Full Transcript: Vera Burk on Police Diversity
Interviewer: And did you, you knew these cops?
Vera: Yes I knew all of them, very well.
Interviewer: And what did you feel like their impact was?
Vera: Good. It was a good impact in the city. Very good impact. It was more like a community thing, you know. I wasn’t involved with them constantly. Because we all lived in the same neighborhood so we were like friends, family friends, everybody. That’s what Hamtramck is, it used to be like a family. All of these people was like in a circle of friends and that’s the way I know them, because they were way older than me so I was younger but like my brothers and sisters or something, or my father, my parents knew the older ones up here, James Perry was in our family, but not directly, but just like in-laws. But all of us just mingled and knew each other because if you’re neighbors you know each other, it wasn’t no stand-offish people. Everybody just got together. We, you know, well my parents knew them all. Yeah that’s what I said, we just like, we knew every police here.
Interviewer: That makes such a huge difference.
Vera: When you know somebody it just makes it different. Well my parents knew all these people. And some of them was kids, let me see who wasn’t born when my parents died. Now they might not know some of these that didn’t live in our area, like Collins didn’t live on that side of town and I don’t think Collins wasn’t born when my parents were living, I don’t think, because he’s way younger than me. Anyway, most of these people my parents knew, most of them. But really, you know, to me it’s not important because you still mingle with people regardless. You either see them at church because we had so many churches here, you might have met them at a church or you know.
Interviewer: Do you remember like, what the impact was, because now you said that there aren’t really any black police officers in Hamtramck, right? So what’s sort of been the difference?
Vera: It’s a lot of difference because regardless you need different colors represented in a city. You need that. Because you got a city with black, you need a black, if you got blacks in the city if you got white in the city if you’ve got Bangladesh, whatever you got, you need it represented so they can communicate better. That’s it, that’s the way I see it, you just need some different— whatever you got in your city that’s what you need in your police force that’s what you need in your city hall, where ever there’s administration that’s what you need, you need a mix to work. So you don’t feel like, you know, it’s separated. That’s discrimination again. That’s where discrimination comes up, you should have a mix of everything, a melting pot, that’s what it needs to be. Everybody say the city’s a melting pot, yes it is, but you don’t have no police officers to be in that melting pot. You don’t have council people that’s a melting pot, when Titus Walters died that was it for the blacks, no more up there. So it’s a lot of problems up in the city of Hamtramck that should be corrected.
Vera: Yes I knew all of them, very well.
Interviewer: And what did you feel like their impact was?
Vera: Good. It was a good impact in the city. Very good impact. It was more like a community thing, you know. I wasn’t involved with them constantly. Because we all lived in the same neighborhood so we were like friends, family friends, everybody. That’s what Hamtramck is, it used to be like a family. All of these people was like in a circle of friends and that’s the way I know them, because they were way older than me so I was younger but like my brothers and sisters or something, or my father, my parents knew the older ones up here, James Perry was in our family, but not directly, but just like in-laws. But all of us just mingled and knew each other because if you’re neighbors you know each other, it wasn’t no stand-offish people. Everybody just got together. We, you know, well my parents knew them all. Yeah that’s what I said, we just like, we knew every police here.
Interviewer: That makes such a huge difference.
Vera: When you know somebody it just makes it different. Well my parents knew all these people. And some of them was kids, let me see who wasn’t born when my parents died. Now they might not know some of these that didn’t live in our area, like Collins didn’t live on that side of town and I don’t think Collins wasn’t born when my parents were living, I don’t think, because he’s way younger than me. Anyway, most of these people my parents knew, most of them. But really, you know, to me it’s not important because you still mingle with people regardless. You either see them at church because we had so many churches here, you might have met them at a church or you know.
Interviewer: Do you remember like, what the impact was, because now you said that there aren’t really any black police officers in Hamtramck, right? So what’s sort of been the difference?
Vera: It’s a lot of difference because regardless you need different colors represented in a city. You need that. Because you got a city with black, you need a black, if you got blacks in the city if you got white in the city if you’ve got Bangladesh, whatever you got, you need it represented so they can communicate better. That’s it, that’s the way I see it, you just need some different— whatever you got in your city that’s what you need in your police force that’s what you need in your city hall, where ever there’s administration that’s what you need, you need a mix to work. So you don’t feel like, you know, it’s separated. That’s discrimination again. That’s where discrimination comes up, you should have a mix of everything, a melting pot, that’s what it needs to be. Everybody say the city’s a melting pot, yes it is, but you don’t have no police officers to be in that melting pot. You don’t have council people that’s a melting pot, when Titus Walters died that was it for the blacks, no more up there. So it’s a lot of problems up in the city of Hamtramck that should be corrected.