Ferguson: Racism. Police violence. Too many guns.
Some commentators have claimed that Ferguson is not evidence of racism in America because police also kill white people. Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that black people are four times as likely to get shot and killed during arrest as white people. The fact that white people also get killed by the police doesn’t prove there is no racism; it just proves that the police kill unarmed Americans.
We have three problems here.
Ferguson is emblematic of three interlocking problems: an excess of guns, and an excess of police force against civilians, and persistent racism.
We have a lot of guns.
We have at least twice as many guns per person as any other developed nation, three times as many as Canadians and sixteen times as many as Britons. Because so many American are armed, police react to every encounter as if the civilian might be armed. The result is unsurprising: American police shoot and kill a lot of people. Police kill about 3 people every day in the US. In the UK? Zero. Japan? Zero. In the UK, regular police officers don’t carry guns. It is unlikely that someone who runs a red light or jaywalks is carrying, so police can give them a ticket without fear the interaction will escalate to homicide.
We at best tolerate (and at worst encourage) police to use excessive force.
Police who kill people are almost never held accountable, either within their department or in court. There is a systemic reason for this: the legal standard for police officers to use deadly violence against civilians is basically “whenever they feel threatened.” In legal jargon, the standard is called “objectively reasonable” or “reasonable belief.” Did the officer, in that moment, think the person was a threat? Even if the person was not actually a threat. Even if the civilian was unarmed, surrendering on his knees. If the officer personally believed at the time that person on his knees with his hands up was a threat (maybe because the civilian could suddenly turn into Hulk Hogan, or a demon, run through bullets hailing down on him, and kill the officer with a single punch), the officer can shoot him with no legal consequences.
We are racist.
Yes, Rue from Hunger Games was black. Some people were publicly mad about that, even saying it was no longer sad that she died, because, you know, black. Before you blow that off as just a few ignorant racist teenagers not representative of the more enlightened post-color America that the rest of us live in, check this out:
Study after study shows widespread low-level bias against African-Americans. Medical doctors are less likely to give black patients adequate pain medication. Participants in shooting simulations are less likely to correctly identify black civilians. Black children are perceived as older than they really are. White people are likely to attribute superhuman powers to black people. Law student memos are judged more harshly when the reader believes the author was black.
Specifically in the law enforcement context: Americans are more likely to perceive blacks as criminals, and we associate blacks with guns. People (citizens and police officers alike) are quicker to identify guns after seeing black faces than after seeing faces of other races.
This pervasive bias has tragic consequences. Amongst people being arrested (so already having done something criminal) blacks are four times as likely to get killed. And even though whites and blacks use marijuana at roughly the same rates, blacks are much more (sometimes 10 times more) likely to get arrested. Because, you know, black.
If you still resist the idea that racism persists in America, consider that Darren Wilson currently does not think there is any racial tension in Ferguson. He was discharged from another Missouri police department that was disbanded due to racial tension (that is: because a police officer shot a black mother with a child in the back seat.) Maybe Wilson didn’t think there was any racial tension there either? Quite possibly, since he is a white American, Wilson never talks to black people. And because he has never heard any of his (white) friends complain about racism, he assumes everything is fine. But not talking to black people and not noticing that they are getting treated badly (and shot, maybe even by you.) is not the same thing as there not actually being racism.
A better way?
I want to live in a world where every human being is free; where no one gets shot; where everyone can be confident that the police are there to protect and to serve. How do we get from this tangle of guns, force, and racism to a better world? Read my next post to find out.
