Three More Arrests
To quell a smoldering protest. And to ignite a revolution.
Four police officers are responsible — to varying degrees — for the killing of George Floyd.
There’s the officer who directly administered this torturous end: a crushing eight minutes and forty-six seconds, three minutes longer than required to snuff out his life. But there are three other accomplices who could have stopped him. There are three others who share complicity in this act of violence.
White people are killed most frequently by police, however the killing of black victims far outweighs the demography of our nation. Black citizens make up around 13% of the population, yet nearly 30% of those killed by police.
R. G. Freyer, a Harvard economist found in a 2016 study that while white citizens are more likely to be killed, virtually all other negative encounters with police happen more frequently among black citizens. Black Americans are more likely to be: tased, beaten, arrested, ticketed pointed at with a weapon, patted down, removed from a vehicle — brutalized, at the hands of those tasked with maintaining their safety.
I don’t buy the argument that black people commit more crimes in aggregate, or that crime itself is specifically clumped in areas with higher black populations. Certainly some areas see higher figures, but generally criminal activity occurs across the expanse of a nation rather than radiating from certain nodes. Crime is but one possibility of opportunity. It occurs everywhere, and by the hands of every type of American.
To me, dismissing these disturbing trends in police interaction amounts to the same defense as ‘her skirt was asking for it,’ repurposed as ‘his blackness was asking for it.’
A Pandemic by a Different Name: Police Violence
Two prescriptions might be of use in fighting off this more subtle and yet more immediately deadly pandemic. More than a thousand people in the United States are killed by police every year, and the metric of ‘justified homicide’ appears to rest around half that. This means that police are killing around 500 people every year without just cause.
Consider a different scenario: You, a common citizen are suspected of killing someone (with video evidence or not, it doesn’t matter). The police take you into custody, gather evidence, and then you are put on trial to determine guilt or innocence with the assistance of a jury of your peers.
Police officers, it must be remembered, are typically not direct reports of the state or federal government. Local municipalities hire an agency to provide this law enforcement service, which then hires the officers that roam our streets. In essence, there is not much difference between a police officer and a security guard or club bouncer. Each has been hired to provide the same service. But one works indirectly for the city or the state.
If police officers were always treated as suspects in a criminal manner — just as the bouncer or mall cop would be — then police killings would drop tremendously. This is not to say that all police who kill in the line of duty are murderers, just that they should be investigated like any other citizen in order to clear them — or charge them.
I strongly believe that Derek Chauvin and his accomplices have acted outside the scope of their duty and as a result, murdered George Floyd. However, I will admit that I do not know the full story, neither does anyone else. This is exactly why we must treat this death as a crime and investigate these four men as suspects rather than cops. If they are innocent, let the evidence prove it. But if they are guilty, they should be tried, convicted, and sentenced just as any other perpetrator.
One final point here, the reason why this is the exception and not the rule is a simple one. The union has negotiated the immunity cover that protects them.
Protection from the law is not baked in and it has not always been doctrine. By revoking this arbitrary protection that has been forced upon municipalities we can empower all of us to assert our rights to ask questions, remain silent, or even flip the bird without the threat of death looming over the encounter.
A second protection that could evaporate police brutality is admittedly somewhat more radical. Nonetheless, this falls within the same theoretical framework as the last. Those protections enjoyed by police place them in an orbit all their own when interacting with us: the rabble.
Consider another scenario, you are strolling down the road, minding your own business and you see two boys absolutely laying into a man on the ground frantically trying to protect himself and screaming for help. You run over and punch one square in the eye, causing the boys to run off. Have you committed a crime? No.
By empowering citizens to hold police in check through the exertion of their rights we an ensure that our society functions more peaceably. By exposing police officers to criminal investigations each time they are involved in a killing we gain confidence in the fact that killing with impunity will not be tolerated. And yes, but investigating and declining to prosecute good Samaritans who defend those being victimized — even through physical force — we can send a message to that tiny sliver of dirty cops out there that they are no different, no better than the people they protect.
The Protest and the Revolution
Charging all four police officers involved in this latest act of violence is the first step toward a reduction in police brutality.
It may not end protest immediately but this action will go a long way to signaling a city’s willingness to hold its police power in check. Ultimately, protest will recede. In its place we have the opportunity to begin a revolution. This one does not have to be violent or bloody. But it has to begin now.
This revolution is a policy driven one. The revolution in policing begins with accountability. The nation stepped closer to it when Amber Guyger was found guilty of murdering Botham Jean. We can inch farther along today.
Radical thinking is the only means to shift our focus. We cannot allow it to stray onto protesters engaging in arson, vandalism, and looting. These behaviors are the result of a systemic failure, and are — in my opinion — a largely in-kind response. I think that these expressions are misplaced, but the nation should not dismiss the concerns and rage of those protesting because a few bad eggs have burglarized a store or burned a cop car. Peaceful protest has failed, black men across the country are no safer today than they were a year ago; five years ago.
Something’s got to give, and that something is the way we treat killers, all killers. We have enshrined an awesome responsibility in those who wear the badge. Its time we force them to live up to it.
