On Monday, an Alaska Dispatch News headline read, "Anchorage Police Department, 82 percent white, tries to diversify its force." The race-baiters, reading nothing but the headline, immediately went to work on the mayor and the police chief, making inferences about what they assumed the article said.
Callers to talk radio programs, social media commenters and those standing around water coolers insinuated the city was ready to lower standards in order to hire more minority police officers -- clearly that isn't the case, nor is it what the ADN article said.
Anchorage has great diversity. As ADN's Jerzy Shedlock reported in the article, "According to research carried out at the University of Alaska Anchorage, the city's Mountain View neighborhood is the most diverse in the country. Three of Anchorage's high schools and six of its middle schools are among the top ten for diversity in schools, according to the U.S. Department of Education."
One of the things that Mayor Ethan Berkowitz promised during his campaign was to make his administration look more like the city it represents. What this article says is that the mayor wants the chief of police to make a concerted effort to see that the department takes on the diversity and values of their city as well.
The goal is not to hire people based on the color of their skin, but to increase the diversity in the applicant pool and then hire the most qualified applicants. How anybody could think that this would do anything but create a higher quality candidate pool, I have no idea.
A few problems arise with calls for diversity. First, the people who hate to hear about diversity jump to conclusions without bothering to hear the whole story. They immediately get offended, as if trying to increase diversity somehow personally insults them.
Diversity isn't just about the color of one's skin. It's about shared experiences, understanding heritage and culture, and knowing that there are police officers who share all of those things, and skin color, with you in your police department. That may sound shallow, but when you're a minority member in the community and have a history of seeing members of your neighborhood mistreated by authority, it is no small thing.
Anchorage has very diverse neighborhoods; those neighborhoods deserve to be represented in the police department by a police force that is as diverse as they are.
Anchorage also deserves a populace that understands when City Hall strives to attain that goal, they aren't lowering standards, but raising them. When we work to better serve our diverse community by better diversifying the men and women who will serve them, we are bettering the city. How anybody could disagree with that, I have no idea.
The race-baiters will always exist. Their motivation and rationale will always be a mystery to me. A more diverse city will always be a better city. A city that serves its residents with a more diverse group of folks in positions of authority will always serve its residents better.
Berkowitz has done an admirable job living up to his promises thus far in his inaugural year as our chief executive. With this move coupled with a move toward community policing, the city could take a big step toward combating the growing gang problem plaguing Anchorage over the last decade or so.
This new approach helps the police officers get to know their community and the people who live within the community a lot better. It will help them connect better and become closer with the children in the community and dissuade them from getting involved in gang life in the first place. It will also help them become more aware of what's happening in the community, what seems out of place, when tensions seem high, who the drug dealers are, who the gang leaders are, and other important intelligence that can keep gang activity to a minimum.
What at first could seem like just a troublesome headline to a race-baiter, not thinking past shallow concerns, really could be the beginning to a brilliant new strategy in policing that could help to slow down Anchorage's gang problem.
Mike Dingman is a fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president who has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late '90s. Email, michaeldingman@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com or click here to submit via any web browser.