WHAT I LEARNED A short story by Juliana Martimort

This story was inspired by the events that transpired in England in the 1970s. In the 1824 Vagrancy Act, the sus law (from “suspected person”) was created. It gave officers the power to arrest anyone they suspected had the intent to commit an arrestable offense, a stop and search law. The sus law started being used mostly against young black men. The public panic about muggings in the 1970s led to the increase of their arrests. There are many stories of racism and inequalities but only a few of them are written by the oppressor’s point of view. Which is honestly quite understandable. This story was written from the point of view of a racist police officer.

I was born in England. I grew up safe and sound thanks to the love and support from my family, and thanks to the police officers who assured our safety. They raised me with great values that I’ll always stand by. I wanted to serve and protect. I wanted to make everyone feel safe. I took the Admissions exam to become a police officer. I succeeded, I became one. My goal was to protect our community, to make everyone feel safe and at ease. ‘I will prevent crimes, I will become a great man, ’ I told myself.  I was young but I was motivated. I would be the best and stand by my values. After all, this is what I’d learned.

It was fine, some petty crimes here and there with some more serious offenses scattered in between. Then it all went downhill. Our semblance of peace and quiet broke and violence arose. Muggings. There were  so many  of them.  Assault  after assault , leaving my community traumatized. Especially after they arrived. That’s when things really got out of hand. Honest, decent folk got scared.  And that’s when I realised it was  my duty to protect them. This gloomy atmosphere of terror, suspicion  and pain needed to end. 

So I upped my game. I became more vigilant, started to pay more attention on my patrols. That’s when I noticed them. Those people. It was them, I realised, everything was their fault – the dirt, the noise, the loitering on street corners. They were always acting suspiciously. Black men. Black as sin. More like filthy rats than men. Gazing hungrily at the honest decent folk  with their cold dead eyes and cold empty souls. Intent on wreaking all manner of havoc and evil on the good people of this land. 

 Up to no good, that’s what they were, I knew it. They stared at us all day long. Nothing better to do with their time. Lazy and evil. Idle hands do the devil’s work. Looking. Staring. Leering. Prodding the good folk with their black evil eyes. How dared they! Scrutinizing.  , Looking for signs of weakness. No doubt looking to harm us. Plotting our demise. Those wogs. Black and impure. Black as hell. Depraved and wicked. Crime was up. Muggings, beatings, stabbings. Killings. They were killing each other, these animals. The good folk could not sleep peacefully in their beds at night. They had nightmares of black-faced villains breaking and entering, raping their wives and children and killing them in their beds. Something needed to be done for the leafy white suburbs. Order and security needed to be restored to the suburbs.  I needed to act. So that is what I did.

They were full of hatred and malevolence. They had no respect for us. After everything we’d done for them. Was this their way of showing their gratitude?? I had a talk with my fellow officers. These men were more than mere colleagues, they were my brothers. We shared the same beliefs and we thankfully had the same take on the situation. It had to stop, we needed to make our homes secure and  peaceful again. 

We wanted to do something – but what? We looked for answers in the penal system. We found the solution to this national scourge in the form of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, which introduced the ‘sus law.’. With its help, we would triumph. With the law to back up our actions we were convinced what we were doing was right. Even now, today, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind.It was the right thing to do. The judges were on our side, they knew what was at stake. They saw that we were saving our country. They realised something had to be done. 

So our modus operandi was pretty straightforward – anytime we saw those vicious nasty black males loitering with intent -or any other non-white wog for that matter -, we simply arrested them. They were always messing around, causing trouble ,lying, pretending they weren’t doing anything wrong. But we knew better. We knew them better than they knew themselves. We knew they were lying, those bastards always were. We arrested them. They deserved it. Could they not stop arguing? We knew they were wrong, but they would not go PEACEFULLY. So annoying. Annoying evil primitive children, eyes gleaming with bad intent. A scourge, like the plague. We had to get rid of them. They should have stayed in their own damned country. We never asked for them to come. Why did we have to suffer? Seeing them was a torture. Filthy cockroaches. A sight for sore eyes. Something had to be done.

They were plotting against us. Planning our demise. Reproducing like rabbits. It was only a matter of time. So we unleashed our wrath. The wrath THEY had provoked. Arrests were made on a daily basis, we had to, it was that bad. We were civil, they weren’t. Typical. They tried to attack us, we were only doing our job. Violence begets violence. We had a duty to respond, to maintain law and order. I don’t care what you heard about the event, our actions were justified. All the same, bashing their black heads against the wall and putting the handcuffs around their wrists felt satisfying. We were doing our job, fulfilling our purpose. I needed to make my country safe. I did.

My actions were legally executed. I’m not in the wrong. I have to cleanse this country of all evil. I have to make it safe, just like it was before they arrived. I know many others in the community agree with me on this. In our fine land of hope and glory, there is no place here wogs or jigaboos. They should not be allowed to soil our great country. Other officers will agree with me – after all, our aim is to serve the nation and to protect. Protect the citizens, the British, they deserve it. We had to avenge their suffering.

I was born in England. I grew up in England, safely thanks to my family and the police officers. They taught me everything I now know, my values, my attitude. Everything. I’ll always stand by them. Why would they be wrong? Parents do not lie. The police does not lie. I’m not in the wrong, the wogs are. Everything I’ve done was in order to serve England, to make it more secure. I do not regret what I’ve done and I will continue until my objective is fulfilled. 

After all, that is what I learned.

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