Police Brutality and US Race Relations
December 09, 2014
Dispatches from America
By Uche Onyebadi
Nigerian Vanguard
THE hottest issue in the U.S. today arguably is police brutality and its impact on race relations. But, it is not a new topic. Like a dormant volcano, it was activated by the gruesome and apparently unconscionable killing of two African American men by white policemen. Even more infuriating was how the bodies of both men were recklessly allowed to lie in the streets, stripped of any form of human dignity or decency.
The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was that in both cases, the U.S. judicial system provided an escape route to the policemen at the centre of the fatal incidents, as the grand juries returned no-indictment verdicts in both cases. In simple terms, the jurors reached the decision that there were no probable causes to charge the policemen to court. In ordinary language, it sounds like saying: the men are dead, but we see no reason for their killers to have their days in court; too bad; case closed.
Last week, protests erupted in various U.S. cities not just over the death of the unarmed men, but also against the system that determined that their killers had no case to answer before the courts. The protests, some of which unfortunately degenerated into riots, looting and other forms of vandalism, were about people incensed against what they perceived as injustice in how the system let the policemen escape justice.
Here is how President Obama reacted to the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, the man choked to death by some New York Police Department (NYPD) officers: His death “speaks to the larger issues that we’ve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year – and sadly, for decades. And that is, the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed the incident on “centuries of racism that have brought us to this day” and added that “Black lives matter.”
The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson (Missouri) and Eric Garner (New York) highlight the changed nature of policing in the U.S. A CNN interviewee, an ex-cop, put the issue in perspective. According to him, when he was active in policing decades ago, the image of the policeman or woman was that of a peace-maker; returning society to its peaceful atmosphere in the event of a disruption.
But today, the mentality in policing is that of law-enforcement; the show of force, brutal force, even when doing so was not called for. He is right. In Ferguson, Missouri, the initial police reaction to public agitation over the killing of Michael Brown was to roll out tanks and other paraphernalia of warfare that were used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In New York, about six police officers crowded Eric Garner, holding him in all manners of debilitating ways, including the outlawed choke-hold that asphyxiated and snuffed life out of him.
Unfortunately, such irresistible “law-enforcement” manifests more when white police officers encounter African Americans and other minority races. In response to the Ferguson incident, President Obama and other well-meaning people argued that police officers should wear body cameras as doing so might serve as an incentive to deescalate future conflicts. But, how about New York? There is video evidence of the entire sordid incident, yet a section of police officers and their sympathizers are stridently making the case that the video evidence was not what it shows. In other words, people are being asked not to believe what they saw.
Forms of empowerment
Police officers in the U.S. and perhaps all over the world always try to exonerate and shield one of their own. Policing worldwide appears to have become a form of empowerment to legally subjugate people in the name of the law. At least, that is how the few policemen who do not really understand their calling appear to interpret the fact that the law allows them to carry a gun and use it.
Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who applied the choke-hold on Eric has since apologized that it wasn’t his intention to kill the victim. Darren Wilson, the man who shot and killed Michael Brown, is completely and nonchalantly unrepentant. Either way, one of the consequences of their inelegant actions is that they have made the U.S. lose part of its moral high-ground in the international community. With such incidents as Ferguson and New York, how can President Obama look Vladimir Putin in the eyes and tell him not to unduly harass ordinary Russians?
Mark Geragos, a well-known U.S. defense attorney and CNN legal analyst, made the same point. Last week, he told a panel of legal experts on CNN that the Brown and Garner cases make the U.S. appear morally impotent. His argument is that in North Korea and other places where dictatorships still thrive, the system still puts people on show-trials with pre-determined outcomes. I believe that eventually, Ferguson and New York will redefine policing in America, and perhaps mellow down the “force” component in law-enforcement, especially when it involves African Americans and people of other minority races.
See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/police-brutality-race-relations/#sthash.yv3IZCnT.dpuf
Dispatches from America
By Uche Onyebadi
Nigerian Vanguard
THE hottest issue in the U.S. today arguably is police brutality and its impact on race relations. But, it is not a new topic. Like a dormant volcano, it was activated by the gruesome and apparently unconscionable killing of two African American men by white policemen. Even more infuriating was how the bodies of both men were recklessly allowed to lie in the streets, stripped of any form of human dignity or decency.
The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was that in both cases, the U.S. judicial system provided an escape route to the policemen at the centre of the fatal incidents, as the grand juries returned no-indictment verdicts in both cases. In simple terms, the jurors reached the decision that there were no probable causes to charge the policemen to court. In ordinary language, it sounds like saying: the men are dead, but we see no reason for their killers to have their days in court; too bad; case closed.
Last week, protests erupted in various U.S. cities not just over the death of the unarmed men, but also against the system that determined that their killers had no case to answer before the courts. The protests, some of which unfortunately degenerated into riots, looting and other forms of vandalism, were about people incensed against what they perceived as injustice in how the system let the policemen escape justice.
Here is how President Obama reacted to the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, the man choked to death by some New York Police Department (NYPD) officers: His death “speaks to the larger issues that we’ve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year – and sadly, for decades. And that is, the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed the incident on “centuries of racism that have brought us to this day” and added that “Black lives matter.”
The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson (Missouri) and Eric Garner (New York) highlight the changed nature of policing in the U.S. A CNN interviewee, an ex-cop, put the issue in perspective. According to him, when he was active in policing decades ago, the image of the policeman or woman was that of a peace-maker; returning society to its peaceful atmosphere in the event of a disruption.
But today, the mentality in policing is that of law-enforcement; the show of force, brutal force, even when doing so was not called for. He is right. In Ferguson, Missouri, the initial police reaction to public agitation over the killing of Michael Brown was to roll out tanks and other paraphernalia of warfare that were used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In New York, about six police officers crowded Eric Garner, holding him in all manners of debilitating ways, including the outlawed choke-hold that asphyxiated and snuffed life out of him.
Unfortunately, such irresistible “law-enforcement” manifests more when white police officers encounter African Americans and other minority races. In response to the Ferguson incident, President Obama and other well-meaning people argued that police officers should wear body cameras as doing so might serve as an incentive to deescalate future conflicts. But, how about New York? There is video evidence of the entire sordid incident, yet a section of police officers and their sympathizers are stridently making the case that the video evidence was not what it shows. In other words, people are being asked not to believe what they saw.
Forms of empowerment
Police officers in the U.S. and perhaps all over the world always try to exonerate and shield one of their own. Policing worldwide appears to have become a form of empowerment to legally subjugate people in the name of the law. At least, that is how the few policemen who do not really understand their calling appear to interpret the fact that the law allows them to carry a gun and use it.
Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who applied the choke-hold on Eric has since apologized that it wasn’t his intention to kill the victim. Darren Wilson, the man who shot and killed Michael Brown, is completely and nonchalantly unrepentant. Either way, one of the consequences of their inelegant actions is that they have made the U.S. lose part of its moral high-ground in the international community. With such incidents as Ferguson and New York, how can President Obama look Vladimir Putin in the eyes and tell him not to unduly harass ordinary Russians?
Mark Geragos, a well-known U.S. defense attorney and CNN legal analyst, made the same point. Last week, he told a panel of legal experts on CNN that the Brown and Garner cases make the U.S. appear morally impotent. His argument is that in North Korea and other places where dictatorships still thrive, the system still puts people on show-trials with pre-determined outcomes. I believe that eventually, Ferguson and New York will redefine policing in America, and perhaps mellow down the “force” component in law-enforcement, especially when it involves African Americans and people of other minority races.
See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/police-brutality-race-relations/#sthash.yv3IZCnT.dpuf
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