Police hold unconscious biases even if their intent is to be non-biased. We all do. It is just that most of us don’t need to take actions against others as part of our duties.
My first response to your traffic stop was that you did not need to worry unless you were Hispanic.
I have noticed that there are more movies coming out that feature Black people being unjustly stopped by police with negative consequences and other movies showing black peoples negative encounters with our Justice system.
I do not know if Blacks could have ever relied on police authority or our Justice system but things are certainly not looking well.
Maybe the expectation of Justice and fairness is an optimism that was not possible in the past.
While I cannot imagine the fear and apprehension that non-white people face while driving, flying and quite frankly living, I have experienced just a small taste of it. I drive what most folks consider a “black person’s” car. Or rather a car traditionally favored by African Americans. Imagine the other drivers and specifically the cops face when they look at me/pull me over and I’m a little blond hair, blue eyed white girl! One cop actually insinuated that my “boyfriend” must have bought it for me with his “drug” money. My “nephew” is now driving the car. My nephew happens to be a dark skinned African American teenager. I have warned/counseled and quite frankly threatened him about getting pulled over. How incredibly DISGUSTING that I have to “warn” some of my friends and family to be careful driving a car simply because of the color of their skin.
2
Having spent my formative years in Belfast, the police here are far better that there. I’m 53. The police and the army killed over a thousand people. Injured tens of thousands. Not one was called to pay the price for their actions. I think most police men and women here are fair minded. There are some who are racist (reflecting society) but i have yet to hear of a 25+ yr barricade with police backed by the army with sandbags and heavy machine guns lifting teens and young men, dragging them to an army truck and putting a thin wet mattress over them so the bruises from the beating wont immediately show. Such was like there. There they all pretty much joined in “the fun”. I feel bad for our our black/ brown/gay etc brothers who get “special attention”. From my perspective and looking back, I think it is a mixture of hatred, lack of control and a power trip. But i feel deep sorrow for all those who have been hurt. My prayers are with you.
1
Rev. Jackson told us where and when and of whom he was afraid. And yes, there are reasons for POC to be afraid daily --- in places such as Chicago or Baltimore. As for other neighborhoods, not so much.
4
# of unarmed blacks killed by cops in the last 10 years?
# of blacks killed by blacks in the last 10 years?
The notion that the typical black person leaves his or her place of dwelling and is thinking about being shot by a cop is beyond ridiculous.
6
Thank you to all the police a out there. You are doing one of the toughest jobs in America and the media and most of the left wing show flagrant open contempt for you. Anyone who is interested can inform themselves about the crime statistics in America they are openly available and can be broken down by demographics. Most Leftists can't bear to do this because it would simply shatter their narratives. Yes their are """bad""" cops out there, but as for the VAST majority are trying to improve our communities. Thank You.
4
Eric Garner's family didn't receive justice. Daniel Pantaleo was fired. Eric Garner is dead.
Pantaleo should be tried and sentenced to community service in an African American community. He might eventually realize no one deserves to die for selling illegal cigarettes, including African Americans.
5
As a white man I am fearful when a police car is behind me. I can't remember the last time I was stopped. There is more to this. I do not ride around predominantly African American neighborhoods in the wee hours of the morning. I do not give the impression of being a gang member by emulating gang dress and attitude.
I would not consider selling untaxed cigarettes in a junkie infested mini park as Garner did. Garner was a criminal, and a nuisance and an arrest resistor but he did not deserve to be choked to death. Pantaleo deserved firing and the cops around him need to be investigated and punished if found to have stood by.
Police had numbers and billy clubs that they could have used to restrain Garner. What about a taser. Many cops famously lie to protect each other. They should be outed. Surely police can do their jobs within the rules.
33
Thanks for the memories Dr. Thrasher.
Working the police beat for the Democrat & Chronicle Newspaper in Rochester, many years ago helped me learn to keep my paranoid fear of police in check. I lobbied for that beat to deal with that fear after seeing a psychological thriller about a man facing his fears (his had nothing to do with police). And a bunch of black and brown and white female and male Rochester cops and sheriff deputies helped, sort of took me under their wings. It was a Zen Thing. I dealt with the paranoia but never the fear.
And have had enough experiences during my Post-Rochester years: Driving While Black (10 times in one day, me and my brother, driving a rental truck on the NJ Thruway, me moving from one journalism job in D.C. to a new one in NYC), one scary incident in my apartment (New Brunswick, NJ), Bicycling While Black (Jersey City), Stopped and Frisked While Black and a scare incident (both in Jersey City, the latter to difficult to describe here), and a traffic stop that I knew was illegal in Washington Heights (NYPD) and, get this, Racially Profiled at the NYPD security booth at City Hall. They wouldn't let me in, twice, but got help from NYCLU on that one. And several minor etceteras, incidentals, but I wasn't in fear or particularly insulted. But I was on guard.
Some of us have friends killed by police. I've had two. Lots of us have friends, family members, neighbors harassed and abused. Me too. There are lots of Daniel P's still out there.
9
The “daily anxiety that black and brown people experience”, as the subtitle puts it, could be partly reduced by not resisting arrest when breaking the law (the Garner case) or by assaulting a police officer (the case in Ferguson). I would also suppose that high levels of violent crime in “black or brown” neighborhoods, not caused by police, contribute to that “daily anxiety”. Fighting against criminal pressure to “don’t snitch” might be a better choice than fighting police, if the life of people living there would be the real objective, rather than ideological obsessions.
15
Only thing that keeps the minority/urban neighborhoods from descending into something akin to streets of present-day Libya or Somalia is the Police.
Yes there are few bad apples.
The wholesale denigration of an entire branch of Law enforcement that is doing a thankless and dangerous job to keep our streets safe is unconscionable.
18
Until you put that gun belt around your waist ( getting heavier every year ), no one knows how it feels to be a cop. Most of your actions and reactions are based on past experiences and a mindset of what “could” happen. Yes there are racist cops, I’ve worked with them. Most of these cops wind up doing inside clerical work or get assigned to a special unit and get off the street on their request. The cop on the street has a mentally exhausting job of constant incident anticipation and running scenarios through his/ her head that haven’t even materialized. Your guard is never ever down. It’s outright exhaustion especially in NYC. I was a cop in Manhattan and it’s a workout everyday for ones senses.
We are not all bad. Majority are wonderful people who one day , God forbid, you will be praying for to come to you or a loved ones aid.
Until you put that gun belt on and realize the enormous scope of a police officer job, I wouldn’t be speaking on another’s profession.
23
... we are still afraid for our lives
As is the police. An encounter with a black suspect is between four to five times more likely to end with the death of a police officer, than with an encounter with a white suspect.
Any police officer knows these odds
Why is this not mentioned by Dr. Thrasher
Or the Harvard study, by an Afro American , that police - contrary to depiction in the media - does not kill black suspects more than whites.
Any police officer knows, should he make a mistake, he will be crucified by the liberal media as a racist.
22
Steven Thrasher does a wonderful job near the end of his article of anticipating the knee-jerk denial of whites unable to imagine or acknowledge the lived experiences of people of color in America. He does this while making clear that the article may promote solidarity among people who do suffer from the stress he describes in himself, and in others demonstrated through citations. When a person of color writes of white privilege and authority, or of the expanding claims of white supremacy under Trump, white readers attack and deny. These patters of dominant groups hold true in other nations; Chinese readers can be counted on to deny the grievances of Hong Kong protesters, Japanese readers will insist that 200,000 'comfort women' forced to provide sex to imperial Japanese troops did so voluntarily; Americans will refuse to use the word 'genocide' when describing the 56 million indigenous people who died in the Americas as the result of European invasions. James Baldwin pointed out that, in the US, the problem lies in the very (monstrous) construction of white identity, a problem that will never be solved until whites become willing to interrogate the historical and present meaning of their whiteness. People in the world generally do NOT describe themselves as Reds, Yellows, Browns or Blacks; instead, they belong to historic, geographic communities. Why are whites so willing to erase their actual origins by clinging to 'whiteness'?
7
If we look away from the racial or skin-color breakdowns for a moment (not that we should ignore them), I think far too many people are killed by police. This includes too many white people. Police killings and other rough treatment by police should be very rare.
6
This hysteria about black people being mass murdered by racist police officers is getting ridiculous. In 2018, there were 229 black people in the US who died from being shot by the police. Of these 229, I'm sure many were "legitimate" where the police undoubtedly had a good reason to use force. Many others were surely questionable. This leaves only a small number left that could in any way be described as a racist murder.
Since there are over forty million black people in the US, this means that if you are a black person in the US, the odds of you being killed by a racist police officer are incredibly low.
Of course, any death is important, so I'm not saying police shootings should be ignored entirely or that racism shouldn't be taken seriously.
19
I do hope that we can all become a bit more open for the public good.
Good governance is a real task. Being a goop law enforcement officer in today's US culture is a real challenge. Being a good citizen, standing up for your rights while being respectful to all segments of government and others is a real job. We all have a role to play and, if we are smart, we walk away safer, able to go home to our families with little stress for our interactions.
Unless we learn from history, real history, not that fairy tale book that the conquerors want us to believe. Policing in the US was founded in containing groups, usually to keep the newcomers in their place AND historically to show masculine dominance by those in levels of power. All new US cops are taught that they “have to” establish their dominance or the “situation gets out of control.” In most advanced countries, the first item police arriving on a scene try to do is de-escalate any tension so reason & compromise can prevail.
With the long-term oppression, especially of us blacks, & mutual resentment so built up, it will take a truly great president to win over police groups and diverse segments of the public to the idea that it is the best thing for us all.
This comment was not started out to push politics or a candidate but, we do need a really good new leader, best suited is Sen Elizabeth Warren. Proven quality judgment and a willingness to truly dialogue with all. We have to have that to get safely past our history.
2
"Don't resist" is enormously good advice. Don't struggle, don't shout--comply. If you have grand legal arguments, raise them in the courtroom.
Sure, selling loosies does not justify your death, but that result in this case was propelled by a cavalcade of poor judgments by everyone, the reversal of any of which could have saved Garner's life.
13
It's pieces like this that make me distrust the left and especially on issues involving race. I can agree with a certain amount of the sentiment expressed by the author but when we get to the numbers, his piece really doesn't hold up. Sure black people are killed at higher rates than white people but that is almost certainly because on average they happen to be in higher risk areas. There have been several studies of this including one reported in the NYT, concluding that when making apples to apples comparisons, rates of police killings of unarmed persons are the same for whites and blacks.
Then there is the statement that "police use of force is a leading cause of death for young men of color overall and the sixth leading cause for young black men." That may be but young men don't die very often and when they die, the other reasons are much more typically the cause than being killed by the cops. For example the 5th leading cause of death for young black men according to the data cited by the author is cancer. But cancer deaths are very rare among young people and the data says deaths resulting from police force are fewer than those from cancer. By contrast, the death rates for young black men from suicide and homicides are much much higher causes. And at least as described by the author (as well as in the portions of the study he links too), the data lumps together all deaths from police force regardless of whether they are justified or not.
14
Police departments across the country are full of Pantaleo's! Short guys with tall egos [and bad attitudes]. Be careful of them.
9
I will feel less terrified of them when the police themselves are offended and condemn excessive force. When it becomes a value to the rank and file police officer to de-escalate instead of pulling out a gun in every situation. When instead of defending cops who kill people, they train them NOT TO. Police yourselves! Clean house! The police leadership is so frequently on the wrong side of these killings. Police, too, should want better than this.
4
I think that police procedures need to be changed to use less force; I think that police who violate the public trust by racial or any other measures should not be police officers and should be held accountable for wrongdoing; I believe that people should fight for minorities to be treated fairly and respectfully but...
I also think the hysteria of "fearing for our lives" is overwrought and the volume needs to be turned down a bit. More statistics to consider, easy to find googling as I did:
According to the FBI for the latest available year, there were 99,856 rapes reported (and we know most are not reported) in 2017. In 2016, 208 women were killed by men in the state of Texas ALONE. In fact, In 2016, the most recent year for which data was available, 12.2 out of every 100,000 women were victims of homicide, according to the report by Security.org, a San Diego-based research group. Yet, I think most women can go about their daily business without "fearing for their lives" when they see a man.
In 2018, 992 people were killed by the police (452 white, 229 black). That year, 144 police officers were killed in the line of duty. The nature of police work involves potentially dangerous people, often armed, and split second reactions.
Now the individual facts of these cases obviously matter but one can see it as a question of scale. Is it more dangerous to be a black man interacting with cops or a woman of any age or race just living life? Who should be fearing for our lives?
7
Sure we are still afraid of the poice but they are more afraid of us.
The stats show policemen and women being killed in the line of duty for not much more than police following the issuing of a warrant. Still no excuse for the by and large.
See the encounters on the street where cops intercept a suspect or a black or brown in the vicinity are becoming more and more problematic. The police on the hunt do damage.
Federal qualifications involving violence equivalents to head-off these crimes of privelege ought to be the way forward. There are ways to know which of those authorized to kill under only circumstances will excede their authority.
Weed them out early on.
1
My experiences with the NYPD began at age 10 when my mom called the police about a white guy in a business suit kicking down our door one night--they called it in as a "domestic," laughed at her, and let him go. Years later, as a parent, I called about a guy running around pantless in the playground--they asked on the phone if he was black or hispanic, then never showed up after I said he was white (a black woman sitting next to me started cracking up at our conversation--she knew the score). Once I got harassed as a suspected prostitute while wearing a big down coat on a winter night waiting for a friend on a street corner (thank God my friend showed up on time). Another time I called about a homeless man outside on a subzero night and got given a nasty lecture about how I shouldn't bother calling the cops for homeless people. More recently, I saw a guy with a neonazi t-shirt stalk and follow a black man, then get into a fight with him. When it got called in, whom did the cops arrest and who got let go? I'll give you all one guess. On and on. Sorry, but it's hard to have faith in those who are supposed to "serve and protect" when I've rarely witnessed either in all my years in NYC.
5
if people want loosies, let em. let all the people police themselves. it will work out well for some and not as well for others. nothing is perfect. And if people dump water on the cops or throw bricks at firemen, let it be.
3
Growing up in my childhood neighborhood 50 to 55 years ago, my family was the first Hispanic family in the neighborhood. Yet, all my neighbors knew who we were. Not one of my neighbors would have called the police for my playing in a neighbor’s yard or jumping the fence to get a football kicked into the yard.
Today, no one knows their neighbors. The fear of the haves against the have nots is so intense, police are called for selling door-to-door, walking in the neighborhood, or barbecuing in the park while a person of color. Sometimes the police who show up figure it out, but calling police in these situations is like calling a SWAT team to a residence for no reason.
Sure there are prejudiced police, but why are they sent to a “crisis” in the first place by people with irrational fears?
30
Weird. Because most of my African American friends in Chicago and Baltimore are more afraid of other African Americans that they are of the police.
36
The solution is algorithm based enforcement.
When two communities look at the Michael Brown case, or the Eric Garner case, or pretty much any of these other cases and come to two diametrically opposed interpretations, it's time to step out and put real rules in place, to apply the same standard to everyone, and to let machines do the judging. The excuse makers and the perpetual victims will always have their sob stories, about how slavery and racism are why 13% of the population commits 50% of all the violent crime in this country. But algorithmic enforcement is the best way to equitably enforce the law.
Just picture it - you drive like a maniac? A camera registers it, your car is cut off, a ticket is issued, and your insurance rate goes up. You push and harass a store owner, and steal from him? Your picture and the event are sent to the police, they ID you from the truancy file (assuming Michael Brown), and then the police at their leisure show up in the small hours of the morning to pick you up, peacefully and without drama. No loss of life, no tragedy.
Authors like this are lost to reason. They'll always find a way to blame crime on the victims, and to cast any attempt at enforcement as racism. They'll try to water down the laws, to pull back from enforcement, perhaps until every community is as lawless and violent as the communities in which they make up a large majority. But that's a non-starter. We all know this.
The solution is tech.
11
Black Americans have civil rights fatigue on this centuries old racial pathologies of White law enforcement officials from the street cops to those who operate in the command structure of police departments in America
We are exhausted by the endless analysis and discourse on this issue of policing in Black America. We need transformative driven strategies in real time to end this uncivil war between the police and Black America
Many Black Americans have developed outcome best practice action plans that can create transformative impact here that will save lives and improve the relations between the overwhelming White police infrastructure in America and Black America
We are prepared to make significant inroads here
Greg Thrasher
Director
Plane Ideas
Alternative Think Tank
Detroit/ DC
2
How about option 2, be in for white, black, yellow -- anyone, including me.
Police:
"Mr. XXXX, you are not to be selling cigarettes, it is illegal, you must stop."
Mr. XXXX,
"OK, I will stop."
Everyone walks away. A lawful order by police was obeyed. Case closed.
30
Police are public servants. They serve us. We don't serve them. Nobody wants police to be hurt in the line of duty. But if the only or most common way to protect police is to constantly threaten the public, and primarily black and brown citizens, then perhaps we need different people in the police force. Perhaps we need new, more, and better training. Perhaps we need gun control.
When citizens being served by police are threatened by the people paid to protect them, then the police force has failed, and needs to her reconstructed. Citizens haven't failed. The police force has failed.
Our police don't need our support against criminals. They already have it. What they need is to be re-taught and re-trained; and if current police don't like it, they can look for different work. They serve us. They don't rule us.
1
All people are anxious about police stops. The facts based on statistics don't make it any more dangerous for law-abiding young black men. In any given month, there are hundreds of thousands of law-abiding black men who undergo routine traffic stops which end uneventfully. The checkpoint experience you underwent is the rule, not the exception. Is it possible that being a journalist, your picture of reality is warped by the negative bias of news reporting?
I once had a cop reach for his pistol while interviewing me. I was shocked. He didn't draw the weapon. After the encounter, I thought about the hundreds and thousands of encounters with strangers the police job entails, and how these encounters tend toward interacting with the least trustworthy, sane, and rational people. I now have more empathy for the cop's job.
My job in a police pullover is simple. To exude a normal level of confidence while taking it seriously. My job is to help facilitate a dialog that moves the encounter toward a normal resolution. My job is to keep the the cop feeling secure and safe, remembering that I don't know what traumas and scary situations s/he can't completely pack away. I do best by empathizing with the cop and his situation, being attentive to what he wants from me. And, I exude an expectation to be treated with respect and the presumption of innocence.
If a cop gets scared, I would offer "How can I help slow things down and calm things down?"
14
Sounds like your anecdote only illustrates a lawful and professional checkpoint by law enforcement officers. It would be reasonable to assume police officers are the leading life savers of men of color, challenged only by perhaps medical professionals. Narratives like this only feed into the anti-police zeitgeist and harm people of color most as America continues to de-police.
18
What now happens to Pantaleo's pension and health insurance?
2
My feelings have been that something is seriously wrong but that it's not a simple "don't be racist" solution. While some of our police force are definitively racist, it is also true that many of our police officers are often under tremendous stress, sometimes in a kind of war zone day after day. I would imagine that assumptions are made under fire such as "people who look like this do that" after seeing that happen numerous times. It's human nature. Our police departments need a more holistic program for the officers that makes sure they do not get burned out and/or PTSD. Perhaps not doing dangerous/overly stressful shifts week after week. Getting downtime after particularly stressful events. Getting talk therapy and tools to work out issues. And they need to get the racists out, period.
2
Please, please, produce the data on every death resulting from a police encounter in a given year, then using scientific method, look at the data very carefully. I think you would be very very hard pressed to find more than a few isolated instances where a police officer intentionally or even negligently killed a completely innocent and compliant person of color. This is not an epidemic - This is a fabricated hysteria and is not real. It has poisoned the relationships between the police and vulnerable communities to benefit short term selfish political goals of activist hustlers much to the disservice of the communities that need the police the most. Happy Pantaleo was fired? Well the last laugh will be on you. Watch how this chills police action and good luck getting that noisy gang or troublesome hustler off your curb the next time you call the cops - BLM should worry a lot more about what is really threatening Black Lives and it aint the cops.
26
Am I missing something? Didn’t Officer Pantaleo murder Eric Garner in cold blood? And it took months to fire him? And that’s all? If you murder someone I thought you would be put on trial and at the very least you would be imprisoned for a significant amount of time. I don’t get this whole incident. Why is Pantaleo only fired for committing murder?
2
We need to end this "papers, please!" nonsense within 100 miles of the border. Our rights shouldn't disappear just because we are near a national boundary.
I also found appalling the 1 in 1000 stat about blacks being shot by police. The racism is horrid, but the 2.5 times as likely as whites screams to me that we have a major policing problem even with whites, and while we need to address racism, this obviously goes deeper than that. A 1 in 2500 rate of whites being shot is also way too high. Bet a large percentage of both colors being shot are poor.
Shameful.
well, sir, for those that don't resist arrest, the chance of assault by police officer is actually near zero.
A few years back, the WashingtonPost examined every single cop shooting over a three year period. Over 95% of the men shot at by police were armed and/or resisting arrest.
but, let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story, Dr.Thrasher? In the interest of intellectual honesty, let's be real about the statistics,
28
@Yes To Progress - Well said YTP - another puzzler is that "Dr" Thrasher actually holds a chair and I assume tenure at a prestigious university in the study of what, shoddy statistics and false narratives . . . nice work if you can get it!
14
I applaud those police officers who value the need for the trust of the people whom they are pledged to serve. Without accountability for police transgressions there can be no trust. Policing also depends upon mutual respect. Police must respect civilians and I believe that civilians will therefore be respectful of police. I feel that the decision to fire Daniel Pantaleo is an important step in restoring accountability and thereby trust and respect, to policing in NYC.
10
This is the same fear mongering we see from Trump. There was nothing outrageous about the check point and the way it was set-up. And despite his panic there was no problem. The professor needs to stay with the moment and not conflate multiple issues.
26
Maybe you'd like living in South Chicago instead?
20
There was an article about shark attacks in Massachusetts in today's paper. There was a rare attack, a person was killed, and now everyone is afraid of sharks in the water. Many readers correctly commented that risk of death from shark was extremely low.
The communities you mention should bear this in mind. Being killed by the police is very rare, and unlikely to affect their lives. It is such a statistical rare event that one shouldn't worry about it any more than a lightning strike or shark attack.
Don't get me wrong, there are issues such as too many criminal laws, police unions being too powerful, and some criminal cops. But they effect all people (See Daniel Shaver, Mesa, AZ). Low probability events in a country of over 300 million is still a lot of impact (1 in a million events will occur for 300 people).
BLM should have made the issues broader, joined up with libertarians to protest the police state and worked with lawmakers to decriminalize many of the current laws on the books (or just take them off the books).
17
So well said. It sells papers, though. Just like shark attacks.
13
@Former Prosecutor Do you listen to Reasonable Doubt with Adam Corolla and Mark Geragos? Or are you really a former prosecutor (inside joke from the show)?
even while lynchings were occurring in the jim crow south summary executions of blacks by law officers were undoubtedly happening simultaneously. and while the lynchings stopped with the advent of the civil rights movement in the 60's, the extra judicial shootings by police did not. while blacks in america were acutely aware of these crimes by police white america was ignorant of them and would have remained so except for the advent of the smart phone. even in the case of shootings where the suspect had a weapon, police were more likely to shoot a person of color than a white person. another example of white privilege (not to get shot). the police whether they are black or white simply do the accord black suspects the same level of trust that they do white suspects. they are far more likely to shoot first and ask questions later. this level of distrust of people of color is endemic in society and is going to be very difficult to change. what can be done to reduce the level of police violence against minorities is to give them a reason to hesitate and ask questions first before shooting. the only way to achieve this is to rack up some convictions of police who have clearly shot someone (especially a person of color) with out justification which is the case here.
1
"I don’t know if any amount of writing, or epidemiological research, or news accounts can convince white readers that a police encounter is a dangerous, potentially family-separating or life-ending event for black and brown folks."
When you can't intellectualize or rationalize away any given behavior, the last defense is Denial. The white middle class (whoever they are) live in a state of utter Denial with respect to racism and the plight of African Americans in this country. They will even view a youtube video of police choking a black man to death over a cigarette and Deny there was any police abuse.
They represent the seedy side of humanity and they will always be with us. I agree with you. No amount of anything will get an acknowledgement of understanding by too many whites ,because that would be an indictment of Their race and their specific role in the plight of blacks. Plus, with a "president" essentially encouraging these same whites to Deny any responsibility but instead to act out in violent ways, race relations are hardly about to improve. This is what conservatism is, it's what republicans are about. And they will fight to keep it as it is.
2
Stunningly, what apparently no one has noticed, is that the database used by the authors of the National Academy of
Science article, is something called “Fatal Encounters,” which is unofficial, untested, self-admittedly incomplete and of informal methodology. There is no way of knowing, as of yet, whether any of their data is correct.
That the authors go on to make the stunning claims they do, on the bases of this, is simply shameless and irresponsible. That national news sources don’t caveat their claims is irresponsible.
That entire article is entirely suspect.
19
The police in this country are and have always been the Klan -- only the color of their uniforms have changed - police have and will continue to kill people of color as long as this country continues to praise policemen as special. They are not special, some of them should not be allowed to have guns but they do. Nothing will change.
1
Instead of believing the police are racist and unnecessaritly viollent, try: 1) not committing crimes 2) being respectful and 3) comply if you are arrested. Save your arguments for court.
32
It is quite apparent that our policing models in Black America are not the same as the policing models in White America
It is quite apparent that the majority of police in America have deep racial pathologies towards Black Americans that impact every aspect of their policing in Black American venues in our nation
We must develop transformative policies and practices which impact the very attitudes of White policemen in America
We must develop a series of best practices that removes the specter of Negrophobia and related racist pathologies that dominate our police departments in America
I am prepared to assist in this undertaking
BLM
1
Afraid for your lives? So are most cops, every day.
Join the club.
28
Police violence and criminal violence are infrequent in this country but not evenly distributed. Even in communities where crime is higher, some blocks are more likely to see crimes that others. All should be wary of potential dangers and take precautions. But when people begin to think that danger is around every corner, they can and do ruin their lives with excessive concerns.
When a comparing crime data or police shootings by neighborhood or by economic circumstances or by race, small differences are often considered significant differences proving that the factor tested is significant. People can then say that in comparison one sample population is more likely to have a particular outcome than the other. That does not mean that it applies to all individuals in either population, it's a risk not a certainty.
In our country, even in high crime neighborhoods, most people are not victims of crimes but far more are than in safe neighborhoods.
2
All the guns out there make policing more dangerous than ever and cops are more fearful. Like everybody, they use mental shortcuts to assess their risk, and probably many, who aren't racist in some senses, and even cops of color, still subconsciously perceive people of color as a bigger threat than white people and on average, that might be right. Add to that the out and out racists out there and obviously it's rational for people of color, especially young men, to fear police.
4
The persistence of this unlawful and lethal behaviors by our police in America against Black Americans reveals and illustrates the stark reality of racial inequalities in our American Justice System
We cannot bring closure to this racial narrative in our police departments until their is accountability and a transformative outcome in the end of this practice of policing in America by overwhelming White policemen towards unarmed Black Americans
BLM
@Thrasher What would be transformative is a decrease in crime in Black neighborhoods.
6
I don’t know if Steven Thrasher can comprehend how stressful police stops are for many white folks in the United States. His assumption that police stops are only stressful, haunting experiences for people of color really contradicts the truth of mass incarceration: most of the people affected by mass incarceration and overpolicing are poor white folks! Yes it's disproportionately black, but it's still mostly white. Pause and reflect on that demographic truth for a minute, because it contradicts some narratives on the radical identity politics left.
This racial resentment narrative just divides us, when we could be united under a common experience of the stress of living in a police state. Thrasher writes that "as technology allows for ever-more-expansive surveillance of intimate areas of life, policing still haunts and threatens us," but the "us" he means excludes the white folks who are concerned and affected by police surveillance. He only means "some of us." I think Mr. Thrasher's narrative, though well meaning, is counterproductive, paranoid, and incorrect.
17
@Chrissy
People are assuming that while they experience hardship and difficulties nobody else does. It's a failure to accept that others are like themselves.
7
@Chrissy to expand a little on the perspective, yes, police stops are stressful for everyone regardless of color. I would even go so far as to say it's even stressful for police officers. But please do some research on the disproportionate number of minorities who end up unfairly detained or worse dead as a result. That has nothing to do with left or right politics. Perhaps that will help you understand why the the stress is not the equal.
1
@BevAn I have researched this extensively, and in fact I referred to that research in my comment above. The point is that the CJ system has become much, much harsher across the board, across all racial groups. It's such a myopic mistake to think these changes are only affecting black people or that that's the most important explanation for how we got to where we are.
Yes, there is a disproportionate number of minorities who end up unfairly detained or worse dead as a result. But the MAJORITY of those who end up detained are still white.
Both of those facts are true. The prevailing narrative propagated by race scholars like Michelle Alexander really distracts us from this reality. Check out Marie Gottschalk's "Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics," for example, or the work of Murakawa or Fortner for important correctives to this misleading narrative.
Yes, police stops target black people disproportionately, BUT most of the stops still target white people. This is due to the demographics of the country and simple arithmetic. And this reality defies the oversimplified, misleading story of racial disparities as the primary explanation of what is wrong with the criminal justice system.
5
I just read that study which the author cites, and it is a meticulous and well researched piece of research and cogently corroborates the author's article. With 7 million people currently in prison or on probation or parole, and 90 million people alive who have been in prison in this country, the violence against people of color cannot be overstated.
@Bob Elmendorf
I would suggest that you look at the source that article bases it’s conclusion on. It is an amateur, untested, incomplete and methodologically suspect database. The use of it undercuts the entire article.
9
Psychology is everywhere. While there have been nurses who've murdered patients in hospitals, and there was a dentist a long time ago who purposely injected patients with the AIDS virus, it seems logical that people with a felt need for power and control, or with an urge for revenge, or a disposition to violence, would gravitate to certain professions such as soldier or cop. Doesn't that make sense?
I found Commissioner O’Neill’s explanation for the five years he took to reach a decision to fire Daniel Pantaleo to be completely unpersuasive.
I don't care if other NY police officers don't agree with his decision, and I certainly don't care if an earlier version of the commissioner would have been appalled by it. If the commissioner can't see fit to fire an officer who, in the course of blindly disobeying police protocol, kills a man committing the most minor of infractions, and gets caught on video doing so, then I would say he has become a public hazard!
1
I would love to see a major news source such as the NYT publish the statistics of all this. In America we immediately know when a black man is killed by police regardless of the circumstances. There are not a lot of unknown killings anymore so we're all constantly aware of the state of things in that area. And it does not seem to me that enough black men are killed to warrant the kind of coverage this alleged problem gets. Consider how many black men there are in America and how many law enforcement officials there are. The number killed by police, justified or not, is such an incredibly small percentage yet to read the news one would think otherwise. You people are supposed to be investigative reporters. Why don't you publish the stats on murder in America as it applies to black, white, hispanic, Asian, whatever. How many of each group are murdered and who murdered them. The last stats I saw on this were from 2013 and the results did not support the exposed major bias of the reporting. Stirring things up is good business for news sites. And angering white America with the constant propaganda of the so called black leaders has made NYT a lot of money, I get that. But just for fun, why not bring us some real statistics on all this. It'll save a million articles and let America see just how bad things really are
23
The overwhelming majority of police chiefs, prosecutors that impact justice decisions in America are White Males
Far to frequently the decision to indict a policeman is made by White males many soaked and baked in Negrophobia and the script of soft bigotry and low expectations dominate their decisions when deciding to arrest, indict and render jury decisions against Black suspects in America
BLM
The entire culture and operations of policing in America has never been dominated by equity nor principles of bedrock of Justice in our criminal justice system which the assumption of ‘innocence until proven guilty ‘
Black Americans in our Justice system in America have never been recipients of this foundation and pillar of equality in our nation
BLM
What happens when police see that someone is acting fearful and reluctant to cooperate? The police think that the person is hiding something which is a violation of the law. More often than not, that is the case. When a person is afraid of the police, the police are going to investigate to determine why.
What happens when someone who expects to be violently attacked? They try to protect themselves. When a person expects that the police are going to hurt them? They are going to try to get away from the danger. Running from police or seeking to avoid being touched by police who are acting lawfully are crimes.
Start out expecting problems and problems may find you.
The over policing in high crime neighborhoods is a consequence of the high crime rates. The stereotyping of minorities, profiling, as more likely to be up to no good is a kind of illogical pattern recognition thinking that in a wild environment is good but in a civilized society results in unfair behaviors. Some of the problem is due to racial bigotry but it involves a lot of officers with minority backgrounds, too. That means that the police are using biased sampling to arrive at generalizations about people from specific events.
There is not systematic, institutional racism, but there remains racism among at large proportion of the people. White people are not conspiring to retain privileges over non-whites. Nobody but a few have seen improved incomes nor wealth accumulation since the 1970's.
2
In our juvenile justice system our Black youth and White youth are policed based upon racial stereotypes and false racial inferences
White youth behaviors are viewed and processed by the police as adolescent activities While Black youth behaviors are processed as delinquent activities which subjects them to be processed as suspects into our criminal justice early in their youth
Our educational systems already have documented this racist narrative wherein Black boys are subject to disparate rates of suspensions and expulsions where compared to White students
BLM
1
@Thrasher Before you decide if these rates are disparate you have to decide if the behavior is the same. You can't claim disparity if the behaviors that lead to suspension occur at different rates.
6
Police claim that they shoot to kill because their life is threatened. We understand that the police have a dangerous job. Firemen and soldiers also put their lives at risk. When police, firemen, or soldiers take the oath for these jobs they accept that in doing their job their life is at risk. Police who kill innocent civilians are cowards. Rather than honorably doing their job which means accepting risk, they shoot first rather than taking a risk by defusing the incident.
Although minorities are disproportionately victimized. Our nationwide problem with police affects all races, ethnicities, and communities. The problem exists because of who we select to become police. The only difference between the police and criminals is that police have uniforms and badges. They both share the same bullying, antisocial behaviors. We need to hire individuals with personalities suitable for the job and weed out the bullying, antisocial, cowardly individuals.
3
Like TSA Pre of Global Entry, known traveler programs, maybe minorities, routinely targeted by police for excessive scrutiny, need a a license plate and registration that shows they have been "pre screened", are crime free and pose no threat.
3
The origins of the adversarial relations between Black America and the police begins in Slavery from slave patrols to fugitive slave laws
The police not only shoot unarmed Black Americans in disproportional rates but the acts of assault, harassment and brutality is off the charts as well
Contempt for the humanity of Black Americans is a fixture of policing in America
BLM
1
@Thrasher
Seriously.
Disproportionate from what?
If the disproportion is with respect to the general population by race but in line with people suspected of the same crimes, it has different means from when it's out of line for people suspected of the same crimes. So how does it breakdown?
8
While I do not doubt the validity of the fears of the police felt by Dr. Thrasher, and Black and brown people generally, his presentation of the issue in general terms elides some pertinent points about the Eric Garner case:
1. The 5-year delay in the discipline of Daniel Pantaleo was not the fault of New York City or the NYPD; the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, under both the Obama and Trump administrations, was responsible for the delay.
2. Officer Pantaleo was put on modified duty, deprived of his gun and badge. Under the relevant laws and union contract, he could not have been fired outright before being afforded due process and a hearing.
3. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio did not have the authority on his own to dismiss Pantaleo, as some had demanded.
4. Eric Garner attracted the attention of the police by selling untaxed cigarettes, a minor violation.
5. Mr. Garner refused to identify himself to police. Had he done so, he might merely have been given a ticket.
6. The police decided to take Mr. Garner to a police station. It was at that point that Mr. Garner began to physically resist being taken into custody, and the confrontation turned violent.
21
As someone with every marker of belonging and privilege, but money, I experience similar fears. I have no doubt such fears are much greater for someone lacking my projection of privilege.
1
African Americans make up a disproportionate percent of those shot and killed by police because they commit a disproportionate number of violent crimes. Blacks make up 13.4 percent of the population, but in 2017, they made up 24.6 percent of those shot and killed by police, according to the Washington Post police shooting database. However, the FBI Uniform Crime Report shows that in 2017 blacks make up 37.5 percent of those arrested for violent crimes, including 53.1 percent of murders, and 54.3 percent of robberies—the type of crime most likely to result in police shootouts.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/tables/table-43
Studies conducted in response to the Black Lives Matter Movement consistently show blacks are not more likely than whites to be shot by police,
A study published in August by the National Academy of Science found “no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities across shootings, and White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.”
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/32/15877
A 2016 Harvard study titled “An Empirical Analysis of Racial Difference in Police Use of Force” found that “Blacks are 23.5 percent less likely to be shot by police, relative to whites, in an interaction.”
https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/empirical-analysis-racial-differences-police-use-force
22
No one won in this case. Was it worth selling a cigarette?
Do you think your family would be grateful for that?
There was a law and that always means there is some consequence.
So think about it before committing to the deed.
Was ir worth a life?
4
Why are you sitting on my comment?
The question that Thrasher ducks is "why"?
He implies, by selective quotation, that the explanation for the much higher rate of police shooting deaths of young black males in America is police racism. The evidence does not back up his claim.
It's a tale of two studies published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study Thrasher cites tells us basically what we already know -- that black men and boys are more likely to be killed by cops than white men and boys. The PNAS study that Thrasher glosses over seeks to explain this disparity (Johnson et al. Officer Characteristics ...). Controlling for race-specific crime (obviously criminals are more likely to be shot than law-abiding citizens), it found no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparity in the police use of force across all shootings. In fact, whites were more likely to be shot. In 2016, Prof. Roland Fryer of Harvard examined more than 1,000 police shootings in 10 major departments nationwide. He concluded that there was no evidence of racial bias in police shootings and that blacks are about 24% less likely “to be shot at by police relative to whites.”
As the WSJ's Jason Riley asks, "why should anyone be surprised that young black men are far more likely than their white peers to be shot by police when young black men commit homicides at nearly 10 times the rate of white and Hispanic young men combined?"
21
The author believes that black and brown people are "living under occupation" in the United States. Such an absurd sentiment really tells you all you need to know. Proceed with caution.
17
My worst bullies have pretty much always been black, including a black man who sexually harassed me and then got me fired (he’s black and I’m white, so naturally I am the oppressor). There have been black security guards who refused to let me in to various places because they didn’t like the way I look. And just because they could. Stop pretending that all white people are aggressive oppressors and all black people are nonviolent little lambs. The statistics and common sense show otherwise.
“Abuse of power comes as no surprise.”
Let’s see if NYT will post this.
19
Of course if Mr. Garner has just turned around and put his hands behind his back and let the cops arrest him
He'd still be alive
He'd also be alive if he wasn't breaking NY law by selling cigs without tax stamps
He'd also be alive if the People's Republic of NYC wasn't so focused on passing and collecting regressive taxes...
There's more than enough blame to go around
Were the Cops actions justified? NO
Should he have been charged with a crime? Yes
But like most "airplane crashes" it's not one event which causes the crash but a series of missed opportunities to avert disaster that is the "root of the tragedy"
12
Every time I see an article like this about how much more likely black people are to be killed by the police than white people, it is always without context. Yes, as a standalone statistic, black people are more likely to be killed. But as a percentage of homicides in the black community vs the white community, police shootings of black people are less. Of all white people killed by a gun, 12% are shot by the police. Of all black people killed by a gun, 4% are shot by the police. This fact doesn't sit well with the narrative that black people should specifically fear getting killed by a cop. And I wonder how much of this fear black people have of cops is generated by a media which plays up anecdotes of black people getting killed, while ignoring similar cases where white people are killed. It seems to me that the narrative driven reporting in recent years would undoubtedly create a fear that does not map onto reality, as the ratio of black people vs white people killed by cops, as reported in the media, does not map onto reality. Again, I'm not saying that black people should have no reason to fear the cops, it's just that when the media is so dishonest on this subject, it makes one wonder if that fear has been enhanced by the media. Most of my fellow leftists can see that if the media focuses disproportionately on muslim terrorism, Americans will have a unwarranted fear of muslims. I don't see how the same logic shouldn't apply to this police issue.
16
No one enjoys a police stop, but as a white person I know my personal level of discomfort doesn't come close to what you must feel every time you hear a siren or see flashing lights approaching. So, no, I can't fully comprehend. But I do know what is obvious: justice for Eric Garner came far too late, and meaningful social justice reform requires the support of everyone.
1
“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
― Jesse Jackson
14
I'm getting tired of this narrative, reminds me of the reckless DA in Boston who began her mandate by publishing a list of offenses she refuses to prosecute for disproportionally 'targetting' black and brown people, who she regularly refers to as somehow being representative over them. As a 'brown' person, this story is old and while not baseless, just another extreme in the political debate in America. People need to take responsibility and stop blaming the police, who, may I remind everyone, are the only reason we don't have total chaos in our streets.
26
I have been abused by police, knocked to the ground out into the street, and more than once.
Many of my clients were abused by the police.
However, my father was an officer, and I've represented many officers too, and their unions. I was even attacked by an officer then represented by a union for which I was then the attorney. That led to a conversation with him by a superior, which is my point here.
It is not all on the individual officer. It is a matter of supervision. The sergeants know exactly what is going on. The Lieutenants were recently sergeants, and are out there too. They know, and they guide the current sergeants daily. Higher officers are supposedly selected because among all candidates they best know exactly what is going on, and can lead.
It is about that leadership. It is not a rare random bad officer. It is how he is trained and led, the expectations he is given.
These things don't happen, or at least not often, if the leadership is there. It is the same in the Army or Marines -- they recruit and form their men, and don't have any right to make excuses for what they've formed their men into.
Police departments don't exist in some professional isolation, apart from political leadership. Their top leader is really more politician than cop -- it is all about budgets and priorities. So the mayors, city council, governors, they don't get off the hook on this.
If you want better cops, elect better leaders.
5
The fact is that police continue to kill people with absolutely no accountability. And they target black and brown men in particular because (1) they know for certain that they can get away with it, (2) many of them are white supremacists as the FBI reported years ago. We have cops on camera shooting and/or killing innocent and non-violent non-white people (e.g. Charles Kinsey), and there lots of people both in and out of power who bend over backwards trying to make it like it was the victim's fault.
My black friends have been subjected to less drastic but still serious racist policing. For example, one coworker, a clean-cut professional guy, was the victim of an unprovoked knife attack in front of dozens of witnesses who were clear about what had happened, and the police arrested him rather than his attacker because he was a black and his attacker was white, and then denied him medical care for his wounds. The attacker was never charged.
This was always wrong. It must stop. But it will continue so long as some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses.
2
Is it me? Or are others bothered that too many of our fellow citizens--and nearly every police union--shrug off the fear we feel as if it is nothing, or as if the fear is something we deserve? That as a grandmother, I fear for my 12-year-old grandson in the "land of the free and home of the brave?" Some days it is all I can do not to let the disgust overwhelm me.
3
To continue to blame all cops as racist is not fair. Why there is never any discussion about the amount of crime committed by African Americans which might explain why racism surfaces with people that normally would not be that way.
According to Jimmie M. Edwards Director of Public Safety for St. Louis (an African American) who is also a former circuit judge here are the statistics for 2017:
"Edwards said all but one of the city’s 205 murder victims in 2017 were black and all the people caught and accused of those crimes were also black.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department statistics for 2017 show:
192 murder victims were black
One victim was Hispanic
12 were white
All but one of the 138 listed suspects are black
137 suspects are identified as male and three as female — totaling 140."
24
@David Why people insist on collapsing two problems into one is either solipsism or something more sinister. Problem 1: Crime is a problem. Problem 2: Citizens have a right not to fear police. Only if you accept the idea that problem 1 provides license to police to create problem 2 are they even related. I don't accept it. I never will. And that's before you get to the number of police officers who disgrace their badges by lying, tweeting and posting racist social media memes, thoughts, etc.
4
The simple truth that everyone knows, Professor, is that black men are much, much more likely to be killed by other black men than by police. And another truth - although the anti-cop mob will never admit it - is if you've done nothing wrong your chances of being hurt by a cop are close to nil. Sure you're nervous when you're pulled over by a cop - everyone (black, white, brown, or yellow) is. Lastly, the idea that black people (including the ones who choose to immigrate here from Africa?) are living under "occupation" is ludicrous. Maybe a Palestinian could set you straight on that.
23
So you were stopped, along with everyone else. You got very nervous, as even us white people do when stopped by authorities. And...nothing bad happened. Because you weren't breaking any laws or resisting arrest.
Stop with the scare tactics. Articles like this are clearly racist and perpetuate the whole problem by teaching young people that there is more racism in everyone than there actually is. Stop.
22
Thank you for your article and comments. I wrote a comment yesterday about the dismissal of the New York City police officer and the comments by the PBA union leader but erased it for fear I would be targeted by police. Mayor Deblasio spoke on TV about how the culture of the police has changed since Errol Garner was killed. How many police have placed people in choke holds since Errol Garner was killed? How many African Americans have been killed by police since Rodney King. And the evidence in the videos never seems to matter. Police still defend their brutality and violence. There is no question that the New York City police department has prevented another 9/11. But this has been effected by brains not brutality against the citizenry with “broken window” enforcement, or stop and frisk or profiling. Police usually catch criminals after they commit crimes but they rarely prevent crime. It is possible some young people go into law enforcement to help people. I fear most soon learn differently. A police officer is entrusted with enormous power over others in this country. It is easily abused especially against people of color. It is an extremely rare individual who has the wisdom, education, courage, breeding and training who can control their baser instincts after being given this power. I do not think the average human being has enough of these attributes to be easily given this power as a police officer
If you've done the least self education on border & customs stops, you know you can simply refuse to speak with them and demand to leave, there are endless Youtube vids on the subject. They will let you go, their total purview is to pull you over and ask if you are willing to identify yourself. So spare me the scare tactic. If you are going to write about it, at least know what's up.
8
Small but important point that illustrates there might be a bit of hyperbole in the article "Not that a passport would have saved me from a long detention necessarily — ICE recently held a citizen for a month" Yes, but the youth did not have a passport as the family was undocumented. Having a legal passport does help.
9
I'm a white male. In this age of internet broadcast violence, I vowed I would never willingly watch the murder of a human being. But at the urging of a relative, I decided to break that vow just once to watch the video of Philando Castile's shooting.
I was shocked and horrified, but seeing that video changed me. I heard the reason and compassion in Castile's voice as he tried to calm the officer, just moments before he was shot to death in cold blood. He did nothing wrong and acted in an exemplary, empathetic way. The officer clearly went mad with unjustifiable panic and completely unwarranted violence, simply because the man was black.
I still deeply believe that under normal circumstances, no one's violent death should be broadcast or viewed. But I would urge any white person who doesn't believe innocent non-white people in the USA are murdered by police to take my relative's advice. Make an exception, watch the Castile video, and learn.
5
Police are out of control in this country. Some of them seem to be looking for a fight. They should be careful. The country is full of ex-vets who are more than up for their challenge. When the Dallas police went up against a trooper from the 82nd airborne the kill ratio was 5:1 against them.
2
I didn't talk. I listened and heard several Georgia state troopers speak of how they pulled over black men. Because I'm white I suppose they assumed that I was racist, too. I have spoken up on some occasions, but that time I let them talk because nothing I said would have changed their minds, but I got a very realistic view of what some people really believe. Like Mr. Trump, their own words convicted them. They thought it was funny. It apparently made them feel powerful.
Since then, I have never doubted that profiling just based upon race happens. I think a lot of poor folks also get shaken down because their cars are old and there's always an excuse to pull them over.
What is sad is that in this climate, racists are again loud and proud. They don't even have to be among "friends" to let down their hair.
3
I watched the press conference given yesterday by the head of the Police Union and some of his ardent supporters. It was horrible. Their language and posture was pure street thuggery. Talk about the gangs of New York. No way people like these should be in law enforcement.
3
Do Asians have a similar fear? I don't think so, and it's because their crime rate is lower than that of whites, so police are less on edge when they make stops.
10
This movement needs to find a better martyr. Eric Garner was a repeat criminal. Even if those crimes were simple misdemeanors, his rap sheet was long. The guy didn't obey the law, and didn't obey the police officers who there to arrest. His death was unfortunate, but he continued to put himself in avoidable situations.
24
@Midwest Josh OK. How about John Crawford III, a family man who was shot and killed because he was buying a toy for his kid?
How about Philando Castille, another family man, who was shot and killed for obeying the law regarding concealed weapons?
How about Sandra Bland, who was beaten on the side of a road for complaining about being ticketed for no reason, and was then arrested and ended up dead in jail under suspicious circumstances?
How about Amadou Diallo, who was shot and killed for holding a wallet, which the cops decided was a gun?
I can keep going, but somehow I don't think it's the guilt of the victims that has made it so you refuse to acknowledge the problems with police conduct.
2
Our whole police and prison system needs a total overhaul. Police should not be able to kill people without consequence. Prosecutors should not be able to railroad convictions no matter the evidence, without consequence. We should not have a private prison system that profits off the misery of others. All black and brown people should vote for Bernie (or Elizabeth) if they want true criminal justice reform...Bernie just released a plan to do just that. There is a way to improve the lives of a major portion of America...vote Bernie or Elizabeth!
5
Most telling and concerning about the officer's dismissal is the commissioner's aside that the individual killed "shouldn't have resisted arrest". The assertion reflects why all citizens should be fearful about encounters with the police. The law enforcement culture accepts that force reasonable people might regard as excessive is completely legitimate when someone does not immediately comply with a police directive.
In the Staten Island case, the individual was being arrested for a non-violent crime. He was unarmed. What would have been the harm had the arresting officer(s) declined to struggle with him and instead chosen to issue a ticket? They knew where to find the man, as he was a regular in the area where he was detained, in the event he ignored the summons.
The "harm", as the police see it, is that disobedience to them is an affront, not so much to the rule of law as it is to their power, which is paramount in dealings with private citizens. Deaths of detained persons result in part from such a perspective.
The police and we have long forgotten that they are supposed to be our servants, which means deferential, not dominant. They do not deal gently with challenges to their mastery because they are not required to do so.
9
While I cannot and do not defend the overreaction of police in such cases as Mr. Garner's, I must also observe that in almost all of these cases the victim was engaged in illegal behavior.
One way to cut down on police overreaction is to give them less incidents to overreact to. You are less likely to be stopped by the police if you are not breaking the law. If you are stopped, you are less likely to suffer injury or death if you obey their commands, do not resist, and do not run. Knowing that a percentage of police are likely to overreact, my safety is at least at part my concern.
11
@michaelscody They also assume that everyone is armed because guns are almost sacred in our society. That said, we have a problem when just because I am brown or Native American or poor I have to be afraid because others who look like me might have committed a crime. You can say this because like me (I spent years as a white middle class mom in a minivan) I was unlikely to be stopped and could have had a body in the back and hauled it anywhere in the country. I get it that officers are scared. In our state, anyone can own and carry a weapon whether they know how to use it or not as long as they are of age and have not been convicted of a felony. I understand how Altzheimer's patients can be strong enough to threaten a woman caregiver and why high school teachers might want to throttle a teen. But people shouldn't die for bootleg cigarettes and some jobs are just really, really hard, but that doesn't mean those who aren't good thinkers should get by with murder.
2
@Wanda
I totally agree, and support the charging and conviction of those who overreact and cause harm or death.
All I am saying is that people can take precautions like obeying the law and the commands of law enforcement officers which will reduce their chances of an unfortunate outcome.
2
I worked for several years with police officers and firefighters. During that time I came to understand that most of the police officers I encountered are just bullies with guns. I'm white, live in a suburb of a major city, and found that my own local police department targeted me and my teenage son for the very work I was doing. So, no. I cannot ever understand the terror experienced by men and women of color when encountering the police, but I too am afraid whenever I have to interact with them in any way at all.
7
As the parent and grandparent of African American children I began to cry as I read this. We adopted our children in the 70's thinking that there was a brave new awakening upon us, we held each other and rejoiced when Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech. We know that part of what you are facing is because it is now amplified and there is a spot light on it with open racism but also that it has always been there, for some, a quiet awareness that all was not well. Thank you for your story.
2
Racism is one of the most serious problems with "our" police and must be rooted out before they are hired and continuously monitored.
But violence on the part of the police, and systemic authoritarianism, may be an even more important problem. One in 2500 white young men being killed by police, although less than the rate for black men, is not insignificant.
I'm an old white lady, but my experience with the police has been entirely negative. The worst was when they told me that nothing could be done about a drunk neighbor who kicked my nine year old in the hall.
4
Has anything changed or will it ever change? In 1947, Ralph Ellison wrote "Invisible Man" in which he says, "But this cop had an itching finger and an eager ear for a word that rhymed with 'trigger' and when Clifton fell he had found it."
I am an older white woman, but as an animal rights and environmental activist, I have had ugly encounters with cops. I can only imagine how difficult it is for people of color to deal with this issue.
4
"One in 1,000 black men and boys can expect to be killed by the police, making them about 2.5 times more likely to experience this fate than white men and boys."
That's less than the disparity in the crime rate between white and black men, so crime for crime, whites are *more* likely to be killed by police than blacks are.
14
I am a white man with 2 Black grandchildren. I listened to their parents explain that sooner or later they would be stopped by a racist police officer. Especially dangerous to drive through a "white neighborhood" at night. They grew up with middle class values and an environment which makes them more vulnerable as my grandson might be sarcastic, knowing he was stopped because of his color. One wrong word and he could be in the hospital, even the morgue. Or charged with a drug offense that the cop had planted. I am scared such a day may come. And a jury would likely believe the lies the cop told over a young Black boy's testimony. I have worked in the criminal justice system and know this is true. Bad cops are defended by good cops because of the fraternity spirit. This can only stop when juries stop believing police testimony and when our political leaders are held responsible for police misconduct.
174
@simon Rosenthal Being a cop is similar to being in a combat situation. You HAVE to rely on your teammates to survive. It is very difficult to speak up against a fellow officer especially when you will have to work with him and his fellow officers the next day. Remember SERPICO when his partners allowed him to be shot during a drug arrest. He survived and went on to testify in various hearings to absolutely no avail. NOTHING changed.
10
@Donald The problem is that "nothing changes'.
Officers need community support and would be safer if they had the respect a good cop deserves. This can only happen if the bad ones are removed from the streets
10
@simon rosenthal
Police react to the way people respond to them. Sometimes one runs into a jerk, and a policeman who is being a jerk is dangerous, either applying the law unfairly or overreacting with force. But all police will have a tough time just accepting a defiance when they are just doing their job. The laws are written such that when a person refuses to cooperate, it is a crime, and police are expected not to tolerate much of it.
Patience must be learned but it can forestall poor outcomes.
5
I thank God for 99.9% of all law enforcement personnel. I can’t imagine the rigors of that job.
101
Yes, and those good cops know who the bad cops are, but the code of silence reigns supreme and they let the injustices they see happen and say nothing.
71
@g
Everyone is thankful for good law enforcement. Any comments on this article?
18
@Ken Aaron
Even idf an "good"m cop wants to be good and stand by the truth, he will stop and remember Serpico.
2
Interesting that these statistics also correlate with average testosterone levels among the different demographics. I'm more inclined to blame something chemical here as opposed to flat out hatred or racism. I suspect that when a high testosterone cop meets a high testosterone individual, things go bad very quickly.
4
I think most people, regardless of color, get very anxious when stopped by a cop. I'm white, and I do, doesn't matter what I think it's for. Now if I were black , I would say that anxiety would be seriously amplified, and justifiably so. The research and data as mentioned in this article gives good reasons for that.
66
Thrasher ignores the demographic facts that most people stopped and surveiled by the police are poor white folks. Most of the people experiencing police violence are poor white folks. Yes, of course POC experience it disproportionately, but they are still minorities in this country, so the majority of the experiences of police brutality in recent decades have been experienced by poor white people.
By making this a story only about people of color, he is misleading his readers and missing more than half the true story.
12
And just to clarify: the prevailing narrative as propagated by race scholars like Michelle Alexander and Steven Thrasher really distracts us from this reality of how harsh the criminal justice system has become for EVERYBODY.
Check out Marie Gottschalk's "Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics," for example, or the work of Murakawa or Fortner for important correctives to this narrative. Yes, police stops target black people disproportionately, BUT most of the stops still target white people. This is due to the demographics of the country and simple arithmetic. And this reality defies the oversimplified, misleading story of racial disparities as the primary explanation of what is wrong with the criminal justice system.
7
@Steve: I was a police officer. I got anxious stopping people because of the number of us cops getting shot doing exactly that. The only time there’s violence is when the person refused to follow the instructions of the police officer. The officer is the authority in these arrest situations. I have never seen or witnessed any problems when the person or persons did what the police officer instructed them to do.
5
Dealing with the police is like talking to a box of hammers. Personally I use cruise control and make sure my tail lights work. I can only imagine the fear and resentment people of color feel when confronted with a potentially life ending interaction with law enforcement. It is ironic that when a tragedy occurs the justification for the use of deadly force is invariably that the officer feared for their life and or safety.
3
Blacks and browns are not the only ones encountering hostile looking police people. Anyone not looking exactly like the locals in any area are treated with some suspicion and even hostility; some assumptions they might be less than totally law abiding. I have found this to be true. Police need to combine their justified suspicion of wrongdoers with a more relaxed view of outsiders. Perhaps the problem is with the kind of people who go into police work -- not exactly your most normal and lovable types.
1
@n1789
The examples of police failing to be vigilant because they presume circumstances to be unlikely to go wrong are numerous and often shared among law enforcement. The most dangerous situations are car stops and domestic disputes, those are when most police are attacked. It's when they tend not to expect to be attacked.
2
Equal Justice under law? The police force is generally not representative of the people they police. This is true of race gender and religion. Likewise, judges are mostly male and mostly white and much older than most of the work force. Prosecutors regularly use challenges to alter the demographics of jurors so that jurors are usually not representatives of the populations whose cases they decide.
So long as there are no biased people in our community that should be no problem.
2
n large metropolitans areas, blacks make up a disproportionate number of traffic stops because they tend to live in high crime neighborhoods which are heavily patrolled, but the same is not true nationwide
Texas is our second most-populated state, The Texas Department of Public Safety publishes an annual traffic stop report. The most recent is the 2017 report.
It showed that non-Hispanic whites made up 42.61% of the state population and 37.78% of those pulled over on Texas highways.
It showed that blacks made up 11.84% of the state population and 10.36 of those pulled over.
It showed that Hispanics made up 39.05% and 45% of those pulled over.
https://www.dps.texas.gov/director_staff/public_information/2017_Traffic_Stop_Data_Report.pdf
Black
6
I asked my friend Joe if he had ever been pulled over and approached by a cop with a drawn gun. He described the event where a cop pulled him over as he was driving into the valet parking of a 5 star hotel, wearing a suit and tie, preparing for a business meeting. A drawn gun!?
My wife and I were driving East on I 8 in southern Arizona, after leaving California. While in California we did what all old hipsters do while driving cross country, we lit up a joint.
A few miles into Arizona we pulled into a border crossing that was 20 miles from the border. We weren't carrying a lot of weed but we put our bag out of sight and watched as the dog went bananas from the sweet smell emanating from the car.
He didn't find our stash and as we were told we could leave the agent reminded us that we were not in Colorado.
I have vowed since to spend only enough money in a red state to get out of it.
And if we don't get t rump and his crime family out of Washington next year we will be spending only enough money in America to get out of it.
3
Thank you for driving while high on pot. And writing about it in the newspaper!
That’s very enlightening about the mindset and good use of common sense by the kind of people who complain about the police.
Did you also wash it down with a bunch of beers? Or was it shots of tequila?
9
@Bob Laughlin,
Promises, promises.
4
You should consider spending just enough money in America to get out of the country right now. You were quite lucky to not be arrested for breaking the law. Because that's what you were doing. Breaking the law. But you hold no respect for the law if you dont agree with it for yourself.
6
Professor, thank you for this thoughtful and insight piece. Your experience with the border patrol seems to have been a benign one. You were not harassed, treated differently, or shown disrespect in any way. The officer even smiled.
My question is whether this benign experience changes your perception of Law Enforcement personnel, and if not, why not?
Thanks
12
I respectfully disagree on two points: 1-- I think everybody is afraid of the police. 2-- we live in a violent Society. data on both sides of these questions shows that we have engaged in genocide, racial targeting and just generalized hooliganism, none of which are conducive to peace. peace officer? give me a break. strictly anecdotal on my side: one of the first people in my life was the husband of my mother's best friend. I remember seeing him in uniform as a policeman but inexplicably he stopped wearing the uniform. Turns out they tossed him for being psychologically unfit. He spent the rest of his life being a milkman. he's also the guy who sexually abused me at Age 4, a fact that I didn't reveal until I was a teenager. He scared me to death. also anecdotal: I live in a predominantly white neighborhood. probably 25 years ago my older brother, white as a sheet of typing paper was walking up the block towards my house when the police pulled over jumped out of the car and slammed him against the squad car. they demanded to know what he was doing and he said I'm going to my sister's house. turns out someone had been robbed who fit his description and they were cruising the neighborhood. they let him go without explanation or apology. the officers were African American. I belong to the generation that called the police pigs. I grew up listening to the soundtrack of Hair. I believe we live in a police state. not sure we can fix it, but I'll support anybody who tries.
2
As a white home-owning man, the only people I’m actively afraid of are other white men and the police. I can only imagine the chronic fear and stress anyone other than me feels.
To the other white men out there: do not be afraid of people of color. No matter how you’ve been trained by society to react, they have FAR more to fear from you than you of them. Retrain yourself not to feel that fear, because that fear is unfounded and it is the basis for institutional police brutality.
Thanks for this piece.
6
Thankful for this piece, Professor Thrasher. Most white folks have no—as in NONE—idea just how stressful it is for a black person to just walk out of doors every day. We take nothing for granted.
I have heard, often in my long life, annoyed or otherwise out-upon white people expressing disapproval of others’ spaces and places in this country as if we never belonged here.
The countless death-by-cops (or cop-approved vigilante murders—George Zimmerman’s execution of unarmed, non-threatening Travon Martin, e.g.) is a powerful reminder of the invisible but eloquently unspoken divide between white Americans and those Americans who are not. And, very often in our history—even today as we speak—white Americans lean hard upon “the law”—as they perceive it—to forcibly reinforce the status quo. The “law enforcement” apparatus, of course, sees their mission much as the cavalry 200 years ago—to wipe out, mostly via coverup and union protections—those considered threats. “Threats, one asks?” “Threats to whom?”
Eric Garner and Philando Castile and hundreds more, lives extinguished by society-sanctioned violence, a vendetta against black and brown folks, are just two of the posters for a-still apartheid America in which race is the requisite for police action against those who pose no threat to others.
And white America’s president, seeking to “make America great again,” readies his 2020 campaign on an Armageddon-style run for re-election. Whether he succeeds or not will speak volumes.
9
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18.
Rather selective outrage brother. How many kids have been murdered by other kids in Chicago? How many righteous cops have been killed in the line of duty trying to prevent these murders? I don't think the people want to eliminate the police just yet, or people with an ax to grind that exist everywhere.
8
First I should state that I am Caucasian. Fear as expressed in the article is real. I have no doubt of that. However, unfortunately the police officers, despite their outward bravado, also feel fear. That fear often caused them to react inappropriately engendering more fear.
Second that officer should go to work knowing that he/she will not be killed or injured. Third we should all drive without fear of being improperly stopped or shot.
We have to address a vicious cycle for what it is. A scared officer kills an innocent engendering anger which creates more fear and articles such as this. There is an overwhelming failure in leadership and it is so very sad. This tragic cycle will not end unless and until we have that leadership and none is in sight.
6
I thought I heard the police commissioner say that they have stepped up community policing. This is cops in the communities where they work and where they know the people "on their beat." This has been tried here in our city, then policies change. New York can be a leader in this along with some training for the cops on tamping down their personal prejudices when they are in a tense situation. No easy fix, but a step in a good direction.
As an old, white man I don't carry with me the fear that Prof. Thrasher does. I can barely imagine it. But I am very much aware that many police officers are just as fearful of the public as the public is of them. So I practice the following and have cautioned my (white) sons to do the same.
If stopped while driving, keep both hands on the steering wheel until the officer arrives at your window and can see both of your hands. Gesture in full view of the officer that you wish to roll down your window. Wait until he/she acknowledges your gesture. Return both hands to the wheel. When asked for your license and registration do not reach. Before you do, tell the officer that your license is in your wallet/purse and your registration is in the glove compartment. Make your every intent clear verbally before you take any action. You've now set the officer's comfort level where you can both live with the situation. Operative word: "live."
I don't care if you're "in the right" and "justifiably angry at being stopped." You can argue with a judge later!
24
I was a police officer and I can tell you it was not a choke hold, as was evident on the video and the decision of the Federal Justice Department no to prosecute; he could breathe – otherwise how could he repeatedly say he couldn’t – and none of this would have happened if he had not resisted arrest. What are people teaching their kids nowadays that they refuse the instructions of the authorities? Is it because the offender is never charged with resisting arrest so it’s worth it to resist? Is it because the DA and judges allow Resisting Arrest to be the first charge plea-bargained away? This only endangers police and those disobeying lawful orders.
83
@Jerry Sturdivant Keep blaming the guy who died. That really helps us all understand and feel better about it.
41
It’s all their fault, that’s what you are saying. The police do no wrong, even when they shoot a black man in the back when he’s running away. That’s justified by your logic.
If only they listened to the officer.
Maybe put yourself in their shoes for once. They are harassed for no reason, they are shot when not armed, the criminal justice system treats blacks differently with harsher sentences. You think blacks don’t know this?
But no, its all their fault.
44
@Jerry Sturdivant
We all clearly saw Eric Garner die at the hands of Pantaleo, we all have seen the video way too many times. We the tax payers who hire police to protect us, do not accept this behavior!
40
I am a white male in my 50s and was accosted by a white officer downtown Flagstaff. (Flagstaff AZ) The officer shined a bright LED light in my eyes, I couldn't see a thing. I could barely hear him talk for there was a rock band playing close by. He did not identify himself as a law enforcement (LE) person - he did confirm this fact in a court of law. The officer became severely agitated with me when I didn't complying with his commands - it would have been nice to know who he was.
LE people fail to understand damage they do when they bully people. In my case the officer failed to recognize I didn't know what was going on - not a clue. In my case the LE person is not creating a "safer streets" enviroment he actually made the streets more unsafe. How? Eating up time and resources. (I had not committed a crime.) While he aggressively bullied me an actual hard crime may have occurred. (cant be in two place at the same time)
Statistics confirms that people of color are targeted more by LE people. But it's not just people of color, its all people. In my opinion aggression makes LE people poor performers. Get made at someone sometime. See how much detail you miss out on - it can be substantial.
20
Shameful behavior toward our citizens due to a different skin pigment. I have no answers, but believe it is worse under this current president. What an awful way to have to live, in fear and stress.
78
@Marylee I hope you extend your concern to the vilification of white males, the police, and Christians.
3
@Campbell Oh please.
7
@Ronald
Took the words out of my mouth.
4
It sounds a lot like apartheid when certain citizens need to carry passports to feel safe and even then can be subject to arbitrary brutality. Thanks for sharing this. I think too it goes beyond bigotry. I'm a white woman and have also felt bullied, intimidated, scared by a police officer -- his gun showing -- pulling me over for no clear cause. Total abuse of power...
155
@sue denim. The police must have reasonable suspicion to pull you over. If you are stopped for no reason the officer is breaking the rules and you have good reason to be afraid. Proving you were illegally stopped is likely to get you out of any ticket you may get. Know your rights!
8
@michjas: As usual, you miss the point: to many white cops, DWB (driving while black) or BWB (breathing while black) is called “reasonable suspicion.”
22
@michjas This isn't about ticketing.
A black friend of mine was pulled over on his way to work one day, allegedly for going 66 mph in a 65 mph zone. He wasn't afraid of a ticket. He was afraid because he knew that racist cops can and do arrest and kill black people for being "uppity", and that's exactly what he was for being a nicely dressed educated black man on his way to work at 8 AM on a weekday.
If you're white and know your rights, it might help you. If you're black or brown, the cops don't care about your rights.
20
People of color have good reason to fear the police.
The only advantage I see to my aging, I’m 64, is my dealing with the police.
I’m a avid motorcycle rider that likes to go fast. I’m also a long haired, full face helmet wearer. It’s amazing watching a cop that pulled me over change his attitude when I pull off my helmet revealing my old face. Suddenly they soften and seem to realize I’m not a kid that they can push around. When they try to chastise me with their “advice” I’m quick to point out I’ve been riding bikes longer than they’ve been alive. People my age are not cops.
I don’t think they like me addressing them as “ son” either.
In this one case I proudly use my white old guy privilege to the fullest. I never argue with a cop but I make sure they know they can’t push me around.
I feel for young black men, you have every reason to fear the police, what a constant burden that must be.
171
@Paulie
As a fellow old, white guy (70), I think you are mistaken that the source of your receipt of better treatment from police is that you make certain they know they can't push you around. Rather, the source is that you, being old, are the beneficiary of prejudice common to most people of all races. Most people soften their behavior toward elderly people. It is really that simple an explanation.
43
@Errol
Sometimes.
8
@Errol
I agree. The one perk of being an old white guy is that unless you are crazy looking, most adults don't find you threatening. If I stand next to my car holding jumper cables, even a mom with kids in the back will stop to help me. Young POC have to call AAA.
The police (to their credit, I suppose) write me speeding tickets as if age didn't matter.
16
Thank you for this. These statistics are not acceptable. This physical and emotional damage is not acceptable.
We must elect officials at all levels--city, county, state, federal--who will fight for the America we want.
136
My response disappeared after it was published. Here it is again. No mention of any particular race or ethnic group.
@F. T.:"These statistics are not acceptable. " You know what is also not acceptable? Take a look at the FBI stats on what race commits about half the murders in this country while making up about 14% of population.
8
@Jp So you're saying that murders committed by person X justify murdering person Y, just because X and Y both are black? That's the same logic lynch mobs and the Klan used a century ago to justify their violence against black people.
5
@Dave: "So you're saying that murders committed by person X justify murdering person Y..."
Uhhhh, nope.
I'll say it again: it is also unacceptable when over half the murders in this country are committed by 14% of population.
Do you feel differently?
In terms of whether a murder, if it was that, is justified, I'll let you take that up with the forward thinkers in NYC.
3
Chief executives, whether mayor, governor or even the President, are beholden to and afraid of conflicts with the law enforcement organizations under their control. They know that tactics like the "blue flu" and scrupulously adhering to every procedure inconveniences the public and can even make the communities more dangerous. These have political consequences for the chief executive.
Rahm Emmanuel chose not to run again because of a controversial shooting in Chicago when he acted indecisively when disciplining the police. Even President Obama was compromised when he refused to discipline, much less fire, Brennan and Clapper when they lied to and spied on Congress. He also didn't go after the CIA torturers.
This choke-hold the public safety organizations have on their communities needs to stop. They have a tough job, but that doesn't make them immune from accountability.
6
Sometimes my (true) guise as a journalist or a social worker/medic with a taped red cross on my back has saved me from the beatings and arrests those demonstrators right next to me are suffering at the hands of the police, but in truth it is my being white and female (and now 62) that has given me the relatively charmed life I have led, using any bathroom in any hotel or restaurant I walk into, no matter my clothes, getting out of police stops with just warnings... I have been Sandra Bland word for word, right up to when that cop said he was going to light her up and reached into pull her out of that car. To my dying breath, I believe he would never have done that had she looked like me.
12
Whichever metrics correlate with criminality are going to be problematic for extra vigilance from the police. Thus, being young, male, dressed in a hoodie and having dark skin are definitely going to subject someone (including perfectly innocent people) to high scrutiny from the police. Oped pieces like this one are merely stating the obvious; but expecting the police to give equal attention to 80-year white grandmothers is a fool's errand. It would be better to concentrate on changing the metrics from the bottom up than trying to change perceptions that are based on the bad metrics.
10
@Richard Katz --- do you seriously think that young black men dressing in khakis and polo shirts is going to keep police from caring about their skin color?
3
@Richard Katz Young black men wearing suits and ties have been abused by police. This isn't about what they're wearing.
2
Fear of the police is not limited to black and brown folks. White people get abused, and shot, by cops as well. I'm white and I've been victimized by cops several times. The first was when I was 16, and a friend and I wanted to buy a canoli. We stashed our bikes out of sight behind a bush, and were soon accosted by a cop who accused us of trying to break into his house. He pulled his gun, leaned us up against his car, and then made us go into his house where his dog barked and threatened us. It was terrifying and caused me to have a lifelong fear and dislike of cops.
Here in San Diego, I work with the medical examiners and we frequently have "death by cop" cases in the morgue. They kill anyone who resists, at all, even if the person is already in jail. They pile six big cops on top of a homeless, mentally ill person and sit on him until he stops "struggling." Just like Eric Garner.
Personally, I'm nauseated by the outpourings of respect and reverence for cops who supposedly "put their lives on the line every day to protect us." Many jobs are more dangerous, but few allow one the excitement of physically subduing and dominating other citizens without consequences. Watch the videos. Many cops enjoy the bullying and sadism of it all.
In short, I'm not brown or black but I'm an upstanding citizen who is scared to death of cops, having been abused by them in the past. We need change.
29
Police please don’t back down. You have the most difficult job in America. And you are deeply appreciated by law abiding citizens. Keep up the good work.
22
Oh the joys of blindly missing the point.
23
Your bigger fear should be the power of the state, of which the police are only an instrument.
Garner was taken down by a task force established to combat sale of single, un-taxed cigarettes. Think of that. His crime was selling 'loosies."
At a time when prosecutors in NY are sending people with illegal guns to "diversionary programs," and we are legalizing marijuana, selling loose cigarettes requires special law enforcement. THAT is the real crime.
8
This is the rule: If a person who is armed (whether the gun is holstered or drawn) tells you to do something, then DO it. Don't respond with 'attitude' - just DO what you are told to do.
Whether the armed person has a badge or a ski mask -- just DO it.
You can fight it later in court, in the press, wherever. You will live to fight it.
38
@B.W., the problem is that not everyone believes they will live to fight it in court, no matter how compliant they are. 'Show your hands' and 'produce your license and registration' are often mutually exclusive if one has to each into a backpack or glove compartment to retrieve the documents. And attempting to explain is met with 'don't argue!'
So what does 'just DO it' mean then? The wrong decision could result in a dangerous escalation....
5
@B.W. Except that Philando Castille didn't fight it, and still ended up dead.
5
No I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a black or brown person in the US right now. Thanks to your article I have gained a small amount of insight and understanding into the stresses and daily fears caused by institutionalize racism within the police force and I.C.E. I am grateful for you allowing this window into your experiences.
Best,
13
@Damian Moppett I am a person of colour who lives in the US and I don't live I fear of the police.
I am hearing from immigrant friends who have been naturalized or have permanent residency that they are being held for excessive periods of time by agents at airports. Even though they are properly identified with documents they are being held several hours to the point where they miss flights. No reasons are given to them for why they are being detained for several hours. Even though security was told that they were about to miss their flight they wouldn't give a reason for why they were holding them so long. They lost their flight they lost the money that they paid for the tickets and they had to rent a car to go back to their home.
11
Police misconduct is largely the product of poor hiring practices (i.e., the absence of thorough psychological testing, inclusive of interviews with psychologists, to weed out prospective candidates who have personality disorders that can negatively impact their conduct as police officers; and, of course, improved training with regard to handling confrontations and arrests that will not lead to the discharge of the officer's firearms, or the use of chokeholds, unless circumstances warrant their use. It's not rocket science, bur it will increase the cost of policing. Money well spent.
6
I want to be careful not to say more than I mean to say here...
I do NOT think that the police and other law enforcement, as an institution, are simply out to make life miserable for minorities (including myself). Yes, I unapologetically support holding those officers who wind up killing unarmed civilians to a higher standard of accountability, but it does not follow that there is an institutional intent to terrorize all minority peoples. BUT, a deadly mix of lax accountability and “law and order” demagoguery are building that terror structure anyway.
Bear with me a moment. Consider why the KKK was formed. It wasn’t to commit genocide. THAT was the mission of the would-be nation of slavers called the Confederacy. When the Confederacy was put down the KKK dedicated itself to making sure minorities NEVER felt secure in their rights. Hence the Confederate monuments (some literally carved into mountains like a racist Mt. Rushmore), the continued embrace of the Confederate flag, cross-burning, lynchings, etc. The message was/is clear. What happened once can happen again.
The police are NOT the KKK. The problem is that a black man stopped by the police has good reason to believe that regardless of circumstance, they could be killed largely without consequence. A white rancher can threaten police with weapons and live to tell the tale, but the SLIGHTEST misunderstanding between police and people of color escalates to lethal force almost immediately. That’s not good.
26
When I was young and growing up the teachers told my classmates and I that the policeman is your friend. I don't know if it was true then I didn't have the experience to know if it was true or not. It is definitely not true now. For the black community it has never been true. The face of the policeman has changed from the idealized police officer presented to us on the old television series Adam 12 to the face of brutal tyranny. The type of tyranny that we (The People) are supposedly protected from by our constitution. When a man can be murdered by the police and it is captured ON VIDEO and our elected officials refuse to do their sworn duty and prosecute it is time for a change. It has already started, California has passed legislation that limits a police officers use of deadly force. The legislation is a far cry from what is needed, a watered down compromise but a start none the less. Let's elect officials that will pass legislation limiting the power of the police; defining probable cause so that it is verifiable and no longer subjective, limiting the power of arrest where the police can no longer restrain you and detain you when stopped for infractions (traffic tickets), make it a felony to lie to a judge to obtain a warrant, make it so hearsay is no longer accepted to obtain a warrant, make it illegal to bust the door down and come in guns ablaz'in when serving a warrant, de-militarize the police completely.
18
I made the mistake of watching the Clint Eastwood film “Mule” on a flight recently. The relevant pullover scene was treated as comedy: throughout the encounter, in rapid sequence, the minority driver neurotically spouted statistics about the mortal danger of highway police encounters for people of color. Bradley Cooper, the FBI agent, plays it straight wearing the wry smile of absolute control. Easy for him, being white, male, armed, and behind a badge. It ends uneventfully, but the viewer is left not with the impression that the event was dehumanizing for the driver, but rather that officers of the law are supremely cool and professional. The scene had no bearing on the plot line. So, what was it’s purpose? Was it to poke fun at black men’s fear of being pulled over, exposing these anxieties as unfounded, and those who suffer from them effete? The gratuity of it gives great insight into the filmmaker’s mindset. He is skeptical of the validity of our fears. How does he get away with it?
19
Whenever I see articles like this one I long to see studies of the kinds/types of personalities that want to be cops. When I look at the thugs who show up at white supremacist rallies and then look at the cops who are there working those rallies, they bear a strong resemblance to each other. Bouncers at clubs also have a similar look. At my local gym you see these guys who seem to define themselves through the amount of weight they can lift and the amount of power they internalize from being able to do so. Power through force or intimidation seems to be in abundance with these folks. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that there are the same traits and behaviors exhibited in many who choose to join the armed forces. For years, I've felt that when it comes to personalities and behavior, the differences and lines between law breaking thugs and cops are much closer than we are were taught. A thug is a thug whether they are wearing a uniform or not.
39
looking at the video , it clearly shows the officer applied unnecessary force on a man selling cigarettes. it didn't look very much like resisting arrest . the officer should have been criminally charged. it is sad moment for justice when the commissioner says that he would have done the same.
32
Generations
How many lashes does it take
to kill a man?
How many to let him live
to remember?
You remember.
The scars, still visible on your back
in this, the 11th generation
since your ancestor bore
the torture of the whip,
you remain, bred for strength
yet hunched and broken,
carrying the pain
inflicted by a master
who still rules, his children’s
children’s cruel hands
still crushing your throat -
your children watching -
as you cry out
the last words of this, your generation -
“I can’t breathe.”
22
@J Frederica Golden hard eye roll
2
From December 1958 through August 1960 my family lived in Maracay, Venezuela, where my father worked for American Can Company. The American colony of workers and their families bonded together to create a community.
One thing I remember clearly was whenever anyone would travel, no matter how far, they always told several others their destination, when they hoped to arrive and when they planned to return. This was done because police practices in Venezuela was different for North Americans than it was for Venezuelans. Having money to pay off corrupt cops was as necessary as having money for gas, food and entertainment.
Everyone of us were white. Everyone had their 'story' about being stopped, some multiple stories. Thankfully, this all stopped once we returned home to the States.
I claim no knowledge of what it's like to be a person of color in our country. I have no words of wisdom to suggest a possible change. I only know my memories of being terrified at the sight of police. Oh, I was between the ages of 5 through 7 when we lived in Venezuela. I'm 65 now and that's the clearest memory I have of living in a foreign country.
12
I always read these articles and make the same comment. We the people have the power we just fail to exercise it. There needs to be an organized effort and a message sent to the criminal justice community as jurors we will vote not guilty and there will not be a conviction until there is meaningful change in policing. Rest assured the changes will come about quickly Time for talk is over
6
When I read about Commissioner O'Neill's anguish at having to fire Pantaleo, my first thought was, "Wow, he really doesn't get it." Now, reading some of the comments here, I see there are a lot of people who don't get it. All you have to do is read the headlines to know that people of color are unfairly targeted by and unsafe in the hands of police, whether they've done anything wrong or not. Even if it were true that more crimes are committed by people of color, it's not acceptable for police to target or overreact. I'm a 70-year-old white woman, but if I had a child or grandchild who was Black or Latino, I would be terrified all the time that a police encounter would end badly. I think a big part of the problem is that police are poorly trained and unreasonably afraid and angry with the people they are policing--otherwise why would you shoot a 12-year-old with a toy gun without even asking a question, or put a man in an extended chokehold for selling contraband cigarettes. What's really disturbing is that police profiling and unjustified police killings initially were met with outrage. Now it seems more people are willing to excuse and rationalize racist and violent actions of police, including the Police Commissioner of New York.
22
I don’t have an answer, but maybe we should have only policemen of the same race patrol areas that align with the appropriate race.
6
@Jerry Davenport
Might work great in 1955 segregated South, but American cities are much more integrated than you may think!
(Plus many deaths of POC are caused at the hands of police of color)
1
@BKB The attorney who defended Pantaleo claimed, falsely, that he had used a "seat belt hold";so this lawyer looks at the video & blatantly lies to defend Pantaleo;Garner's friend, Ramsey Orta, filmed the entire event including the group of cops that came up Behind Garner&immediately put him in a hold around Garner's neck & no seat belt goes around ones neck;Orta & Garner were planning to go to lunch, but Orta starting filming as soon as he saw the cops because that precinct had been harassing them frequently over nothing;Ramsey Orta was arrested & has been in jail several years& his sentence keeps getting longer because guards keep giving him "tickets" unfairly;he was first in Riker's where his & others food had rat poison in it;now he refused to eat unless his wife brings him food;the guards taunt him "you're ours now" "you're not so tough when you're not filming" Orta should be released, this is more about payback for filming the cops than anything else. Yes, lots of racism still exists everywhere, it's the job of all of us to speak out against it.
2
What makes it difficult to know what to do is that the police have two contradictory functions. On one hand they are agents of "government" and thus address social needs, usually in a positive way. On the other they are an army of occupation that serves the "state" and thus underwrite the appropriation of surplus value from the working class.
That police are inclined to kill innocent people is a consequence of this second social function. However, that they are particularly inclined to kill people of color calls for further explanation.
I can think of two reasons. As instruments of repressive force, police are trained and inclined to kill. Just as military recruits these days are conditioned to see people as objects in order to kill them. Police also often treat people as objects. American racism defines a class of people as objects that an agent of the state can kill without moral cost.
The second reason is that racism has always been a crucial element in the US economy. It divides the working class so that it is less able to resist and so that a portion of it falls subject to a more intensive exploitation.
10
All law enforcement should not be allowed to show potential deadly force when it is not shown to them. Expectations by the police that deadly force might happen is just too low a bar. Yes, no one wants to be killed on the job, but what they do is law enforcement. Being judge, jury, and executioner should never, never be a option. You don’t like it, get another job. Before I retired, I had to do home visits, the roughest, poorest neighborhoods. No gun, just a badge. I’m still here. I know that police deal with sometimes the worst of us, that is the job. Again, shooting first, and asking questions afterwards can not, should not, ever be the rule. If tax evasion is an excuse to kill, then what about Washington.
14
Understand this quite well. I've felt it too when pulled over by police officers. Happened twice and BOTH the officers were black.
Once a speeding issue in PA and the other time it happened on the Northern State Parkway when I had an accident.
It didn't matter that I was black too; they were awful. Can't say it's only white cops who are bad; there are some bad apples who happen to be black too.
24
"I don’t know if white readers can comprehend how stressful police stops are for black and brown folks in the United States."
I do know, because my wife -- the sun of my life -- is a brown person. And it cuts us both when agents of the government of the country we both love treat her differently from the way they treat me.
23
Some time during our difficulties in Iraq there was a news story about a Iraqi motorist who was shot by American troops while speeding through Baghdad. Turned out he was late for work. The reporter said the man lacked situational awareness. Meaning he should have known better than to drive a speeding car when there were American troops around.
Years later I was driving from Tucson to San Diego and had just been waved through the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 8 when I thought it would be a great time while already stopped to get my San Diego map out of the back seat. I pulled off to the right a few yards past the checkpoint to let traffic pass, not noticing I was stopped in front of the portable office. I got out and went to open the back car door. Thankfully it was locked because as I turned to hit the unlock button on the driver’s door, I sat three Border Patrol agents running towards me with their guns drawn. Clearly I lacked situational awareness. Luckily I was a sixty year old white man, so they just told me I shouldn’t park there. I think if I had been younger and non-white, I probably would be dead, so I get it.
33
In the not so distant place police and fire departments were comprised of mostly white individuals. They had what was perceived as generous pension plans and you didnt need a college degree. With the assistance of judges Stop and Frisk came to an end and the fire department was forced to integrate and hire qualified minorities and women.
Racism is the backbone of American society, the police department can kill people and get away with it. Our prisons are horror shows that people who are held there would rather be dead than in them In a society that is based on punishing everyone in the punitive manner it is easy to see police officers engaged in the extreme vs common sense. When the police are called into a school they handcuff a frst grader, time outs are associated with minority children. WE create a racist hateful environment where police officers have no problem abusing citizens.
Till we understand what truly motives police officers, undercover agents, wherever power doesn't have to be corralled nothing will ever change. We know about Frank because of a videotape and the young family that recorded the incident have been targeted and imprisoned by the police. Now what is their excuse to also act like animals when you are already under investigation for the death of one person.
Easy, they are white and for decades they have been getting away with it Nothing will change because we wont face racial hate and try to change
4
The author is correct when he wonders if white readers could understand how stressful police stops are for black and brown people. But if you have ever been stopped by police as a white person, the evident arrogance and power abuse employed by the police could give you some idea. They search your car illegally, lie to you about your rights, and are punitive to you if you attempt to exercise those rights. And if you dare to not "follow police commands" then you are in for brutality or even death. Multiply this by a factor of 10 and you may have an understanding what faces a black person.
55
I'm white, and so are my two sons. My youngest son has overcome a horrendous drug addiction that lasted for many years. He's been clean for over a year now. But the last time he used, he stole my car. He had just totaled his car that I was still paying for, so he took mine. I called the police. My oldest son was with me. The officers told us that I should know that if I report the car stolen, and if the police see it, it will be stopped with guns drawn and any move by my son could be fatal. I was thankful that the officer told me. I did not follow through with my stolen car report. And my son did bring it back that same day. But that incident capsulated this system for me. My own car was worth more than my own son's life in the eyes of "the law" and I had to choose between them. I can't imagine what it's like being a Black or Brown mother of healthy, non-drug addicted kids just driving home from school or work or visiting for the holidays. I just can't imagine feeling that anguish every ordinary day.
22
@Bonnie Weinstein - the police approach a stolen car with guns drawn because they are dealing with an unpredictable felon who has already demonstrated that following the law is not his strong point. It has absolutely nothing to do with treating a car with more respect than a person. They really don't care about your car. They are just there to enforce the law as written.
21
@KCSM: I'm going to guess, Bonnie, that you don't understand that what you just wrote constitutes an excuse for unnecessary police violence.
3
I think your reply is addressed to KCSM, not Bonnie.
4
Mr. Thrasher there is no need to carry a passport around. There is an enhanced drivers license, it has an American flag in the lower right corner, I got one a year ago, bring documents that you are a citizen to the DMV and you get one very easily.
An enhanced license (permit, or non-driver ID) is a New York State DMV issued document that you can use instead of a passport to return to the US by land or sea from Canada, Mexico and some countries in the Caribbean. New York's EDL is compliant with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).
8
Too many police are ex military types who look and act like bouncers at a night club. They are trained to fight, not de-escalate a situation, and that is their attitude.
The way police are trained is in a military style. They are marched around. They wear military type uniforms and have "rank", such as Sergeant, Lieutenant, etc. If one of them is killed, they have a military funeral with a 21 gun salute. And now they have "Bearcat" tanks and all of this heavy hardware and military gear.
Why is this? They are not military, they are supposed to be civilian peace keepers. This culture creates fights and confrontations that don't need to occur. They way police are trained, the way they think about themselves, the way they are uniformed and "ranked" has created a culture of confrontation that is way beyond what is needed. If you train a group to fight, and hire military bulked up types who like to fight you are going to have a lot of fights and shootings.
On the part of the black community, as long as they continue to hold up Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin has innocent victims or heroes, there isn't much hope of progress. Garner and Brown picked fights with cops, and Martin was killed in self defense when he jumped the guy who was following him.
14
Some excellent points regarding group attitude and psychological conditioning. I would like to see law enforcement shifted more toward out-of-the-car community policing, where officers regularly engage with citizens under non-threatening conditions.
7
@Gerry
You’re absolutely right about police culture and the abuses that inevitably result. The practical question is whether there is an alternative way to recruit and motivate people to do such a dangerous job at relatively low pay. The solidarity and unquestioning support they feel from other officers seems an essential part of their rewards for their service. We need a whole new way to organize policing,
As a 74 year old white woman, I experience fear when a trooper is near me on the road, but only because I know I'm going over the speed limit. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be black and have the constant fear, not of getting a speeding ticket, but of getting shot by the police for the simple reason that their skin is black.
11
Say it again, Steven, only louder. Daniel Pantaleo should be tried for manslaughter.
12
@Antoine He should tried for 2nd degree murder. Eric Garner was selling cigarettes, one at a time, to earn money, hardly the crime of the century. This was a classic case of the "punishment does not fit the crime," and Officer Pantaleo made a conscious decision to put Mr. Garner in a potentially lethal choke hold which resulted in Eric Garner's death. Pantaleo clearly intended to do physical harm to Garner and he did.
5
Thank you Dr. Thrasher. Like most black men, I lived in a partial state of paranoia most of my life. America does not begin to realize the high cost of the emotional damage that it does to us people of color. As the poster photo with this article states, "We are Eric Garner." I read the one NYTimes Pick on the Editorial boards statement about the firing of the officer and it disgusted me. That Pick said "it was not about racism." Please name me one, just one, white man who has died from strangulation at the hands of a policeman?
Strangleholds were so rampant in LA at one time that LAPD chief Daryl Gates had the audacity to say something was "genetically deficient in blacks causing their tendency to die from normal strangle holds." I know that the NYTimes has its role of keeping the fires burning but at a controllable stage with its reporting but someday, the real truth will be stated front and center, if we live long enough.
22
Police in my city were caught on tape discussing their job being "human refuse removal". This steers EVERY interaction towards danger. Add in the guns they EXPECT people to be "reaching for " and it's a disaster. (We had a DOJ assessment agreement that was overturned by Trump administration. )
A number of changes are required:
-Mandatory use of body cameras
-Accountability in every case force is used
-California-like rule that limits use of force
-Establishing a police force similar in makeup to the local population
-Getting guns out of our society
15
Accordign to the study Dr. Thrasher cites in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: “The average lifetime odds of being killed by police are about 1 in 2,000 for men and about 1 in 33,000 for women.”
I agree with Dr Thrasher that the police in America are out of control.
But it is not being black that puts you most at risk of being killed by police. It is being male. This is primarily a gender issue with a racial component.
Within genders you find racial differences- black men are killed by police at higher rates than white men (about twice as high) and black women at a higher rates than white women.
But the gender difference dwarfs the racial difference- a white male is at an enormously greater risk of being killed by the police by a woman of any gender, including black women.
Dr. Thrasher, I suggest that convincing white Americans that their sons are also at great risk of being killed by police would be much more effective at stopping police violence than arguing that blacks are a special case that white people just can’t understand.
I don’t expect you to believe me, but I can tell you from personal experience that having a white face doesn’t help as much as you might think when facing an enraged cop determined to prove who is boss.
31
@Objectively Subjective What an excellent deflection from the very real issue Mr. Thrasher addresses.
4
@Objectively Subjective There is an element of truth in your statement about enraged police officers being dangerous to citizens regardless of the race of the citizen.
I inadvertently enraged a young police officer by mistakenly taking a wrong lane in a construction zone, because he was apparently returning from abandoning his post where he was supposed to be giving directions and had been instead getting a coffee at a nearby shop.
I'm a white woman in her seventies, but I feared I was going to be arrested. Even being screamed at was frightening, and totally not how a police officer should be behaving.
But I never thought he was going to kill me, so in comparison to the vulnerability of black people, it was nothing.
Except that all these events make it totally clear that unfit people are being hired as officers and their training, especially in the use of firearms and deescalation, is almost nonexistent.
18
@K Norris, I’m not sure what “main point” I’m deflecting from.
Dr. Thrasher and I are in agreement that unaccountable and violent police are a prolem.
He argues that race and ethnicity is the primary problem. I disagree, cite statistics from a source he provided, and argue that gender is the primary problem.
That is not deflection, that is discussion.
It would be nice if we could have actual discussions on actual issues in America again. Care to add to one?
18
Root cause analysis would suggest that the reason so many people are shot by police is the entirely rational thought by an officer that the person they are interacting with has a gun. They are not going to wait to see whether that assumption is true or not and want to get home after work. If guns were not omnipresent in US society this lethal thought pattern would not be ingrained in our officers. Of course some officers are just power-tripping racists but those are probably a small minority.
32
@Tony I'll believe this is about guns when white mass shooters are more likely to be killed by police than unarmed black people. Right now, the opposite is true.
6
@Dave Your statement doesn't have any basis in reality. Most mass shooters (overwhelmingly young white males) are killed. Most unarmed black men interacting with police are not. Deaths reported by the news =/= larger picture.
3
It’s absolutely true, Tony, that the omnipresence of guns in the U.S. leads police officers to panic and overreact. They never know when someone they’re about to approach or confront will be armed.
Gun ownership is essentially illegal in Britain. The citizenry is not routinely armed, so cops are not compelled to arm themselves in self-defense. The phenomenon of citizens being gunned down by police is almost nonexistent in the U.K.
Add to this the racist stereotypes that we white folks all seem to absorb and internalize (no matter how liberal or fair-minded our upbringing) that cause us to automatically perceive black folks as dangerous, and you get even more potential for cops to panic and pull the trigger.
1
I could feel Steven Thrasher's fear as he shared his thought stream about passing through the ICE checkpoint. Can't blame him or others since I too have seen a number of reliable videos of police killing people of color. Killing a man for selling some loose cigarettes? Really? The officer doing this was minimally guilty of manslaughter so being fired is really no justice.
If my fellow white bothers and sisters can't feel deep empathy for Eric Garner and others suffering his fate, perhaps they should consider that this type of police behavior represents the growth of the police state. Minorities are always the first target and the society waits to see if the majority accepts this behavior. Eventually, these illegal tactics become acceptable and then they are used on all of us when convenient. If we allow the liberty of some to be taken away, it will be taken from all of us.
52
Reading the comments is like a bunch of people screaming "I'm not a racist." Well crafted arguments about higher numbers of arrests for people of color etc. if white males were targeted with the same intensity as black males by police the numbers of arrests would be huge. When white males are arrested they faced greater reduced charges and much less jail time than men of color for the same crime. I'm an old white guy working in the criminal justice system. Don't tell me that there is no racist. I invite you to explore your reactions rather than deny the reality
84
@Kelly The reality is that black people make up 14% of the population and yet commit half the murders. That's going to mean a lot more law enforcement attention, and for good reason.
7
Professor, for your statistics to be relevant, you need to strip out the encounters in which the black subjects were violent, abusive, armed, or noncompliant. Those are encounters where anyone can get shot. Tell us how much more often black subjects get shot when they are unarmed and compliant. Then we'll have a statistic that can serve as a rational basis for remedial measures.
100
@James Ribe
No, he doesn’t. First of all, white people walk away from deadly massacres without being shot by police all the time. Police seem to find an ability to disarm and bring in white folks that they don’t seem to have with people of color, who are sooner shot on sight.
So the notion that violence or resistance is an equalizer in this situation is simply false.
The fact is, black people are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white people. So unless you believe that black people are inherently, genetically, 2.5 times more violent than white people (textbook 19th century racism), there is an obvious disparity in our society.
31
@James Ribe
If people want to break from the sacred liberal narrative you might try reading Prof. Walter Williams' "Black versus Police". Lots of relevant numbers. The idea - sacred apparently to some - that African Americans (i.e., POCs) are being picked on beyond behavioral justification does NOT stand (nor is their big presence in athletics biased).
Claim here that POCs are 2.5 times as likely to be killed by police as whites. That does suggest bias given that POCs are at least 7 times more likely to commit homicide.
The author makes a sympathetic reference to Ferguson. Readers can look up the NYT article “Jolted by Deaths, Obama Found His Voice on Race” and read the white Obama-supporter’s (shstl) experience there including,
"Fires were set repeatedly in my neighborhood. Homes & cars were vandalized and burglarized. Citizens and business owners were harassed & threatened. Some, like me, were even surrounded in our cars by mobs of protestors - cursed & spit at, targeted simply because we were white."
Finally, the inability of many POC academics to be internally critical is pathetic.
22
@James Ribe Did you really just try to justify shooting a person of color because they were non-compliant with a police officer or talked back to a police officer. I don't know if you realize it but comments like yours are the very definition of our problems with out of control police officers. I mean who their right mind believes that not following their orders or talking back is a crime punishable by being threatened with a gun or even killed. Thank you for so clearly showing the problem.
30
I am a white person who has been convinced by the writing of people such as yourself that people of color are in far more danger during police encounters than white people are. I thank you for your efforts.
11
At this moment in time it seems that words matter quite a lot, as pundits and social media warriors clamor to dissect every word and phrase uttered by ordinary and higher profile Americans every day. With that in mind, I think it's important to discuss the author's decision to describe his life in America as living under "occupation". This is a dangerous and harmful characterization of our society and, in my opinion, is largely hyperbolic.
Living under "occupation" explicitly means that you are regularly deprived of essential needs, such as food, water, freedom of movement, access to representation in government, etc., through a sustained military or police presence. This is hardly the case for anyone in America, as even illegal immigrants have rights (healthcare, education ,etc) in our society. Furthermore, even if young male POC are statistically more likely to interact with Police, those interactions do not qualify as an "occupation". The vast vast majority of POC walk away from those interactions with no less rights and no less freedom then they had before.
This type of language is, unfortunately, purposefully corrosive to our society because it further cements a view that there is one side that is good and another that is evil. Supporting the Police and acknowledging the incredible challenges they face every day does not mean that we cannot demand more of them and hold them accountable, but at the same time we must do the same for this type of journalism.
47
@John The vast majority of interactions between an occupying army and the people being occupied do not result in violence. But they do result in the *threat* of violence, because the occupiers have guns and bulletproof vests and the occupied generally don't, and everybody involved knows it.
And the fact is that black people's movements, access to government representation, and yes food and water, are limited, in no small part because they're black. For example, rampant housing discrimination for the most part limits black people's ability to buy a home or even rent apartments outside of certain areas, and the laws protecting tenants from landlord abuse such as cutting off heat or water supply are frequently not enforced in those areas. Not coincidentally, these areas frequently don't have grocery stores available, leaving convenience stores and fast food as the only available food options. As for freedom of movement, black people are regularly stopped and harassed by police for being in the "wrong" (i.e. white) neighborhoods, and many places deliberately avoid having public transit services in an effort to prevent black people from being there.
The language isn't unjustified.
7
With all due respect to Mr. Thrasher, I think he is wrong that bigotry is the cause of police abuse of civilians. Bigotry certainly plays a large part in determining who will be the victim of police abuse, but it is not the cause. Even if it were possible to eliminate bigotry among police officers (it certainly isn't possible), their abuse of civilians would continue; all that would change is the identity of their victims.
The real cause of police abuse is simply human nature combined with the near certainty that police will face no negative consequences as a result of their abuse, that police officers know they are above the law.
Police abuse of civilians will continue unabated so long as police officers know they will be protected by their fellow officers who will lie for them, by their supervisors who will cover up for them, and by prosecutors who will refuse to prosecute them.
I readily understand that blacks and latinos would prefer that police abuse be directed at others than themselves, just as whites prefer that it be directed against others than themselves. But the real enemy is the cause of police abuse, not the factor that determines the identity of the victims of it.
Addressing bigotry, even if it could be successful (which it cannot), would only change the identity of the victims....the evil would remain and continue. To slay the evil, we must address the cause. Police must not be allowed to continue to be above the law.
52
@Errol I have to push back. As a Black man, it has never been my desire nor the desire of many men of color that I know to wish police abuse be directed at other people. We simply want the abuse to stop. Period. And if that isnt possible then we want equal protections under the law just like our white counterparts. That's all.
64
@Timothy Benston
My point was that attempting to eliminate bigotry among police officers will not stop police abuse, it will only change the identity of the victims. So, if you want police abuse to stop, don't waste your time attempting to end bigotry. Besides being a pointless exercise in futility, it would not end police abuse even if you succeeded.
Furthermore, making the issue into one of race is counterproductive for 2 reasons. First, it misdirects effort to address the real cause of police abuse. Second, by doing so you make it very unlikely that efforts to restrain police misbehavior will gain support among those who are prejudiced against those who are now disproportionately victimized.
4
@Errol It is not human nature to be violent.
It is the nature of those who are hired to be police. I am even shocked by their foul language in the killing videos I have seen--even in front of children! Normal people do not talk like that.
8
I don't know what sort of psychological testing, work performance review, or what sort of other tools we can use, but somehow we need to get some of our police off the streets and doing desk work. It's got to be a terribly stressful occupation, and therefor, it seems to me that some sort of regular evaluation needs to be done.
14
@otto
Several years ago, a police chief in Tennessee used polygraph tests to weed out racist applicants. Even if polygraph results are unreliable, their use may dissuade some from applying in the first place. However, that same unreliability would make polygraph tests unusable to reassign or fire existing police officers.
1
@otto
Psychologists will tell you that there are no fancy psychological tests that can predict violence.
Past violence is the best predictor of future violence. If a cop is the subject of repeated civilian complaints, he should be fired.
We can't afford to take someone like Pantolini off the streets and pay him $125,000 a year for desk work for 20 years, until he's eligible for retirement at another $125,000 a year. He should be fired like the rest of us if we can't do our job.
We can't do it because the police unions have a lock on the justice system, because the prosecutors and courts won't confront bad cops, and because juries in Staten Island won't convict them.
9