Wednesday 7 November, 2018

For my second hour, I ran into several issues. The game definitely got more difficult!

Firstly, I was informed by City Hall that I would have to lay off all my black cops due to rising racial tensions in the city. This felt uncomfortable to me for two reasons: 1) some of my best officers were black. Letting them go would be I'd have to hire a lot of new people, whose professionalism wouldn't be as high due to their inexperience. It'd be a huge hassle for me, especially since some of my black cops have stripes. 2) I just don't want to! After listening to the rationale behind firing the cops, I just wasn't convinced. While I understand these rising tensions were certainly significant, I didn't think it should be something that should effect the police force. Additionally, I'd have to fire them illegally, as I can't fire them on a poor performance or poor conduct basis. I ultimately chose to keep them, but they were less effective (probably due to distrust from the citizenry), and I received some flack from City Hall because of it.

This was the first time in this game that I felt uncomfortable. I felt that pursuing what I knew was right was the best way to go, but I was punished for my decision as a result. While I didn't think either choice was without their misgivings, I almost felt like I was being shamed for my actions. This really made me reflect on how police officers (especially white police officers) are received by communities of color. This may have been one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in a long time.

The discussion you go into in your 2nd gamelog about the gameplay moment where you’re asked to fire your black officers has a lot of good reflection you could potentially dive deeper into for your OPA. In particular, further analyzing the ethical relevance of the discomfort you felt from this gameplay moment and the 2nd to last sentence in which you ask about the tensions between white officers in communities of color could have some interesting results.