right to their beliefs and shouldn’t be punished for them. To do so, they would insist, tramples on their Constitutional liberties.

Bullshit.

Free speech doesn’t protect your right to remain a cop or soldier while being a bigot

Bans on racists in these positions would not amount to a violation of free speech or the denial of Constitutional rights.

One has a right to be a racist or a member of a racist organization. But one does not have the right to be a cop or soldier while believing those things or belonging to such groups.

Both are privileges.

You would not be allowed to serve as a cop if you were known to be a street gang member, regardless of your rights to free speech and association.

Likewise, you would not be allowed to serve in the military if you espoused a belief in the overthrow of the U.S. government by a foreign force or supported ISIS.

This is no different.

If you belong to or support an organization that espouses views counter to the Constitutional order, you should forfeit the privilege of being either a police officer or soldier.

One has to take an oath to uphold the law and Constitution to be either of these. But if one supports a white ethnostate, racial separation, or the denial of equal protection to all, one cannot carry out their duties or adhere to that oath.

White nationalism and supremacy are incompatible with the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. If you believe in the former, you cannot uphold the latter and should not be trusted to do so.

Likewise, someone who adheres to racist beliefs about Black people, for instance, would be at high risk for violating the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and the due process protections of both the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

Surely the government should be under no obligation to allow bigots to serve as law enforcers when their bigotry jeopardizes the rights of those they would police.

As for soldiers, it is impossible to defend the U.S. against all enemies, foreign and domestic, when one adheres to an ideology that constitutes a direct threat to the law and Constitution of the country.

There is no need to wait for neo-Confederates to fire on a modern Fort Sumter before declaring their beliefs the beliefs of enemy combatants and excluding them now.

Among the beliefs that should be disqualifying for either law enforcement or the military:

A belief in the inherent superiority or inferiority of certain racial or ethnic groups;
A belief that members of certain racial or ethnic groups are, by virtue of that group membership, less deserving of full rights and liberties under the law;
A belief that the United States is or should be a fundamentally white Christian nation, in which the rights and opportunities of white people and Christians should be prioritized over others; or
A belief that the United States should ideally be a white ethnostate, in which non-whites are removed from the country or relegated only to certain portions of it.

Polygraph them all and take out the trash

Currently, the FBI administers lie detector tests to all recruits seeking employment with the Bureau. There is no reason these could not be administered to police and military recruits to ferret out extremist beliefs.

Polygraph tests should be given to each recruit, and recruits should be asked about their views on the above-mentioned items. Anyone whose answers suggest belief in racist ideology or membership in, or support for, extremist organizations would be immediately disqualified from service or employment in law enforcement.

Likewise, the current ranks of law enforcement officers and soldiers should be polygraphed, at whatever would constitute their next performance review.

Oh sure, police will scream that polygraphs are unreliable — but that’s rich coming from the same people who seek to administer them to virtually every criminal suspect they bring in for questioning.

Lie detect all of them.

If they fail, giving answers suggestive of racist beliefs, extremist organizational membership, or support for such groups, they would be immediately subject to termination, with less than honorable discharge in the case of soldiers, and with forfeited pensions, in the case of law enforcement.

Any cop or soldier wishing to retire honorably or with their pensions intact would be allowed to do so before submitting to polygraphy.

The good news is, if the right-wingers who deny the problem of racism and the very existence of white supremacists are correct, then this proposal will be largely meaningless. It would only snag a few bigots or prevent a handful from service. Fine. Still, there would be no logical reason to oppose doing it, just in case extremists tried to infiltrate police or the military in the future.

Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free

Better safe than sorry.

Alternately, if the right-wingers who deny the problems mentioned here object to such a proposal, it can only be for one reason: they know full well how big a problem such a proposal as this would reveal.

We might have a cop or soldier shortage? So what?

At which point, perhaps some would express concern that such a process might result in mass resignations or terminations of existing police and military personnel or bring recruiting for both positions to a crawl.

But if so, who cares?

To be concerned at such a prospect is to say that one would rather have white supremacist cops than fewer cops and white supremacist and racist soldiers than a smaller military.

Really?

How can one prefer such a thing?

Oh, I know — one can prefer such a thing because one is white and wouldn’t suffer the consequences of such persons on the street or in uniform, having been trained to kill.

One can prefer such a thing because one doesn’t believe white supremacy is disqualifying for service the way, say, having a bad knee is.

The same people who likely think being LGBTQ should disqualify one from serving in the military or that women should be kept from combat roles would blanch at expelling and banning white supremacists because…priorities.

If America cannot find enough decent soldiers — which by definition excludes white supremacists — to defend it, then perhaps we are not worth defending.

If we cannot find enough decent cops to help keep our communities safe — which, by definition, white supremacists cannot do — then perhaps we need something other than cops to do the job in the first place.

. . .

Fact is, I believe there are more than enough good people to serve in legitimate roles within the military and public safety. But I doubt those folks will come to the fore so long as racists and extremists can freely participate in these professions.

Purging such persons from both would create an entirely different mentality among law enforcement and the armed services. It would help foster a mentality of respect for America as it is and is becoming — a multicultural, multiracial democracy — not America as it was.

We are under no obligation to allow racists to hold positions of authority and power — not in the name of free speech, not in the name of tolerance, and not in the name of filling job slots in positions we’ve deemed essential.

Because nothing is more essential than respect for the Constitutional promises of liberty and justice.

And racists neither believe in these nor are capable of upholding them.

If we really want to make America great, we can start by introducing persons such as that to the wonderful world of unemployment.

—

This post was previously published on Tim Wise’s blog.

***

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.