Norm Stamper
Norman Harvey "Norm" Stamper is an American former chief of police and writer.
He is known for his role as chief of the Seattle Police Department responsible for its response to the protests of the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which he has expressed regret about. Since his resignation, Stamper has called for the legalization of drugs and the case-by-case release of persons incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses.
Stamper is the author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing.
“Simply put, white cops are afraid of black men. We don’t talk about it, we pretend it doesn’t exist, we claim “color blindness,” we say white officers treat black men the same way they treat white men. But that’s a lie. In fact, the bigger, the darker the black man the greater the fear. The African-American community knows this. Hell, most whites know it. Yet, even though it’s a central, if not the defining ingredient in the makeup of police racism, white cops won’t admit it to themselves, or to others.”
Norm Stamper