by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

About the author: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States.

There must be serious change in the very concept of policing in our cities and towns. The first change must be to do away with the “us versus them” dynamic of police-community relations. This drawing of lines—and more, this taking of sides—only fosters racism and violence, and it needs to be altered.

There was much testimony throughout the six National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hearings held in 1991 in Norfolk, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, St. Louis, and Indianapolis on the police being outside or above the community. There was much testimony about an...