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As a white Minneapolis police officer firmly pressed his knee on George Floyd\u2019s neck, another police officer \u2014 a Black man \u2014 did nothing to stop him. The rookie officer, Alex Kueng, instead held Floyd\u2019s back <\/a>as he lay on the ground crying for his mother and struggled to breathe.<\/p>\n Kueng\u2019s own siblings have condemned his behavior on that fateful day. His sister, who joined protests calling for her brother\u2019s arrest, has said that as a Black man who \u201cknows right from wrong,\u201d her brother should\u2019ve intervened.<\/p>\n But the truth is, there are other Kueng\u2019s on the force. He\u2019s far from the only officer of color who\u2019s failed to act in the best interest of another person of color while on duty.<\/p>\n In New Jersey, we\u2019ve seen it play out in other less egregious but still shocking incidents.<\/p>\n In Perth Amboy, a sergeant who\u2019s said to be Latina, last year actually escalated a situation <\/a>involving a group of young Black and Latino bike riders. She appears in a video<\/a> that\u2019s racked up more than 5 million views arguing with a Black teenager she decided to detain for riding his bicycle without a 50-cent license tag. How many kids in the suburbs had a license tag on their bikes?<\/p>\n And in a more recent viral video, an Elizabeth police officer, who is Black, was in January recorded shouting obscenities and threats at a person he told he\u2019d \u201cwhoop\u201d<\/a> and \u201cbust open.\u201d<\/p>\n Hiring more Black and brown officers is clearly not the silver bullet many think it is. It won\u2019t completely reform policing or make people in over-policed communities suddenly feel safer.<\/p>\n Yet every time there\u2019s a viral incident in which white police officers are seen berating, beating<\/a>, or even shooting Black people \u2014 or as recently happened in Bridgewater, practicing racial profiling by breaking up a fight between two teens and cuffing only the Black teen<\/a> while the lighter-skinned teen watches comfortably from a couch \u2014 one of the most common collective public laments is, \u201cif only<\/i> there were more Black police officers, if only there were more Latinos, more Asians, more officers of color…if only, then maybe<\/i>…\u201d<\/p>\n Then maybe things would be different. But just maybe.<\/p>\n I wholeheartedly agree that it is imperative for police departments across America to reflect the diversity of the communities they protect. And I know that\u2019s not even close to happening now because research shows that in 99 of the country\u2019s 100 largest metropolitan areas<\/a>, there are more white police officers than white residents. The same is true in New Jersey<\/a>, where town after town has mostly white departments but growing Latino, Black and Asian communities.<\/p>\n But I also know that injecting more color into police departments where so often blue is the only one that truly matters, can\u2019t be the answer to solving everything.<\/p>\n After all, \u201cracism, and especially anti-Blackness, is deeply embedded in the very structures and cultures of the criminal justice system,\u201d and that of course, includes law enforcement, says sociologist Sandra Susan Smith, a professor of criminal justice and faculty director of the Harvard Kennedy School\u2019s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n Police officers, regardless of their ethnoracial background, and no matter their previous allegiances, through training and socialization on the job often \u201cbecome tools in this system of oppression,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For those who fail to \u201cbecome properly socialized,\u201d and try to end racism and police brutality against people of color, there are severe roadblocks: stigma, sanctions and, sometimes, even dismissal.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Smith said, representation alone is not enough \u201cto dismantle, much less disrupt, this institution of racial domination.\u201d For residents of Black and brown communities the presence of Black and brown officers is sometimes nothing more than \u201ccold comfort,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cariol Horne, a former Black Buffalo police officer who was <\/a>fired in 2008 for intervening <\/a>when a white colleague attempted to choke a Black suspect, is a prime example. It wasn\u2019t until last April and after winning a lawsuit, that Horne, months shy of being eligible to receive her full pension, was finally told she\u2019d receive it.<\/p>\n Neal Mack, the Black man involved in the incident, told \u201cCBS This Morning\u201d that the white officer choked him while he was in handcuffs. \u201cCariole Horne said, \u2018You killing him… and she reached over and tried to grab his hand around my neck.\u201d This is what we hope for when we get so excited about representation.<\/p>\n The only Black officer in the Hanover Police Department said he was \u201cpushed out\u201d by the racist treatment he faced from fellow officers just less than a year after joining. In a 2019 lawsuit<\/a> against the township and police department the officer, Jason Jones, said his colleagues said slavery never existed, told him a Black suspect must\u2019ve drunk alcohol because \u201cyou know how your people are,\u201d and used the N-word.<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, Jones said when he raised his concerns to his superior, he was told to put them in writing. Once he did, he says he received a preliminary notice of dismissal and was later suspended without pay.<\/p>\n Jones\u2019s story is not hard to believe when you consider the disproportionate discipline faced by Black officers: An Indiana University study<\/a> found \u201ca consistent pattern of racial differences in the formal recording of [officers\u2019] disciplinary actions in three different major metropolitan cities.\u201d<\/p>\n The study showed Black officers were more likely to have recorded cases of misconduct, despite a lack of a difference between Black and white officers in the number of allegations made against them.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure the experiences of Horne, Jones and even Kueng, are not what they hoped for when they decided to become police officers. Kueng\u2019s mother told The New York Times her son thought \u201cdiversity could force change\u201d in a police department long accused of racism. He thought he could \u201cbridge that gap in the community\u201d and \u201cchange the narrative\u201d between police and the Black community.<\/p>\n We all know how that turned out.<\/p>\n Daysi Calavia-Robertson may be reached at <\/i>dcalavia-robertson@njadvancemedia.com<\/i><\/a>. Follow her on Instagram at <\/i>@presspassdaysi<\/i><\/a> or Twitter <\/i>@presspassdaysi<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to <\/i>NJ.com<\/i><\/a>. Here\u2019s <\/i>how to submit an op-ed or Letter to the Editor<\/i><\/a>. Bookmark <\/i>NJ.com\/Opinion<\/i><\/a>. Follow us on Twitter <\/i>@NJ_Opinion<\/i><\/a> and on Facebook at <\/i>NJ.com Opinion<\/i><\/a>. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. <\/i>Subscribe<\/i><\/a> to NJ.com\u2019s newsletters<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n