One Thousand One Hundred and Sixty-four
Author: Mars G. Leneas
“This is America.”-Childish Gambino
An Approximation
In 2015 1,152 people were murdered by the United States police. Each year that number has remainedsteady, and most recently in 2018 it was 1,164. These documented deaths are only an approximation and are thought to underestimate the actual number of deaths, as there is no centralized required reporting system for violent police crimes. Of those murdered, 25percentwere black, despite the fact that only 13percentof all Americans are black.[1]For data specific to death by firearms, Hispanics were killed at a rate of 18percentand Native Americans were also murdered at a rate greater than their representation in the general population, making up 2.5percentof those killed.[2]Already,over 370 people have died at the hands of police this year.1 It is time to remove the police force and replace them with social workers, health care professionals and organizations dedicated to building communities rather than destroying them.
Undoing Indoctrination
The reverence many have for the title of police officer is the result of cultural indoctrination, emphasizing nationalism without a critical evaluation ofwho and what the institution of the police force truly represents. As a society we are told that police“serve and protect.” What and who are they protecting? Understanding the historical role of law enforcement is fundamental to answering these questions.
In the early 1800s, the United Stateswas informally policed in white colonized areasby night watchman and private, for-profit police. These models are often cited as the origins of our modern day uniformed, salaried and armed officers. This narrative neglects the legacy of the slave patrol and how it continues to influence law enforcement. In the early 1700s, militias of free white men, known as slave patrols, were created to protect the interests of whites and enforce the laws as they applied to slaves and indentured servants. In some areas in the South, these were government-sponsored forces with specific instructions to patrol certain areas.[3]These organized patrols existed for well over 100 years.The first organized slave patrol was documented in 1704 and evidence of their existenceextendswell into the 1800s. This disturbing excerpt from a slave patrol contract in 1856 in North Carolina outlines the parameters of the force these white men were allowed to exercise: “…you will inflict not more than fifteen lashes; no slave to be whipped except in presence of the Captain.” [4]The explicit use of violence towards people of color was established at its birth and continues in law enforcement practice today.Post-Civil War, the American South saw these slave patrols replaced by Klansmen and police officers who took up the task of protecting the interests of white people and enforcing the laws of segregation and oppression of black people. [5]
Randall Kennedy, an American Law professor at Harvard, suggests that historical legal inequities have led black Americans to “perceivethe criminal justice system with suspicion, if not antagonism.” 5Based on historical evidence and current available statistics, all Americans who value justice and equity should be suspicious, if not outraged, by the actions of law enforcement in the United States. Kennedy also states that these inequities in criminal law are seen both with unequal protection and harsher punishments for black people under the law. A review of current events would suggest that history is not repeating itself–as a nation we have never changed.Law enforcement remains abusive, especially towards communities of color, as it has ever been.
Use of Force
We cannot expect change from a model that was built incorporating murder and violence as tools for enforcement. Allowing an armed and unregulated force to continue bringing violence into our communities will continue to yield the same results. The American police force operates under the guise of an organization that is regulated and standardized. However, according to the National Institute of Justice, an organization that evaluates and researches police departments, regulation of police and use of force varies broadly even within the same state.
“Broadly speaking, the use of force by law enforcement officers becomes necessary and is permitted under specific circumstances, such as in self-defense or in defense of another individual or group. There is no single, universally agreed-upon definition of use of force.” [6]
Similar to slave patrols in the past, law enforcement agencies today are given explicit written instruction to use force. These instructions are vague, vary widely and are left to the interpretation of the officer.The Seattle police department offers this description of when officers may use force: “In other words, officers shall only use objectively reasonable force, proportional to the threat or urgency of the situation, when necessary, to achieve a law-enforcement objective.”[7]The officer is given free rein to arrive into an unknown situation, evaluate the threat or allegedly illegal action with limited information and act on it immediately — potentially with deadly force.
More Than Murder
Removing the law enforcement system that we have become accustomedto may sound impossible and unreasonable. However, consider the services we rely on the police for thatthey continually fail to deliver. To name a few:protection, recovering missing persons and objectively enforcing laws. While the lack of protection and actual risk of harm for people of color has been clearly demonstrated, there are other groups to consider as well. An individual with untreated mental illness is 16 times more likely to be murdered by a police officer during an encounter than someone without mental illness. [8]This is unacceptable. Remove the police and prioritize training mental health professionals who can de-escalatesituations and help these individuals get to safe treatment centers. Missing persons cases are another area of police failure that desperately needspublic attention and action. The amountof cases involving missing people of color that go uninvestigated and unsolved is astounding. According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, black people make up 33.8percentof all open missing persons files in the United States. They report missing Native Americans at nearly 2percent. [9]However, there have long been reports from indigenous communitiesaboutunderreporting of missing indigenous women by the police. [10]The numbers reported by the FBI may actually misrepresent the number of missing indigenous people. According to one studythatreviewedmissing children in New York state between 2007and 2010, missing black children were twice as likely to remain missing by the end of the study observation period, and thedisparity of difference in recovery rates between children of different races were statistically significant. [11]There are several theories as to why this disparity in recovery of missing persons exists, but these theories are beside the point. Leaving the recovery of missing persons of color up to law enforcement will not change the outcomes. Police should be replaced by trained, unarmed investigators who come from the communities they work for. Unequalenforcement of the law is another important part of the discussion around law enforcement failures. A recent study done by Stanford and New York University examining traffic stops revealed unsurprising data supporting what many communities of color have been saying for decades: They are more likely to be pulled over by police officers than white people. This study lookedat over 93 million traffic stops by officers in 21 states. When comparing the rate of being pulled over relative to their representation in the population, black people were pulled over in municipal areas at a rate of 0.23 per capita, compared to 0.17 per capita among white drivers.[12]This data suggests that officers are profiling people and using race as a measure to enforce the law. The law enforcement system continues, as it always has, to uphold the institutions of systemic racism and white supremacy. While solving the issue of how to enforce traffic violations is a complicatedtask, the evidence of discrimination outweighs the necessity of traffic patrols and stops. Creatinga new system that excludes police officers, supplies revenueto maintain roads and keeps drivers safe should be a priority.
Uncomfortable
Dismantling law enforcement as we know it sounds like an outrageous and even radical ideauntil you examine the truth of what law enforcement actually provides to the communities they serve. Contrast the prior radical thought with this idea: allowing a group of armed individuals to enforcelaws using violence and without fear of consequences. This is the illogical system we have in place now. The relationship between law enforcement and communities of color was built on a system of fear. Fear of personal injury, fear of death and fear of incarceration. The systematic utilization of violence, especially towards people of color in order to maintain white supremacy, is only one small piece of a larger system of racism. However, it is an actionable and attainable item that should be given consideration. It would require a massive undertaking by a group of dedicated and creative individuals, but it is worth the effortto saveinnocent people fromdying. The ideas expressed in this piece will make people uncomfortable. This is because our racist law enforcement system reinforces and protects the idea of white supremacy and privilege that we are so accustom to in this country. This is all done under the guise of an admirable cause. I challenge those uncomfortable with these thoughts to try and understand this discomfort. As a country we should critically consider what the United States would look like with our police force replaced by professionals who are equipped, trained, funded and unarmed, with the interests of all communitiesin mind.
“I have no love for those who consider themselves ‘good people’ but stand idly by as the world crumbles around them. It’s not enough to personally not do damage. If you’re present as someone else destroys what’s around you and you do nothing, you helped them.”
-Luvvie Ajayi
Work Cited
“2018 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics.” Federal Bureau of Investigation, March 25, 2019. https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/2018-ncic-missing-person-and-unidentified-person-statistics.pdf/view.
Domonoske, Camila. “Police In Many U.S. Cities Fail To Track Murdered, Missing Indigenous Women.” National Public Radio, November 15, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/11/15/667335392/police-in-many-u-s-cities-fail-to-track-murdered-missing-indigenous-womenf.
Harriot, Michael. “Here’s How Many People Police Killed in 2018,” January 9, 2019. https://www.theroot.com/here-s-how-many-people-police-killed-in-2018-1831469528.
“People with Untreated Mental Illness 16 Times More Likely to Be Killed by Law Enforcement.” Treatment Advocacy Center, 2018. https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/key-issues/criminalization-of-mental-illness/2976-people-with-untreated-mental-illness-16-times-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-law-enforcement-.
Pierson, Emma, Camelia Simoiu, Jan Overgoor, Sam Corbett-Davies, Daniel Jenson, Amy Shoemaker, Vignesh Ramachandran, et al. “A Large-Scale Analysis of Racial Disparities in Police Stops across the United States.” Stanford Computational Policy Lab, March 13, 2019.
“Police Use of Force.” National Institute of Justice, May 21, 2019. https://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/officer-safety/use-of-force/pages/welcome.aspx.
Rijt, Arnout van de, Hyang-Gi Song, Eran Shor, and Rebekah Burroway. “Racial and Gender Differences in Missing Children’s Recovery Chances.” Edited by Kimmo Eriksson. PLOS ONE13, no. 12 (December 31, 2018): e0207742. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207742.
Sinyangwe, Samuel. “MAPPING POLICE VIOLENCE,” May 15, 2019. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/.
“Slave Patrol Contract, 1856.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, n.d. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/content/slave-patrol-contract-1856.
“The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1.” Eastern Kentucky University Police Studies Online, June 25, 2013. https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1.
Turner, K.B., David Giacopassi, and Margaret Vandiver. “Ignoring the Past: Coverage of Slavery and Slave Patrols in Criminal Justice Texts.” Journal of Criminal Justice Education17, no. 1 (April 2016).
“Using Force.” Seattle Police Department Manual, January 19, 2019. http://www.seattle.gov/police-manual/title-8---use-of-force/8200---using-force.
[1]Sinyangwe, “MAPPING POLICE VIOLENCE.”
[2]Harriot, “Here’s How Many People Police Killed in 2018.”
[3]“The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1.”
[4]“Slave Patrol Contract, 1856.”
[5]Turner, Giacopassi, and Vandiver, “Ignoring the Past: Coverage of Slavery and Slave Patrols in Criminal Justice Texts.”
[6]“Police Use of Force.”
[7]“Using Force.”
[8]“People with Untreated Mental Illness 16 Times More Likely to Be Killed by Law Enforcement.”
[9]“2018 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics.”
[10]Domonoske, “Police In Many U.S. Cities Fail To Track Murdered, Missing Indigenous Women.”
[11]van de Rijt et al., “Racial and Gender Differences in Missing Children’s Recovery Chances.”
[12]Pierson et al., “A Large-Scale Analysis of Racial Disparities in Police Stops across the United States.”
