Growing up, my grandfather served as a police sergeant in the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department at a time when Black officers could wear the badge but were denied full authority. He could patrol and make arrests, but not in white neighborhoods or involving white people. The injustice was structural, embedded in an institution sworn to provide equal protection.
Yet he upheld his oath.
My grandfather believed, and taught me, that integrity and accountability are not situational. They are a commitment to fairness and equality even when fairness and equality are not extended to you…