After the apparent murders by police in Baton Rouge and Minnesota, I remembered this quote from James Baldwin, from 1971’s “A Rap on Race” with Margaret Mead:
Because the police do not make any distinction between a Black Panther or a black lawyer or my brother or me. The cops aren’t going to ask me my name before the pull the trigger. I’m part of this society and I’m in exactly the same situation as anybody else — any other black person — in it. If I don’t know that, then I’m fairly self-deluded.
How little things seem to change.
The arbitrariness of the shootings has the effect of making all black people feel targeted. Police power is the point at which racial power — often subtler in other contexts — is mediated with grotesque clarity. Everything that’s wrong with us, comes out the barrel of a gun.
And yet, and yet … The Dallas Police Department was trying to do it right. They were tweeting pictures of a peaceful Black Lives Matter rally, of themselves smiling with protestors. According to Shaun King, they’re one of the better PDs in the country. And like so many … What’s the reward for keeping peace? The wages of goodness are not assured.
Remember the dead. Look for the heroes. Apparently Dallas PD had quite a few. We should ask our local PDs to be so.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Charley on the MTA says
for the patent inadequacy of this post to the moment. Please treat as an open thread.
JimC says
Thanks for posting. As always in cases like this, I’m struck by the futility of words, but then the silence starts to feel wrong too.
That said … I don’t really know what to say yet.
Christopher says
…that the issues of excessive force and gun control are linked. Cops in quick reaction mode are probably more likely than their counterparts in other countries to assume a weapon is being drawn because guns are so prevalent here. In fact, I think it was the MN case where the victim did in fact have a gun in his possession, which was completely legal under relevant laws and he declared such to the cop as he was reaching for his ID. Elsewhere, not only are there significantly fewer guns among the populace, but the police themselves are less heavily armed and sometimes not at all. I can’t help but wonder if we really got smart about this we could resolve both of these issues at once.
doubleman says
It would seem that police and sheriffs should be some of the leading forces for gun control in this country. They are not.
jconway says
Chief Bratton, Chief Kelly, and the DC and Chicago PD all signed amicus briefs opposing Heller. Law enforcement endorsed the Brady Bill overwhelmingly to get cop killer bullets and armor piercing ammo off the streets. We could all be more vocal, it’s the only way we will see progress.
doubleman says
Even with some support on specific measures or support for measures that if allowed are truly extreme (armor-piercing bullets), police, and especially sheriffs, are not leading forces in the fight for gun control. They are not out front on these issues.
The response after Sandy Hook when Obama directly sought their support was telling. Sheriffs opposed measures to ban assault weapons, and the high level police chief organization supported, but I don’t remember any big push other than saying they supported it in position papers.
We need real gun control, much more than what has been proposed recently. We actually need to take them guns, not just push No-Fly/No-Buy half measures. Democrats have pushed for results like those weaker measures as the true goals. They should just be the first steps.
SomervilleTom says
Police have been murdering and executing innocent blacks for decades. We know more about it now because cellphone technology and the web allows the victims to speak more loudly.
The government does NOTHING. Freddie Gray is killed in police custody, and the resulting investigation results in “innocent” verdicts all around. An FBI agent, hired by the Boston office after being forced to leave the Oakland CA PD because of a long history of abuses against blacks, executes a witness in his own home while in FBI custody — nothing happens.
The spectacle of the moment is a rabidly partisan GOP initiating yet another round of utterly groundless DoJ harassment of Hillary Clinton because they don’t like the results of the first round — while steadfastly refusing to do ANYTHING about the epidemic of police violence against blacks that is sweeping our nation.
Our government is utterly dysfunctional. It can not or will not do the things it MUST do, and instead spends all its time and resources doing things it must NOT do.
johntmay says
Our government has been purchased by the wealthy class and it us functioning as instructed.
Andrei Radulescu-Banu says
The reality is that America is chock full of guns – and any traffic stop by the police has the potential to turn deadly. This is what happened in Minnesota – an incompetent, scared cop lost his composure and shot the passenger at the first mention of ‘I have a gun… and have a license for it’.
It was an accident waiting to happen, and waiting to be caught on camera.
Yeah, we can chalk it up to unconscious racism, or to one cop’s criminal negligence. But the reality is that unconscious racism will not vanish if we wish it away – and cop negligence will always exist in a nation of 300 million people. Someone, somewhere will encounter a negligent cop holding your life in his hand. That cop will say “keep your hands up, and give me your license and registration”…
What we can change, in this picture, is to eliminate the risk of a deadly encounter – by voluntarily surrendering our weapons, and our right to bear weapons.
It will be hard to do this, and we have much education to do even among the Liberal left – because too many liberals are enamored with their guns. Time to drive the message home: ‘Your right to own a gun is not only making you less safe, but it is also putting the rest of us in great danger’.
johntmay says
But let’s not forget the wide and widening wealth disparity that is tearing us apart as a nation, pitting black against white, women against men, “us” against “them”, looking for answers why we can’t get ahead, can’t feel secure, and are losing hope. In some, lost hope turns to anger and anger looks for scapegoats. This wealth disparity is not natural like the sun rising or the rivers flowing, it’s a product of our choices and behaviors and it can be stopped. To stop it, to reverse it, we need to stop the nonsense replies of “Welcome to the 21st Century” and “It’s a Global Economy” when looking for solutions.
I just watched the organizer of the protest march speak and he said that only love will end this. He’s right. There is little love in an nation with wealth disparity as striking as it is in the USA.
SomervilleTom says
I think it’s very hard to tease apart the issues of police violence against blacks and police violence against the poor.
I wonder if anybody credible has gathered statistics that compare the rate of police violence per interaction (arrest, traffic stop, etc) for poor whites versus wealthy whites.
We have a society awash in a flood of guns. We have a society awash in a bloody flood of police violence. We have a society that is unwilling to take ANY substantive action against either.
The outcome is, sadly, inevitable.
johntmay says
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better was published in 2009.
Written by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, the book highlights the “pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and) encouraging excessive consumption”. It shows that for each of eleven different health and social problems: physical health, mental health, drug abuse, education, imprisonment, obesity, social mobility, trust and community life, violence, teenage pregnancies, and child well-being, outcomes are significantly worse in more unequal rich countries.
A collection of Powerpoint slides regarding The Spirit Level can be downloaded here.
SomervilleTom says
I understand the material in the slideshow, I’ve known that for a long time. I appreciate the link, and I’m looking for something more current and more specific.
I meant a specific and current analysis of police treatment of poor whites versus wealthy whites in connection with encounters between police and civilians.
I’m sure there is a racial component. I strongly suspect there is also a class component. I’m interested in a statistical analysis that explicitly separates those.
Andrei Radulescu-Banu says
Yes, there is wealth disparity; and the working class gets more frequent encounters with law enforcement than, say, the Wall Street class. And race is at play too – in most cases, subconscious racism, rather than of the overt, Trump-style, in your face kind.
Unfortunately, if we have to wait for a fix for wealth disparity, and for subconscious racism, let’s be clear that we’ll have to wait a while. Even with the right policies, it is something that will take a generation to change. It’s not just a problem of money – but also of culture, custom, habit.
On the other hand, the problem of cop killings – by cop, to cops – are immediate and require quick action. Else, we’ll hear next week, month, year many more people killed at traffic stops – or killed during arrest – or killed because of acting up during a mental breakdown.
There have to be discrete policy solutions to this without having to wait for wealth disparity to be fixed, and for racism to vanish from the face of the earth.
johntmay says
I can’t find any studies limited to these two demographics alone but I think it’s fair to assume that wealthy whites get better treatment than poor whites. Wealthy white crime is typically “white collar” stuff, tax fraud, embezzlement, while poor whites are arrested for drugs, petty theft and the like. My guess is visit any prison in the USA and see how many wealthy whites are there, Bernie Madoff aside.
johntmay says
We found that, in 2014 dollars, incarcerated people had a median annual income of $19,185 prior to their incarceration, which is 41% less than non-incarcerated people of similar ages.
Further on down the link, it breaks it down by race.
We found that incarcerated people in all gender, race, and ethnicity groups earned substantially less prior to their incarceration than their non-incarcerated counterparts of similar ages:
petr says
… to love even the wealthy?
It strikes me that your constant refrain of wealth inequality very inadequately masks a deep resentment towards the wealthy. And I can understand it, if not condone it. But, please understand, this is not an argument in favor of wealth, and I’m not asking you to love the wealthy for their wealth… this is an argument against resentment. The only thing that will end this is love, and that’s true for everyone involved. If you don’t have love, even for the wealthy, how will this end?
To love someone is to want, work for and even sacrifice for, what is best for them. I, personally, believe that what is best for the wealthy is for them to be relieved of some of their wealth, and that distributed amongst the entire remainder of the population via government action: that is to say, what is best for them, is higher taxation and a better government. It’s pretty simple really.
What I don’t want, is to have the wealthy — or, indeed, anyone — ground under heel and made to suffer in acts of vengeance. And maybe there are, actually, out there and present real robber-barons and crooks who might actually have done things to deserve to be ground under foot and punished. Still, I don’t want that, not because I’m mindful of the robber-barons but because I’m mindful of the possessor of the heel. To love someone is to want, and even work for, what’s best for them… even to telling them that to be gripped by a poisonous resentment or a cancerous and vengeful wrath is wrong and, in fact, most harmful to themselves.
johnk says
Instead of 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon, your game is 1 degree to Socialism, pick anyone or anything. Duck. ok, um…. SOCIALISM!
johntmay says
Socialism dispossesses the ordinary worker for the sake of the general good while capitalism dispossesses the ordinary worker for the sake of the monopolizing capitalist. So in effect, these are two economic models of dispossession. Phillip Blond.
Christopher says
…but from what I can gather, his is probably the weakest of all the cases we’ve seen over the past couple of years that he was actually deliberately KILLED by police. I wasn’t surprised by that particular set of verdicts.
SomervilleTom says
Freddie Gray was alive and well taken into custody, and dead shortly thereafter.
I’m confident that had the same circumstances had happened to the son of, say, Donald Trump or any other well-connected white family, police heads would have rolled.
Mark L. Bail says
and ended up dead. They had no excuse for even having him in custody.
jconway says
Fat fingers on the iPhone at it again.
joeltpatterson says
to order a special dialing wand.
jconway says
“I want to hug my son before and after he puts on his uniform. Alton Sterling, Philando Castille and Dallas all could have been him”-Nina Turner on Twitter, retweeted by Shaun King who also tweeted the moving image of a white and black officer smiling and standing in solidarity with a protestor saying “no justice, no peace”.
My sister in law wrote a powerful piece on the racism she and my brother have encountered in the last year raising my adopted niece and nephew that she wrote yesterday in response to this awfulness. She’s done a 180 in a powerful way since starting this adoption process. I won’t reshare without permission, but it’s become an issue that is affecting more and more families. White children in MA foster care are 9 times more likely to get adopted. That’s disgusting and it has to stop.
sabutai says
Those police officers were protecting our Constitution more than our big talking Congresspeople ever has, by ensuring a safe, orderly protest. And they were attacked for it — anyone who wants to destroy American freedom would do what these rotters did. I believe Black Lives Matter; if someone now thinks twice about attending a protest supporting that, they’ve hurt that movement.
ISIS knows you violence begets more violence. They must admire the actions of these perpetrators.
JimC says
The shooter was taken out by a robot. This is believed to be a first.
doubleman says
This is also one of those things that I as a layperson never really understand, but if he was cornered, apparently for hours, why couldn’t they use a robot to subdue him in some other way? I think about this a lot when there are people killed by police – either in situations we have seen or in the all too common “suicide by cop” events. Why aren’t there better non-lethal options?
Mark L. Bail says
about a flash bang grenade instead; however, I think if they go after someone, they are supposed to shoot to kill. Also Johnson had a bomb himself, didn’t he?
johnk says
we are more and more becoming anesthetized to terrorist activity in our country.
SomervilleTom says
The shooters said nothing about Islam. Therefore this wasn’t terrorism.
Right?
Andrei Radulescu-Banu says
It’s not called terrorism in the news reports – but it was pretty much a suicidal attack designed to scare Police forces and to make them think twice before engaging to do their work.
The intent was to terrorize.
Now there may be reasons why it is not called terrorism yet… It could very well be that, when classified as a terrorism act, federal agencies would be obligated to keep tabs on it, to assess future risk of it happening again, to make plans should it happen once more, to draft lists of suspects liable to perpetrate this in the future, etc.
It could very well be that the Federal Government has no stomach to set up a process of this sort. But that’s a debate we ought to have, publicly, whether some may like it or not.
Christopher says
…I’m pretty sure Tom was being sarcastic. He has on multiple occasions observed that violent acts not tied to Islam do in fact bear the marks of a terrorist act.
AmberPaw says
Taken all together, there IS a risk of violence here, too. My Rx would be to properly fund community mental health, reinvigorate paid internship programs so that 90,000 or so skilled jobs don’t go begging and empty and require us to import workers while far too many cannot find work or support their families, ensure access to this list for all: 1) good quality education and training for today’s jobs and technologies; 2) a stable ample mental health system; 3) equal funding for k-12 education statewide, no matter what it takes in terms of “return of capital” aka “local aid”; 4) access to justice and full funding for the court and guardian ad litem systems;5 ) not just “enough” treatment beds for addiction but more than needed with step down programs that build self worth and employability. There is a start.
Andrei Radulescu-Banu says
> Massachusetts has one of the largest disparities in wealth,
> one of the worst public higher education systems, and has walked away
> from providing mental health care
You hit the nail on the head. I was stunned to hear Charlie Baker boast that these sort of problems seen around the US with police killings cannot happen in Massachusetts, because the police is so connected to the community…
He’s thinking wishfully. Especially after we know, thanks to Spotlight, about the large number of mental patients who died in encounters with police in the state.
scott12mass says
My understanding is that if police show up to your house they cannot coerce you out and arrest you unless they have a warrant, or visible clues you’re breaking the law. When they stop you in a vehicle you possess the same immunity, until you step out of the vehicle into public space. This makes the encounter more difficult, and raises tensions on both sides.
If vehicle occupants all exited the vehicle, walked to the rear of the car with their hands on their head, faced away from the police car but maintained their immunity from police overreach would this help defuse the situation. Many of these situations seem to start with minor vehicle infractions.
jconway says
Other than speeding or DUI, there is really no need to pull over for minor infractions. The MN victim was killed over a broken taillight, which adds so much more indignity to the situation.
Christopher says
…or otherwise know what happened between being pulled over for a taillight (which certainly DOES happen from time to time) and when the cell phone cam started rolling. There may not be an immediate need to pull over for things other than speeding or DUI, but they are certainly within their rights to AFAIK. Unfortunately, such has happened to yours truly a couple of times.
Christopher says
…to making a broken taillight not an issue at all until inspection time. I don’t like the Atlantic’s proposed solution. As a driver if I get pulled over, I’d WANT the cop to address me directly to let me know what is going on.
Andrei Radulescu-Banu says
The strange thing is that the MN driver had been pulled over before 52 times for small irregularities, over 14 years, and had been fined at least $6,588.
stomv says
If the problem is a racial bias with police forces, you fix the bias. Minimizing interactions only serves to obscure the bias.
On a side note, I am sometimes amazed at where people pull over, and consequently, where an officer stands roadside. It can seem really dangerous sometimes. I wonder: why don’t officers insist that drivers turn down a quiet road, or pull into a parking lot, or otherwise choose a location that doesn’t add to the stress by requiring the officer to stand a few feet away from vehicles driving 30mph+?
stomv says
When an officer says that, I think it’s awfully hard to argue 4th Amendment. Further, there’s something about the human condition that makes one side dig their heels when the other does too.
On a much smaller scale, I make it a point to get pulled over once a year for a bicycling infraction in my town. The fine is $20, and I’m willing to pay my town an extra $20/year to see how the interaction goes. It always goes like this:
1. stomv makes an obvious biking infraction in front of a police officer, while being really, really safe, and during a bike drag-net when they’re pulling over bikes for anything and ignoring everything else.
2. I get waved over.
3. I pull over, take off my helmet, and interact with the officer.
4. Officer asks for my drivers’ license.
5. I inform the officer that yes, I have my license on me, and no, I won’t be providing it, as MGL explicitly preserves my right as a bicyclist to refuse.
6. The officer takes some person information, calls it in, and writes me a ticket.
Pretty normal, right? Except that my town uses warnings (and not tickets) for the vast majority of bicycle infractions, over 90 percent in past years. Yet I always get the ticket, never the warning.
I think it’s because the officer views my holding tight to my legal rights as digging in my heels, and then immediately refuses to give me any discretion. I think officers do this quite a bit, and I think most citizens know they do this, at least intuitively. I think this results in an environment where citizens effectively trade their civil rights to the police in exchange for a lottery ticket on discretion. I think that it’s an entirely rational trade on the part of the citizen, and a clever ploy on the part of the nation’s police forces. I also think that, although both sides are behaving rationally, it results in a really bad outcome — the willful erosion of civil rights, taken through implied (and legal!) force.
So, by all means, refuse to get out of the car after the officer strongly requests. Just know that the odds that you get one (or more!) ticket just went up. And hell, if your black or brown, and maybe even if you’re not, the odds that you get to kiss the billy club or the officer’s boot just went up too.
Christopher says
You don’t need one to ride a bicycle, and for all he knows maybe not having one is exactly WHY you are biking rather than driving. That said, I definitely fall into the category of just co-operate if it’s not going to hurt, and possibly help, anything rather than creating a constitutional case just on principle.
SomervilleTom says
One of the first things my wife and I noticed after moving to Somerville from Brookline — in 2010 — is the difference in attitude of the police. Even though Somerville is more dense, more diverse, and has a higher crime rate, the police in Somerville are consistently low-key, polite, and courteous in their interactions with the public.
I applaud your willingness to fight this battle, even while I rue the attitude of town government that allows this police behavior to continue year after year.
jconway says
No department is perfect, but I was thoroughly impressed not just with the show of security but true solidarity the SPD showed at the Pride Parade. So many officers marching in the parade in addition to guarding it. Was my first big community event here and I came away impressed. Sometimes at dusk I’ll sit by the ocean to FaceTime my wife and the two cops that pulled over just wanted to say hi and introduce themselves. Granted, I am not a POC so my experience is still privileged.
And CPD has a lot of fine officers who truly embody community policing, they used social media to stand with the local mosque after the Marathon Bombing and organize a lot of great events like First Night which I always went to as a kid and the Madden contest to get kids involved and keep them off the street. There are even youth academies with the Mayors Program this year for the CFD and CPD to recruit the next generation of community members into those forces. Obviously the Gates incident is a rare black mark, but the way the entire community reacted and rallied to overcome it will help prevent worse kinds of tragedies in the future. It’s never impossible, buts it’s highly improbable for these departments.