When I got back from my two weeks in the blue states, and as I slowly immersed myself back into bizarre red state politics, one of the strangest stories was that of Sandra Bland. I saw the video of her stop, heard of her subsequent arrest, and then ... she was dead. We appear to be debating whether her death was suicide or not. I keep coming back to how on earth a police officer could treat a citizen the way Brian Encinia did to Sandra Bland.
I have lots of feelings about officers of the law, going back to being a teen in Warwick, Rhode Island, in the late 60's. Back then they were shining lights into the car while we were "parking." And I learned very early in my driving career to be more alert for cop cars than for speed limit and stop signs. To this day when a cop is driving behind me I go into high alert, worried that even though I am going the speed limit I might get stopped if I venture one or two miles faster, or for something else entirely.
And I am a white-haired white woman.
I can't fathom being stopped for a minor traffic violation and having my attitude questioned. Or being told to put out a cigarette, in my own car. I can't begin to imagine having to worry about being taken to jail for minor violations.
I think when all the cop on black killings began to be aired after Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson we all just assumed it had been black men than were being targeted. Initially it appeared that it was police reacting to what might have been honestly perceived as a dangerous situation, but when a man was shot in South Carolina after reaching for his license during a stop for a seat belt violation, the racism inherent in the choices being made by police became obvious.
Then a group of black teens -- children -- were assaulted by police at a pool party. We've seen the bits on the news, the "most hilarious" moment when the cop has his Bruce Willis moment. But take seven minutes to watch the unedited youtube video to capture the horrific reality of what raising a black child in America is all about. It brings me to tears imagining that there are children in this country that could be treated that way.
Because I am a white-haired white woman, I tend to be treated with respect by police officers in Charleston, even when I have been speeding. And when I stepped out of my car to get my pocketbook in the back seat. I have even had an officer stop and change a flat tire for me. But I do remember that there was a time back in the 60's when cops were the enemies. I was a teen in a RI suburb, but as I got a few years older, and became interested in the Vietnam protests and saw the paranoia of the Nixon years, I became aware of the potential for violence in our police force.
So many years ago, and in all that time, violence has continued to be perpetrated against African Americans by cops. It must be so ingrained in the structure of the police force that even video cameras can't prevent the violence.
There has been such a history of police violence in our country. It runs so deep and has been so well-protected that I am cynical about the potential for change. If videos don't stop the violence and grand juries side with the cops, if a woman can be ordered to put out her cigarette in her own car and be arrested, if black men continue to be shot for totally innocent and reasonable behavior, if there are cops who will segregate children by their skin color and treat them as dangerous criminals, if there are police that will unite to protect fellow officers regardless of their behavior, what is there to do?
I imagine that much of it rests with the media. There hasn't been all that much attention to Sandra Bland. I don't know if it would be more upsetting if this were true because she is a woman or because the media has gotten tired of spending weeks focused on extreme police misconduct. Maybe she would be getting more attention if she had been shot on the scene. We may never know whether there was foul play in prison or if she committed suicide. I suspect that the arresting cop was attempting to find her emotionally unstable from the moment she questioned his motives. Calling women hysterical when they question authority has been going on since the Victorian era. And with the likelihood of publicity, I imagine each cop who oversteps begins to try to figure out justifications for his behaviors at the very scene of his crime. You could see this playing out as the various police yelled at the black kids at the pool party.
We need to keep shining light on these incidents. We need to hound the media to continue to focus on all these many crimes against civilians. With enough pressure and publicity, some towns have begun to change their policies. It will take changing hiring practices and training and supervisory techniques. It will take towns whose police chiefs see their officers as part of the community rather than seeing the people in the community as enemies. It will take a whole realignment of the perception of when violence is necessary, and that realignment is in learning to see and hear what is really going on and truly become peace officers, cops who calm a situation rather than create fear.
When a cop attacks a black child, or an innocent black man or woman, he is attacking the world we live in. He is creating disharmony, fear and hatred. He is making it harder for good cops to do their job. We need to continue to turn the attention of the country to each incident, even as they pile up and because there are so many, until there are no acceptable excuses and the face of the police in America has changed.
Showing posts with label Ferguson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ferguson. Show all posts
Monday, August 3, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Underground Racism
It seems fair to say, despite the pontifications of Chief Justice John Roberts, that racism has not come to an end. I wonder why nobody has asked him to share his wisdom regarding the shootings of black men by white police officers. It must have something to do with that ginormous buffer zone the justices have protecting them from the actual real world. Which also explains why we would never expect Clarence Thomas to have to worry about white cops.
It was inevitable that we in South Carolina would have our turn in the national spotlight over a police shooting. In fact it happened too briefly a year ago, and other times before that.
I was surprised to hear an MSNBC reporter yesterday note that of over 200 police shootings in South Carolina, none were convicted of a crime. I recalled the terrifying dashcam video of last summer's shooting of an unarmed black man who was reaching for his license and registration after being stopped for not having his seat belt on. It turns out that the officer involved was fired and charged with assault and battery, but not yet tried. It seems we need to keep a close eye on that case.
Because it should be obvious to anyone other than five members of the Supreme Court that racism is alive and well. And not just in the south. The stereotypes of dangerous black men and black women who live high off the welfare system haven't died; they had just gone underground. It may be that it took a black president to bring the paranoia out in the open. And it took authorities like the majority of the Supreme Court to give their blessing to racially motivated aggression.
Where was all that racism before it became legal to deny blacks the right to vote via the voter ID bandwagon and selectively limiting polling places, hours and locations? And we hadn't had quite such a rage against people on welfare and food stamps since Ronald Reagan's bullshit about the welfare queen in the Cadillac. While the media was enjoying the Obama birth certificate nonsense, the racists were beginning to crawl out from under their rocks.
As a white woman, I can testify to the fact that there has always been racism. Because every now and then, someone would say to me something along the lines of "You know what they're like." Wink, nudge. I find it bizarre, and yet, if you're like me, when it's happened to you white folk who are reading this, you may not have said, "No, I don't," or, "Yeah, probably like me." We don't confront the crazies because, well, they are crazy. After all, they've made assumptions that all we white folk are like they are and believe what they know to be fact. So, like me, you probably backed away from the conversation, maybe discretely shaking your head as you went.
We know the racists are out there. We know the stereotypes. The only way to change that nonsense is for white and blacks to live, work, go to school with each other. We've known that for a long time. And yet even when schools are integrated it is pretty likely that the social groups aren't. And even a liberal democrat such as myself finds that I am in a social group with white women.
So we self-select. But we still need to talk among each other. We need to share space. And most important, we need to stop the racists from perpetuating the racist myths. We need our politicians to stop playing to our fears. We need to insist that our judges don't hold ridiculous stereotypes. We definitely need to screen those who hold racist beliefs out of our police forces and our schools.
My mother used to tell the story of a teacher in her elementary school (circa 1925) who hated Italians. She thought they were dirty and stupid. As my mother walked down the stairs, this teacher gave her a little kick to help her along. We've mostly all been there. These days it's the Hispanics who are called dirty and stupid. Segregating ourselves from others who are different, stereotyping those we don't know well enough to understand, this may be the human condition. But we are all in a position to step up and stop the nonsense when it happens. The media needs to do it, the courts need to do it.
But I don't see that on the horizon. Fox News, the right-wing politicians, and big corporate powers like the Kochs have too much to gain by fueling the hate. Until our authorities step up, as Lyndon Johnson did when he said no to racism and put his full power behind the American law and a true belief in equality, we will have to whip out the cell phones and make the cops wear body cams. It won't end racism, and the cameras won't be enough. We've had blacks shot and strangled on camera, and the cops gotten off by not-so-grand juries and prosecutors who were on the side of the cops. It will take vigilance, protests, media focus to stop the killing of innocent blacks that has gone on throughout the country's history. It is good that the tragic killings of Trayvon Martin and of Michael Brown in Ferguson woke us up from our delusions. But we need to understand that those talks that dads have with their black sons about the police have always gone on, and we need to know that the society that makes that necessary has got to change.
It was inevitable that we in South Carolina would have our turn in the national spotlight over a police shooting. In fact it happened too briefly a year ago, and other times before that.
I was surprised to hear an MSNBC reporter yesterday note that of over 200 police shootings in South Carolina, none were convicted of a crime. I recalled the terrifying dashcam video of last summer's shooting of an unarmed black man who was reaching for his license and registration after being stopped for not having his seat belt on. It turns out that the officer involved was fired and charged with assault and battery, but not yet tried. It seems we need to keep a close eye on that case.
Because it should be obvious to anyone other than five members of the Supreme Court that racism is alive and well. And not just in the south. The stereotypes of dangerous black men and black women who live high off the welfare system haven't died; they had just gone underground. It may be that it took a black president to bring the paranoia out in the open. And it took authorities like the majority of the Supreme Court to give their blessing to racially motivated aggression.
Where was all that racism before it became legal to deny blacks the right to vote via the voter ID bandwagon and selectively limiting polling places, hours and locations? And we hadn't had quite such a rage against people on welfare and food stamps since Ronald Reagan's bullshit about the welfare queen in the Cadillac. While the media was enjoying the Obama birth certificate nonsense, the racists were beginning to crawl out from under their rocks.
As a white woman, I can testify to the fact that there has always been racism. Because every now and then, someone would say to me something along the lines of "You know what they're like." Wink, nudge. I find it bizarre, and yet, if you're like me, when it's happened to you white folk who are reading this, you may not have said, "No, I don't," or, "Yeah, probably like me." We don't confront the crazies because, well, they are crazy. After all, they've made assumptions that all we white folk are like they are and believe what they know to be fact. So, like me, you probably backed away from the conversation, maybe discretely shaking your head as you went.
We know the racists are out there. We know the stereotypes. The only way to change that nonsense is for white and blacks to live, work, go to school with each other. We've known that for a long time. And yet even when schools are integrated it is pretty likely that the social groups aren't. And even a liberal democrat such as myself finds that I am in a social group with white women.
So we self-select. But we still need to talk among each other. We need to share space. And most important, we need to stop the racists from perpetuating the racist myths. We need our politicians to stop playing to our fears. We need to insist that our judges don't hold ridiculous stereotypes. We definitely need to screen those who hold racist beliefs out of our police forces and our schools.
My mother used to tell the story of a teacher in her elementary school (circa 1925) who hated Italians. She thought they were dirty and stupid. As my mother walked down the stairs, this teacher gave her a little kick to help her along. We've mostly all been there. These days it's the Hispanics who are called dirty and stupid. Segregating ourselves from others who are different, stereotyping those we don't know well enough to understand, this may be the human condition. But we are all in a position to step up and stop the nonsense when it happens. The media needs to do it, the courts need to do it.
But I don't see that on the horizon. Fox News, the right-wing politicians, and big corporate powers like the Kochs have too much to gain by fueling the hate. Until our authorities step up, as Lyndon Johnson did when he said no to racism and put his full power behind the American law and a true belief in equality, we will have to whip out the cell phones and make the cops wear body cams. It won't end racism, and the cameras won't be enough. We've had blacks shot and strangled on camera, and the cops gotten off by not-so-grand juries and prosecutors who were on the side of the cops. It will take vigilance, protests, media focus to stop the killing of innocent blacks that has gone on throughout the country's history. It is good that the tragic killings of Trayvon Martin and of Michael Brown in Ferguson woke us up from our delusions. But we need to understand that those talks that dads have with their black sons about the police have always gone on, and we need to know that the society that makes that necessary has got to change.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
The Difference Between a Gun and a Tank
No, that's not the beginning of a joke. There are differences between guns and tanks, and there are similarities. And they are on a continuum that costs not just millions of taxpayer dollars, but trust between citizens and government, and in far too many cases, lives.
I remember when the nation first heard about S.W.A.T. Presumable, these dudes were well trained, cool-headed (and good-looking) heroes that assessed the need for force after all other options had been considered, then proceeded to save the lives of innocent people being held hostage by the truly bad bad guys. I recall a gripping book by Ed McBain and a TV series. And the glamour of it all continued to evolve over the years. While violence across the country has diminished, the fear of violence has grown, feeding the desire for bigger and tougher police forces, bigger and better armed S.W.A.T. teams.
And the problem becomes, "If all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail." Police are all armed with high powered weapons, and come to expect that any encounter with a civilian could be a deadly one. Not too many years ago, tasers became the new toy on the block, and before that, pepper spray. Because they are considered the "safe" alternative, what we found was that they were used not just more indiscriminately, but with abandon. Peaceful demonstrators, the mentally ill, and just about anyone an officer (or other official, or even non-officials) thought to be a threat, came away hurt, and sometimes lethally. No, it doesn't take a gun, but you might ask George Zimmerman: it's always easier with a gun.
Here in South Carolina, we celebrated Columbia's acquisition of the military grade armored vehicle -- the tank -- that cost taxpayers $658,000. Other than showing it off in parades, only the police chief that requisitioned that and other military grade equipment could imagine a practical use. In fact, Sheriff Leon Lott foresees such equipment being used in shoot-outs with the bad guys. Just like on TV.
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| He calls it "The Peacemaker." |
Radley Balko in The Rise of the Warrior Cop, writes about how insidious these weapons of war have become since 9/11. Every home town thinks they need tactical weapons and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, happily called MRAPS, for that distant possibility of the terrorist invasion. Down here in the South, some of our more wild-eyed legislators like to think we citizens might could use them when the feds try to take over.
Back in Richland County, Sheriff Lot paints his tank "U.N. Blue" and sets it in parking lots, at fairs and parades, just to let us all know that it is citizen friendly. Get us used to seeing it around. Let the kids climb up in it like they do on the firetrucks. But in fact, more and more, those big weapons are being used on citizens for suspected crimes like possession of marijuana and illegal poker games. Homes smashed into, pets shot, neighborhoods traumatized, because those hammers just need to find some nails. Or, as Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing says:
Don't even think about running an illegal bingo game in Richland County, South Carolina.
After the August, 2014, Ferguson shooting and the military response to protests, Richland County, South Carolina's Sheriff Lott pointed out on the one hand that "his department aims to maintain trust and transparency with the community;" on the other hand,
While Lott said the militarized response of the police in Ferguson was not the thing to do, he said the Richland County Sheriff’s Department owns every piece of equipment – for land, sea and air – that has been seen in response to the protests and looting in Ferguson.So in other words, as long as he displays his officers in their tactical body armor and his MRAP and assault weapons at churches and fairs, we should feel confident that all this military equipment is going to be used to protect us. And I am afraid that in America in the 21st century, that deluded attitude has been accepted. We've become extras in a Die Hard movie, sans Bruce Willis and wisecracks, waving flags as we wait for the parade, excited by the big blue tank, just before the violence begins.
And some of us are fighting this treacherous wave, because we know if an officer of the peace can shoot an unarmed man reaching for his driver's license for a seat belt violation, an undertrained and unnecessary S.W.A.T. team will someday be more than willing to assume the need to use those big old expensive weapons in a neighborhood like yours.
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