'I'm Black Before I Am Blue': Boston Sgt. Reflects On Being Black And A Police Officer
BOSTON (CBS) - Boston Police Sergeant Eddy Chrispin finds himself in a double universe: Black officer on the clock, black man always.
"I get home, I take off my uniform. Maybe I'm running around. Maybe I'm Ahmaud Arbery. Maybe my son is," Chrispin said.
"I'm black before I am blue," Chrispin told WBZ. "We face the same issues that are black and brown people do."
So, when Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck thousands of miles away, Chrispin said, it hurt.
"I have my father who's 80 years old. I watched this video with him and he cried. I have a 16-year-old and I watched this video with him and we've had numerous conversations about issues of race and policing," he said.
Since then, protests have swept Boston and the nation. Chrispin, who has worked to bridge the gap between Boston Police and communities of colors for over 20 years, says he feels many of the protesters are not interested in the people behind the police uniforms.
"We espouse this idea that people should be judged on the content of their character, not the color of your skin. But here, I'm not even being judged by the color of my skin but by the clothing that I wear," he said.
Chrispin, who is now the President of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, says he agrees with protesters that there is a problem with racism in American society. He feels that racism is not limited to police departments.
"The police department is a microcosm of society. If we are racist in society, inevitably, we will have them in policing," he said.
He agrees that police should feel more supported to be able to call out bad behavior within their ranks. But, he also argues that protesting does not go far enough and that defunding police departments will not work.
"When you start talking about defunding the police and taking away from funds that have typically supported police community interactions and programming, you're only going to widen the gap between the community and the police," he said.
