The paper I was given read “Rape of White Woman.” I just couldn’t believe my eyes and I reached for the telephone. I was furious as I dialed to call… the police who wrote this down. From that day on, I knew we as a nation had to ensure that our law enforcement never got turned against us as a force to oppress identity groups and to promote racism.

This all started when I came to Washington, DC; my first career was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Around the nation and the world, the FBI’s headquarters had a hub for law enforcement in different states and different nations to communicate. It stated as the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The idea was that if someone committed a serious crime in one state, they could not avoid arrest by simply driving across the border into another state. This would ensure we had a true national law enforcement to protect our citizens. I also coordinated such information with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) regarding wanted international criminals. Most of these criminals were those who were the worst abusers of our daily human rights to safety and life, certainly vital human rights for all of us. For the most part, while this was hectic, most of states and nations readily worked together, and were grateful for the FBI’s coordinating role.

That was me, Jeffrey Imm, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the course of coordinating records on such criminal histories, we at the FBI were developing an interstate index of criminal histories of violent and dangerous criminals abusing the safety and human rights of our citizen. I was pulling records together for this index, when one day, I received a criminal record on a piece of paper from the Georgia State Police.

The Georgia criminal record read “Rape of White Woman.” The point of the criminal record was that there was a different criminal charge for raping a woman who was white than there was in raping a woman of another race.

Before you think that was someone else’s problem, change the words out with your own identity group. Imagine somewhere in the world where your identity group is a minority, and imagine there was a different charge (meaning lesser) charge when someone of your identity group was violently attacked by a criminal. This type of thinking isn’t just wrong in America. This type of thinking is wrong everywhere and for everyone.

I picked up the telephone and I called the Georgia police. They were indignant over that matter, and tried to rationalize the charge on this criminal record. This is problem when we allow law enforcement to become law corruption. The corrupt always have an argument, an explanation, a rationale for even the most unacceptable and shameful behavior. They get used to having their authority accepted without question; the idea that someone telling them they are wrong is impossible to accept. They lose the idea that they are enforcing the law for the public, and start to believe that their own beliefs are the law.

In addition to our Universal Human Rights, in the United States of America, we have the Constitution of the United States, which was the first “law” and remains the primary LAW of this nation. Our Constitution does not allow this type of disgraceful and discriminatory practices by law enforcement, not in Georgia, not in New York City, not in Ferguson, not in Cleveland. Not anywhere in this nation.

Such discriminatory practices against the American people are not just an injustice, not just an embarrassment, no they are a lot more than that. They are AGAINST THE LAW – of the Constitution of the United States of America.

When I first came to Washington DC and I reported to work on Pennsylvania Avenue, the first thing I had to do was swear a vow. I had to hold my right hand in the air and swear to “defend the Constitution of the United States…. so help me God.” It was the proudest day of my young life. I remember it like it was yesterday.

So when I received this discriminatory criminal record from Georgia, there was not question what I had to do on this. I didn’t have to ask my supervisor. I didn’t have to worry about creating a confrontation. I didn’t have to worry about the Georgia police’s reaction. I had a job to do, and that was to make sure the Georgia police understood what THE LAW was. I did just that. They didn’t like it. I didn’t care. The criminal record got changed. I swore a vow to defend the Constitution of the United States – so help me God.

As we face the difficult times with law enforcement across the nation today, we need less defensiveness, less denial, and we don’t need any type of a blue wall. We are one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Anyone who doesn’t understand that has no place in law enforcement.

Now I am not only one who has made this vow. There about 6 million federal government employees and members of the U.S. armed services who have made this VOW. Furthermore, a lot of the state and local government employees have to have a similar statement vowing to support the Constitution, including the New York Police Department. We didn’t make a vow to defend the Constitution just for some people of one race, one ethnic group, one religion, one gender, or just people we like. We didn’t make a vow to defend the Constitution once in a while, or when it happened to be convenient, or if we had nothing else to do. We did not. We vowed to DEFEND the Constitution of the United States – against ALL enemies.

Those who think they can oppress, harass, beat, and even kill without consequences, and make a mockery of the Constitution of the United States, you picked the wrong battle.

These people who have swore a VOW to defend this nation’s Constitution, are watching as young people across the nation are protesting about the killings of black Americans by police officers in the United States. They are watching as these young people are standing without fear to make their voices heard and to call for change in police departments, where too much racial attitudes still prevail, and where intimidation, bullying, and violence is too often the first answer to every problem.

Let me tell you, those who of you who have stood and swore this vow. If you think this is the fight just for these young kids, you are wrong. You swore to defend the Constitution. This is your fight, this if your obligation. To any of you who swore to defend the Constitution, YOU are in law enforcement. This is YOUR responsibility.

We shouldn’t have hundreds or thousands of protesters regarding these police abuses. We should have millions and millions. Remember your vow, before God almighty. Every member of the New York Police Department, this is your fight too. You swore to support the Constitution. It is time to DO your job. You may think your job is only the details of your specific job responsibility. But if you can’t defend the Constitution of the United States, you have no business in law enforcement: New York, Ferguson, Cleveland, Albuquerque, etc., etc.

America has had enough talking heads from “police unions” defending the indefensible. With great power comes great responsibility, and with great authority comes great accountability.

We need people from LAW ENFORCEMENT who have a passion about actually enforcing the law. That law begins with the Constitution of the United States and the Constitutional and civil rights of ALL AMERICANS. To those of you who believe in the international code of human rights, this is your fight too. The struggle for all human rights is preserving the equality, the liberty, the dignity, and the safety of our fellow human beings. This is the law we try to enforce to protect all people around the world.

The law is the law – for everyone, especially those in law enforcement. We the people need to make it clear that those breaking the law, oppressing our fellow human beings, and denying their Constitutional and human rights will have to face accountability for their actions.