ATLANTIC CITY — A national group of black police officers passed a resolution June 6th calling for on-the-spot arrests of white police in cases where they “perpetrate the murders of black brothers.”
The resolution was adopted by the board of National Council of Police Societies, a national organization representing 10,000 black policemen and women.
The resolution pointed to the killing of two black students in Jackson, Miss., as examples of white police attacks on blacks.
Society meetings in the past have been largely social gatherings with a sprinkling of discussion of such questions as how to encourage more Negroes to join police forces. But the society, according to one officer, is “running to catch up” with the increasing militant stand of the black community.
“The black policeman knows the same heel on his brother’s neck leaves a heelprint of his own neck,” said Howard Sheffey, chairman of the board and a New York City Police sergeant. “We will no longer be coconspirators with white authority.”
Sheffey, assigned to Harlem, said, “If I see a white policeman beating a prisoner, I’ll place him under arrest for assault.”