WWE star Mustafa Ali issued a lengthy statement on his Twitter a couple days ago commenting on the ongoing protests across the United States, which were a response to the unjust murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Ali recalls his time being a cop in Chicago, preaching that he attempted to change the force from within despite pushback from his superiors.
I’m a former police officer. I joined the force because I believed the only real way to bring change to policing is from within. I remember being told “empathy will get you killed.” No, lack of empathy allows you to kill. We have to change policing from within.
Ali later states that nothing can be changed from behind a screen, and cites how the African American community will continue to have a distrust of law enforcement until that happens.
And like always, there’s going to be some comment about “you were part of the problem.” No. I saw the problem and did something to combat it. Countless times, I showed up and put a stop to any sort of harassment/excessive force. You can’t change anything sitting behind a screen. The point of all this is simple; society and specifically our African American brothers and sisters have a justifiable distrust with the police. It’s the responsibility of the police to fix that issue but they won’t. Thus, it is on us,as a society to force that change from within.
Check out his full Twitter thread below.