Here we are again… this time the excuse is that the officer mistook her gun for her taser. A young father is gone, and I’m incredibly sad for the partner / mother left to raise a little boy and explain the harsh reality of this country for people who look like him.
I find it frustrating when I hear people say, “Policing is a hard job. There’s so much uncertainty and danger.” That may be true, but then why aren’t police mistaking their guns for their taser during routine traffic stops of white people? Or shooting little white boys at the park who are playing with plastic guns? It would be a practical excuse if excessive force were distributed uniformly. However, we all know that’s not the case. Bias trumps extensive training. Bias trumps 25 years of experience. Bias wins. Again.
We should not be shocked by the results of the current policing system. If you look into the history of policing in America, you’ll quickly realize we haven’t progressed as much as we’d like to think. NPR’s Throughline put out an episode last Wednesday (before Daunte Wright’s murder) called Policing in America that really blew my mind. Like every topic I explore, my first thought is how TF do I not know this history. My second thought is everyone needs to know this! Here’s the episode and I implore you to listen:
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/985039407/policing-in-america
National Guardsmen questioning an African American man in Chicago, during the summer race riots of 1919.
In the episode, historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad walks through the origin story of modern day policing beginning with his own f*cked up encounter with police while in college. He then explains the early slave patrols, early 20th century race riots, Prohibition’s impact on law enforcement, how science and culture perpetuate bad policing, and so much more.
Toward the end of the episode, the host asks Khalil what is his vision for the future of policing and how do we turn the tide given the deep history. Khalil’s response is thought provoking – he quotes a social scientist who outlines all of the reports of the race riots across the country from 1919, 1935, 1943, 1965, and the fact that the reports are identical – “the same analysis, the same recommendations, and the same inaction.” The first report from the race riots in Chicago in 1919 articulated the problem of police racism in America (which was an extension of white citizen’s racism). 100 years later and we are having the same conversation. Khalil says, “That gives me clarity not to have the same aspirational faith that simply pointing out the problem today is sufficient to fixing it because the problem has been known for a century. The evidence has been presented for a century. The recommendations for change, for holding police officers accountable, for charging them with criminal offenses when they behave criminally, for establishing citizen review boards that have an independent investigative power… it’s a century of the same story playing out over and over again. So when you ask me the question, what do I think about this moment, what’s possible in this moment? It seems to me that what’s possible is recognizing that police officers and police agencies are incapable of fixing themselves. They’ve never been able to do it, and they’ve never been particularly compelled to do it…and so the question that has to be asked is… Do white people in America still want the police to protect their interests over the rights and dignity and lives of black, and in too many cases, brown, indigenous, and Asian populations in this country?… If they want a different outcome, they are going to have to demand a different outcome.”
-Jessica