by Pete Mazzaccaro

State Rep. Chris Rabb, whose 200th district includes Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy, is one of the state’s most progressive voices. Since coming into office in 2017, he has sponsored legislation for school funding reform, sentencing reform, police accountability and state reparations to African Americans.

Before entering the legislature, Rabb ran an urban business incubator in West Philadelphia, which became the basis for his book, “Invisible Capital: How Unseen Forces Shape Entrepreneurial Opportunity.” He also taught at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and has been a faculty member at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

The Local had the opportunity to speak with Rabb about the widespread protests throughout the nation following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. This conversation took place the day before Rabb participated in a June 4 march through Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. It has been reduced for length.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. First, I’m wondering: How do you feel about what is happening now in Philadelphia and nationally?

Wonderful. It’s wonderful that we have mass protests, around the city, state, country and the globe for that matter in solidarity with black and brown folks who have been suffering at the hands of endemic police violence for generations. It's sad that this is what it's taken to get much broader support, to move on things that are really going to begin to address some of the structural issues that allow for the continuation of this type of brutality.

As the father of two black teenage boys, this is a very personal issue for me, having to raise sons in a way very differently than most people who have to raise their sons or daughters, because my kids inhabit black bodies. I have to tell them to have a certain amount of fear, irrespective of what their behavior is. And I didn't realize how soul crushing a responsibility this would be as a parent until I became one myself, because this is what I was told by my parents in the 1970s and 80s, growing up in Chicago. That is the public perception of a young black boy, a young black man, running or being in the wrong place, which, you know, in the not too distant past, included places like Chestnut Hill.

People should feel connected, wherever they are, irrespective of their ethnicity. So, I feel like people are catching up to what has been the norm for black people for generations.

What are you hearing from your constituents? What are their concerns, hopes, reactions?

The response, not just among my constituents but broadly, has been very enthusiastic because people want real change. They may be happy about the Frank Rizzo statue coming down. They may be happy to see some people, you know, take a knee and see corporations speaking up and what have you, but that's all symbolic. They want to see substance.

Because when protest is at its best, it produces good policies that can begin to address systemic issues – whether it's talking about the collective bargaining power of the Fraternal Order of Police or ending chokeholds or stopping stop and frisk or ending the use of tear gas or addressing excessive force by police officers, or my bill, which would create a statewide database of bad actors in law enforcement so that when they leave one police force, they can't sneak onto another police force and cause mayhem in that community.

We have to ask ourselves, what are the reasonable expectations of a police force we have, and how we need to reform it so that it actually upholds what I call community safety? Because before this moment, public safety meant that white people could feel comfortable in public.

The statue of the police officer in front of the police headquarters is of a white police officer holding a white girl in his arms. For so long, any concern about safety was really the protection of white women and girls, and it was the basis for creating state and federal laws and local ordinances that protected them from these evil black and brown folks.

Taking down a statue will not be enough. When the next unarmed black man is brutalized or killed, things are going to get much worse until we have real solutions. And part of that is policy but the other part of that is funding. So why is it that our police department is getting $14. million more than what they got before, when we have a serious budget shortfall amidst the pandemic? And we have social services that are going to be cut.

So we have to we have to look at police violence in the context of structural inequality. That is not a pleasant conversation to have. But we can't expect any meaningful change without having it.

Philadelphia has a black, female police commissioner and one of the most liberal District Attorneys in the country. What is the one thing getting in the way of formal change in Philadelphia when it comes to police?

I think the contract with the Fraternal Order of the Police. If the chief of police, no matter who they are, can’t fire someone who the police officers who are respecting the badge want off their force, if they can't remain fired, but they're brought back on because the FOP demands it, it's a problem.

It's not that just certain black people want bad police officers gone. Pretty much everybody wants those officers gone. And the reason I can say that with confidence is I'm an elected official. There are very few positions in society that are more reviled than politicians.

I'm not asking anything more of police officers than I'm expecting of myself. If there's a corrupt elected official, he's taking bribes. He's selling votes. He's using government resources to raise money. Whatever he's doing, that person makes all of the rest of us look really bad. And that person needs to be punished. That's what I believe. I believe the same thing should apply to cops. Bad cops should be removed and punished accordingly, because it makes everyone else look bad. Now, the other issue is, as good a person, as I think I am as an elected official, I am still stained by a system that is deeply, deeply compromised. And so unless and until people on the inside agree with the folks on the outside that systemic issues have to change in terms of electoral politics, in terms of governance, in terms of campaign financing and lobbying, then we are complicit in maintaining a system that is not a just and efficacious system. And this is why we have the problems that we have, because we have a lot of special interests that influence folks.

In Pennsylvania, if you're a state lawmaker, you can receive unlimited amounts of money from political action committees and individuals. So is it fair to assume that you're going to be neutral or open to police reforms if you're getting tens of thousands of dollars from the Fraternal Order police? I think that's something that we need to consider. So, what I'm asking of police is what I'm asking of myself and my colleagues in elected office. I believe that moral consistency is important when I'm raising my voice publicly, because if I say one thing, and my behavior suggests another, than I'm just another hypocrite – a two-dimensional caricature of all elected officials. So I spend a lot of time to make sure that people know how and why I'm consistent. And that's really important because otherwise there's no reason for people to believe in the folks who they choose or don't choose to vote for.

Northwest Philadelphia is diverse, but there are also stark disparities. For people in Chestnut Hill who are who are relatively privileged, or even very privileged, what do you think they can do or how should they get involved?

I think for folks who understand and recognize the honor and privilege they benefit from (and that could take many forms. It could be being a straight man. It could be being born into a wealthy family. It could be being Christian, or what have you) we have to take a step back and understand the larger context and take the time to leave our comfort zones, literally and figuratively, and read things that we haven't read before and listen to people who we haven't listened to before, and educate ourselves and not ask those people who are currently being besieged to tell us everything we need to know. That is  a Herculean and inhumane request, amidst chaos.

So don't ask your friends of color, what can I do? Use the extraordinary Google machine, and you will find all sorts of resources.

And also make sure that you understand that diversity is one leg of the stool. But the others are inclusion and equity. So, we can say, you know, Northwest is diverse, and it is. But are the organizations that are community stakeholders in Northwest, are they also inclusive? Are the boards, are the staff, are the active members folks of color? Are folks who have less privilege included meaningfully?

And the last piece is, how are they involved in an equitable fashion? Can they be members of the community? Can they be members of the organization? Can they be invited to participate? If their voices are not respected, if they are not listened to, if their suggestions are not truly consider and embraced, then it's just window dressing.

This is an opportunity to bring folks together. We need to see that we can work together in common cause, because the things that are impacting young black men today are going to be impacting the daughters and sons of rich white folk in Chestnut Hill tomorrow. I know this because I know there's a lot of activism among young people of all ethnicities and classes. And when they show up, and they're next to black and brown folk and they’re in front of poorly trained, sometimes hostile police, they're the ones who are going to experience things like pepper spray, like what happened on 676. Those were overwhelmingly white people. Yeah, many of them are going to be coming from middle class and perhaps wealthy families, and their parents are going to be furious.

And they're furious because it’s their kids now, when for generations it’s been the kids of black parents. And now they perhaps see that, “Oh goodness, police violence is not just a black thing. It is an American thing.” And this is how we can work together to end this type of violence, because it is emblematic of a much larger culture of violence in our country that glorifies armed machismo. We have more guns, than any other country in the world. That is not a race issue. That is a deeply American issue that we all must address.

There is a real opportunity to engage in good faith to talk about really difficult, seemingly intractable issues.

I believe we can do it, but it requires the collective will to make that happen.

Pete Mazzaccaro can be reached at pete@chestnuthilllocal.com.