Southern University: Hip-Hop & Politics

Why Black people chant "F" the Police

• Eugene • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Growing up in South Baton Rouge, the phrase "F the police" echoed through the streets like a battle cry, resonating deeply within black communities. Our latest episode peels back layers of historical and systemic racism, tracing the line from the inception of slave patrols to today's policing. We share raw, personal experiences and confront the stark disparities in how the law is enforced. This isn't just a reflection; it's an invitation to join the conversation on what it means to seek justice and equality within a flawed system.

With the nation still reeling from the reverberations of the 2020 protests, we sit down with a guest whose perspective is as unique as it is vital—an African-American military police officer. Their insights during these transformative times offer depth to our discussion on the complexities of community relations and the pursuit of sensitivity within the ranks. We dissect the "defund the police" movement, not shying away from its controversies, and consider the impact of reallocating resources to address crime's social roots.

Turning the spotlight on accountability, we scrutinize the balance between necessary police presence and the protection of Fourth Amendment rights, particularly in high-crime neighborhoods. Landmark cases such as Rodney King and George Floyd serve as harrowing reminders of why recording police interactions remains crucial. We wrap up the dialogue with a look at 'the talk'—that pivotal conversation with our youth about navigating police encounters—as we seek to empower the black community with knowledge and awareness for a more just future.

Jaune:

What's going on? Everyone, my name is Jaune and I'm Jonte, and this is why black people chant F the police. So originally I wanted to play the song F the police, but apparently we don't have the credentials to do that. But I did want to open up with that song, just because I wanted to highlight that that's where I originally heard the chant from. I always knew it was the stigma with black people and the police, but I didn't know until I watched the movie where the chant originated from uh, for me it was always in music that I listened to growing up.

Jahnt'e:

uh, being from the south side of baton rouge, it's just normal the chant if the police is like everybody knows, like you don't have to say it or you don't have to hear it, you just just know. It's like a term, it's just how a lot of us feel as a group of people, but we have a reason to feel this way.

Jaune:

Right and.

Jahnt'e:

I wanted to go into where the origin of modern-day policing actually started. So Dr LJ correct me if I'm wrong but the start of modern-day policing started with the slave patrol and I think that was in like the carolinas in 1700, which they were in charge of catching slaves and bringing them back to their masters or doing whatever they had to do to pursue and apprehend slaves, to get them to be, I guess, good slaves in the term. How you feel about that, johnny?

Jaune:

yes, and I also did want to highlight the history of our constitution because, um, a lot of the police brutality started because, honestly, the white people were just mad we were free and they had to find a loophole in a loophole I apologize in the constitution. I did want to read that word for word um, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime, where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the united states or in any place subject to the jurisdiction. And I feel like people took advantage of this because they said, since we're free, now we have to get them on something. So we have to arrest them for something. We have to just take advantage of our power in order to get them back in custody. Because what's also interesting is, um, the slaves did build most of our society, um, most of our landmarks, and they needed someone else to do that, because they just weren't used to that. So they needed to get us back under control and back into their custody in order for them to take advantage of us.

Jahnt'e:

Still yeah, I agree, and, um, to bring in some modern culture. I was watching this show actually last night. I think it's called them or Us or something like that. It's on Amazon Prime and they were saying it was like a group of white people and I was trying to get the black people to move out of their neighborhood because they moved from Carolina to Compton, california, because they thought it would be better, better, and the white people had a meeting and they were just touching on how much their ancestors, their fathers and their grandfathers built this country and how they would want, how they would want them to get the black people out of their neighborhood and it was just upsetting and I was getting angry because they kept saying that, yeah, they built this country, but this country was built off of our backs of slaves.

Jahnt'e:

I agree so that was just like a upset moment for me in that show and that also goes with that loophole and it shows that even in modern television today it's still used like people still go back to that reference, yeah, and although I am blessed to never had a running with the police, I still feel like it's too often that in black men y'all have to face that more than black women, just because, honestly, y'all are men, we're women.

Jaune:

So can you speak about um your encounters that you might have had negatively? Oh yeah, that's true, it's uh.

Jahnt'e:

For me personally, uh, I'm from baton rouge, like I said, and I went to woodland high school my freshman and sophomore year, and I went to Dunham High School my junior and senior year, and so experience I had was I got a ticket.

Jahnt'e:

I got a disturbing the peace ticket for loud music at the fresh market parking lot on uh Perkins I think it was like eight something at night. My sophomore year. This is when I went to Woodland, but the crazy part about that is at the same spot. I don't know if y'all familiar with what goes on in Baton Rouge, but after Dunham football games we all go to that same parking lot, the fresh market parking lot in Baton Rouge and Perkins Road and chill after every game and play music and just hang out.

Jaune:

And the crazy part about it was the police even came by one time and told us we played a good game, and I also think that highlights the type of police that we have in our community, because there are some police that, honestly, you can just tell that they're good people and they still want to make a change, and there's some that still want to keep us down because I know, honestly, my only experience from police officers was our resource officers in high school, so I just never really had those run-ins and that just go over gender racism, like it's statistically proven that black men experience more policing than anyone else because we're black and we're men.

Jahnt'e:

But another question I have is are there actually good police? What do you think about that?

Jaune:

I believe so. I feel like there's a lot of not even black people people all around that just want to go in and make a change because of something that they might have experienced in their childhood. But I do especially think that is for black men. They might have grew up in a community where the police weren't as good, Just like. Honestly, I watch a lot of shows. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the show SWAT on. Netflix starring. What's his name?

Jahnt'e:

Not Morris Chestnut, I don't know the ball head man.

Jaune:

He on everything. Shamar Moore, I apologize and his sole purpose for going to the police force was because he wanted to make a change, because he actually grew up in the south side of LA where there was a lot of police brutality, where he didn't understand a lot of things and his father was mad about that. But it's just something. You have to respect, because if you're not going to step up and make a change. Honestly, just don't say anything.

Jahnt'e:

That's an interesting question for me because I actually have one of my close friends Shout out to Chris. One of my close friends is actually a police officer in BRPD and we've always made fun of him because he's the only person I know that grew up and actually wanted to be the police. When we was kids he was a police for Halloween.

Jaune:

He always talked about theeen. He always played cops and roberts and he was a cop every time.

Jahnt'e:

So it's just always been a dream of his, and for him it was because he wanted to make a difference in the community as a policeman. So I do believe me personally that there are a few I guess, quote unquote good policemen, because I've seen it in my own friend group. But it just depends on whether you qualify as a good policeman and then also, um, a lot of people don't know.

Jaune:

A lot of people know that I'm in the military, but they don't know I'm a military police officer.

Jaune:

Um, I solely chose that job because, honestly, I just didn't know to pick. I chose the worst career, actually, but when I got in, there was a lot of, um, african-american men that were actually police on the other side. Um, so I thought that was very interesting, especially just because, um, everything we go through and we actually had to work those protests of 2020, and it was a bit conflicting for me because, you know, of course, most officers are white. So when we were going over drills and things, we had our batons before we even got in the field and it was just a lot of insensitivity because we were just referring to like, oh, what if they get irate? And one of them was like, oh, I'm just gonna kick them, and they was laughing. It was a lot of white men laughing. I was looking real uncomfortable because I just feel like they were making a mockery out of our pain, because, at the end of the day, it was just a cry out for like, listen to us, stop doing this in our community.

Jahnt'e:

Um and while we're on that topic of the protest, uh, I know a big, a big thing while the protests were going on was defund the police, and I just want to touch on how I feel about that and I'll ask you how you feel about it as well, johnny.

Jahnt'e:

But I just feel like I don't want to get canceled for saying this, but the police don't actually stop anything from happening. If I'm making sense and when I say that I mean when you call the police, it's after the crime has already happened like they will come and they will take statements and either take the person to jail or don't take the person to jail, but they don't actually stop things from happening. But in older times in our own communities, if someone was beating their wives and you go outside and you tell the neighborhood they will stop you from beating your wife. They will come and put their hands on you to stop this from happening. But with the police it's not the same thing. It already happened.

Jaune:

And I think that just comes with a community-based environment, because we're in the same neighborhood, we face the same struggles, we probably have the same income rates. We just relate a lot, so we can't want to help one another versus the police. They just think we're irate. They just think that they need to stop us or just do whatever.

Jahnt'e:

And also, when I say defunding the police, it doesn't mean ending the police. It means reallocating resources to other social service programs, which means better jobs, better schools, and with this this means the crime rate goes down, which is statistically proven.

Jaune:

And I also want to touch on, like I said, I watch a lot of TV shows. I really appreciate it in SWAT how a lot of funding went to neighborhoods helping one another and there being a how do I explain it Black people in their own communities, helping deescalate the situation Like if there was a homeless person that needed help and it's like, okay, our community is more familiar with this person and we can just go out and help. So it just goes back to community policing.

Jahnt'e:

How do you feel about the whole?

Jaune:

defund the police movement. I actually disagree with it. I think we need the police. At the end of the day, crime rate is actually not even. We live in Baton Rouge. I used to live in Birmingham. It's not how it needs to be. We actually don't even have enough police on the force, so I don't agree with what's the word.

Jahnt'e:

So my question to you is having more police, even though they don't stop the crime from actually happening? How would that decrease the crime rate?

Jaune:

their presence I think when they're present there there's a lot of stuff that doesn't go on just because you feel like someone is watching or this is going on, like, oh, let me not do xyz, because I know their response time is going to be faster as well.

Jahnt'e:

So you think it's a fear thing I do. So you think police presence and you want more police presence in black neighborhoods or more police presence Everywhere, and how do you think that presence impacts our people positively and negatively?

Jaune:

I think perception is everything, so a lot of black people are just going to see it as oh, they're monitoring us, what's going on? Like they just want a reason to pick on us and sometimes like going back to those good police officers.

Jahnt'e:

It's not a thing, not all police officers are out to get us, and that's just how I feel about it, okay, and I feel like, like you said, it could be positive because maybe it would stop some crime happening, because maybe if people see the police they might actually think, oh, I might actually go to jail for whatever I'm about to do, and that's why, like you see, a lot of neighborhoods like Chicago Detroit, they don't have enough police.

Jaune:

So a lot of neighborhoods like Chicago Detroit, they don't have enough police.

Jahnt'e:

So a lot of things are happening, I feel like there's a correlation with the police funding in these neighborhoods with high crime rates, but also I see it as becoming a problem because, like you said earlier, you don't really have any experience with it, but I can't tell you how many times our Fourth Amendment right would be violated if it was more police in our communities.

Jahnt'e:

Because we already are stopped and messed with more than any other race, any other demographic in America. So if you add more police to our community and more police to our town, this number will only go up and the amount of run-ins that end in bad situations will only go up. Because our people, we are tired of being messed with. So when we put over for no reason, it's kind of like we already have an attitude and they're already looking for a reason to escalate it to the next step.

Jaune:

Yeah, I agree, and I can play devil's advocate with stopping Frisbee New York being a good example. I know it was just an opportunity for them to harass us, quite frankly. So I definitely do understand where you're coming from. I understand both sides.

Jahnt'e:

Okay, cool. And to move on to segue to our next thing, how do you feel about what happened to Rodney King and the effect that that had on us as a community?

Jaune:

I think that was a good example of honestly looking out for one another not what happened, but as far as this being recorded, a neighbor had recorded it and it's being able to hold people accountable and I think that's also what started, like not even black lives matter, but just a social media presence of black police officers I mean, I'm sorry not black police officers, of police officers, abusing their power and abusing their force right and somewhat being held accountable.

Jahnt'e:

Right doing these things. Because weren't those officers acquitted right? They were okay. But at least the fact that it was acknowledged that yeah, it was some wrongdoing was a big step for us in our community.

Jaune:

Because, I hate to say it, but if this wasn't, recorded, nobody wouldn't would have believed him right, and that's just like george, george floyd. A lot of things just need to be recorded and it's like us as a community, we just need to start holding police officers accountable and honestly getting in their business, like you know how people right, you never seen like a clip of like when people pulled over and like people stopping to see, like what's going on, making sure they're not abusing their right and, honestly, that holds police accountable too, because it's a lot of times more than not um that they're like okay, it's a crowd.

Jaune:

Let me not do right.

Jahnt'e:

So, and I know the question a lot of people would have is how do you hold, though, how do you hold those with power accountable? And, in my opinion, it would be actually going through with the charges that are put up on and not going to court and throwing the charges out and letting them walk or putting them on unpaid leave for a certain amount of time, and then everything goes back to normal yeah, because they're not slick with that unpaid leave or paid leave honestly, they just try to.

Jaune:

And I think the black community needs to be more consistent, because it's like people are a hashtag for two, three weeks and then everything just falls off the face of the earth. So we really don't know what happens with all these police officers, like three years down the line and things like that. So I think black people need to do more um, educating themselves and just staying up on what they feel is right.

Jahnt'e:

And speaking of people with power, I actually want to jump to 1965, with President Lyndon Johnson. He declared his national war on crime in 1965. And I did a little bit of research on this myself and I found out in 1964, the years leading up it wasn't a spike in crime that caused him to do this. It was a public policy initiative to expand federal powers that caused him to do this. And what this was was he sent militarized police forces into impoverished neighborhoods. And guess whose neighborhoods these were? Yeah, ours exactly. So they sent police forces to enforce and control our neighborhoods.

Jahnt'e:

So it's not far fetched for us to come up with a term. It's like, oh, f the police, they're trying to watch over us, they're trying to stop us from doing it. You know, they're trying to hold over what we do. And it's interesting how this notion of F the police gets passed along. For me it came from the talk, as we like to call it. It came from my mother, actually, because my father he's in my life, but not actually, you know, in my life on a day-to-day basis to where he would be able to give me that talk about what happens. And I just find it kind of interesting that my mother was the one that gave me this talk, because she doesn't have to experience it in a way that black men do, but she did her best to tell me okay, son, if the police pull you over, automatically put your hands out the window, don't ask no questions, do exactly what they say, don't back, talk.

Jaune:

Whatever happens happens and we'll handle it after I do want to um, see how you said, um, she experiences it differently or not at all to some extent, because even though y'all experienced it through I'm sorry excessive force, we still experienced it through things that we might not speak about. Just like sandra blaine. We don't know what happened to her. There's some women that's been abused, raped in police custody and still had to face trial and found guilty.

Jaune:

So I just think, as a community, I don't appreciate the you ever heard the term victim blaming yeah there's a lot of people that say, well, what did you do to provoke this? Or you should, especially when the celebrities like honestly, I saw a few years ago ddg got on twitter and I think he was pulled over publicly because he'd be streaming and he said oh well, I had my license and registration, I listened, so that's why nothing happened to me. And it's kind of like you taking away from other people's experiences, because just because that was your experience does not mean that it couldn't happen to someone else, because we get shot for just walking down the street.

Jaune:

So what do you mean? Because you had your driver's license and registration that it couldn't happen to you or it didn't need to happen to you and that's true.

Jahnt'e:

But I also could play devil's advocate here and go to say, in a lot of videos where excessive police force is used against african americans, it is a lot like sometimes we do, we do a lot you know I'm saying so if, if things are not going as smoothly and we try harder to cooperate and don't get, don't get irate with the police, because this is what they want. Yeah, they want you to get out of character, they want you to get aggressive. So they can get out of character and aggressive, right?

Jaune:

back with you and they're gonna always be in the right, and I just think that needs people just need to have the talk more.

Jahnt'e:

You can honestly tell whose parents sat down and had to talk with them, and who didn't?

Jaune:

just because you'll get pulled over with a group of your friends and you, being a pastor, just seeing your friends. Just what did I do? Oh, I don't have to do that. Oh, my rights are being violated don't even know what's going on and you're just making it worse than it has to be. So I do understand, but then there's also times where I've seen someone on facebook live. They got pulled over and ran from the police back, faced away from them and got shot.

Jahnt'e:

So it's just a lot of things that we could do better as a community and it's the things that they could do better as a police force yep, that's true, and we can't speak about why black people chant F the police and, being in Baton Rouge at Southern University, we can't speak about that without talking about Alton Sterling. Like I feel like, as when this happened I think I was like maybe like 18, 19, can see something like that happening and not have the mindset of F the police they're out to get us. Because I just feel like seeing something as outrageous as that that can shape a young person's mind Right.

Jahnt'e:

And it's also an outrage in the home, because I remember when it was on the news my whole household was outraged, like my mom was walking around cursing on the news. My whole household was outraged, like my mom was walking around cursing at the tv. My dad was mad. They always messing with us, man, like it was just a whole lot of that and I'm sure that was in every black black household across america, right, honestly it wasn't in mine really um, I saw it for myself.

Jaune:

But I think a lot of the issue is a lot of people need to stay educated and they need to stay up with current events, because there's no reason we should be getting our news from instagram or a half story from tiktok. I think we, as black people, need to take the initiative to actually go out and do the research for ourselves in order to understand what we're fighting for. What's the history of how this evening I started and why are they out to get us in some form fashion?

Jahnt'e:

and speaking on being for ourselves, an interesting question I have is when do we actually get to be for ourselves and not for the system, for trying to change the outcome of the system? Because, like I mentioned earlier, one of my best friends was a police officer. He said he wanted to be a police officer to change the system. Me myself, I want to go to law school, I want to be a criminal defense lawyer to change the system. You do too. So what was your reasoning for wanting?

Jaune:

to be a criminal defense lawyer. Honestly, I feel like a lot of black people. I think I always wanted to be a lawyer since middle school.

Jaune:

But when I saw when they see us, I was so mad watching that tv because from the beginning all that could have been avoided if them boys was just would have known they right, and that's really what it was for me, because a lot of black people, like I just said, aren't educated on what we're entitled to, our rights. Oh, we don't even have to go to first of all. You don't have to go to the police station if you don't want to. If you're not being arrested, you have no reason to go to the police station, and I think a lot of that happened because their parents were also ignorant to their rights as well.

Jahnt'e:

So it's just a lot of generational unawareness being passed down and that's true, but also you have to kind of try to put yourself in their shoes. At the moment. They were kids when this is going on. So when when you're a kid and you already hear the stories about what the police do to black people or what's going on in the black community in terms of the police, you're scared. So the first thing you're going to do is whatever they say, yeah, whatever they tell me right, whatever they tell me to do, I'm going to cooperate. I'm going to do it because I've seen what's happened around me in my community. I've seen what can happen to me if I don't do exactly what they're telling me to do at this moment.

Jaune:

Right, and that's why I also highlighted the fact that it was not only because it really wasn't the boys' fault because, like you said, they were kids Also their parents' fault, because there's no reason why you shouldn't have gotten a lawyer. Even a public defense would have been like no, this is not right. You can't do this without their parents being present.

Jahnt'e:

Honestly, everything should have been N and void because their parents weren't even present. Don't get me started on the public defenders, because I can go all day about that. I can go all day about how many cases they get and how little they're paid for, the amount of cases they get.

Jaune:

I can go all day about that. You have like 10 cases at a time and walk in the meeting and don't even know what's your first and last name, let alone what you'll be in charge for before you walk to the courtroom.

Jahnt'e:

That's another topic for another day.

Jahnt'e:

But back to the topic at hand, I just feel like it's going to always be this F the police mindset with my people, because of the history of policing, because once things continue to happen over and over and over again, it begins to form a pattern and with this pattern we're seeing that we're not looked at as the same as everybody else when it comes to policing. We don't get held to the same standard as everybody else when it comes to police, policing, and this is statistically proven. So I just feel like, as generation to generations, I'm gonna give my sons or daughter, whichever ones I have, I'm to give them the same speech my mom gave me Right, and I'm sure they'll give my grandchildren the same speech I gave them Right. So as generations continue to go on, this world will continue to get passed on.

Jaune:

So my question to you, Jonte, is when do you feel like is the right time? When did your mother have that talk with you? Because I know a lot of people said, oh, I had to talk at 12. Oh, I didn't have it until the first time I even encountered a police officer. So when do you feel like is the right time?

Jahnt'e:

For me it was when I was 16, when I got my first car, like before my mom handed my keys over. She was like now I'm going to tell you this when you're driving this car, if you get stopped by the police, you're going to, you're gonna do everything they say do. When they pull you over, you're gonna put your window down but go for your hands up. You're not gonna reach for nothing until they ask you to. When they tell you to get your license and registration, you're gonna tell them you're reaching for your license and registration. And funny story, while we're on this topic, I actually did this and a police officer was telling me he was like you don't have to say you're reaching for your license and your registration, because I just told you to get it. And I told him I don't care what you say.

Jaune:

I'm going to say it anyway.

Jahnt'e:

And we kind of laughed about that moment because he understood what I was saying and why I said that. But that just goes to show that some policemen that are not actually like that. But I think for me, when I have children, I may give them the talk earlier than that, maybe when they're old enough to actually understand. So maybe like 11, 12, because I'm sure social media is going to be big and they'll already know what's going on through Instagram, tiktok, youtube, whatever it may be at the time. But as soon as they're old enough to understand what's actually going on, I'm going to tell them, what about you?

Jaune:

And I think that's very common that a lot of people have that talk when they are driving and starting to get their license. Even though the exonerated five, they weren't even driving, they were just walking down the park and at the wrong place at the wrong time. So that's why I think we do need to highlight the fact that we need to have that talk early. I think 12 13 is appropriate when they start like being unsheltered and start thinking things to themselves, having their own social media accounts and they just start asking questions.

Jahnt'e:

So it's either gonna be around the age of 12 or, if they ask me a question beforehand, all right and, like you said, it could be anything, and this has been going on for a long time because my grandmother I love her to death. Uh, I'm interested in cars, so I have a orange mustang 5% tinted window, 25% front windshield, and every time she see my car? She said baby, you keep giving them people a reason to mess with you. You got these loud pipes. You got these windows all black, you giving them a reason?

Jaune:

I was like mama and I don't like that, because I feel like a lot of black people, especially black men, like to express themselves through their cars, so we shouldn't have to pay for that. Just because of what we drive, because it's flashy, like, oh, they must have drugs in the car, oh they driving fast, let me find them. I don't even find them as a mess of a thing, because if you drive fast, you're driving fast. However, like I said, just because your car draws, attention doesn't mean it's for the police.

Jahnt'e:

Right, and that's true, boys with lifted trucks and tinted windows and big wheels and rock lights, and they don't face the same problem. But me personally, I've been pulled over more times than I could count on one hand in the last year and a half, actually, for one was for music, one was because the car is too loud, one was because of the tint, one was because he thought I was doing a burnout from a red light, but he was literally on side of me.

Jahnt'e:

I just pulled it off from the red light on side of him and he pulled me over talking about why would you do a burnout if you see me right here? Like that wasn't a burnout. But either way, my grandmother makes those statements because she knows, like she knows what it was like in her generation. She see what's going on in the news and she know that sometimes just flat out black people are a target for police and I feel like that will continue because statistically proven that it keeps happening. Nothing has changed from the 50s and 60s and now in the terms of what we are looked at by some police officers right.

Jaune:

I think the only thing we can do as black people is just continue to educate ourselves and try to do the right thing, because even if we are doing the right thing, you never know what's going to happen?

Jahnt'e:

Yep, and I'm Jontae and my name is Jontae, and that's why black people will continue to chant F the police.