Sixteen Shots
2020 saw one of the biggest social movements in US history. Millions joined together to demand justice for a man they watched be murdered by a police officer on their TV’s and cellphones. More similar situations and videos unfolded throughout the year, and brought the issue of police brutality towards black people to the front of the systemic racism conversation.
By: Ally Christiani | @alllycatttt | achristiani.black@gmail.com
Autopsy of 17 year-old Laquan McDonald: murdered by former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke on October 20th, 2014
“Are we willing to demonize a population, declare a war against them, and then stand back and heap shame and contempt upon them for failing to behave like model citizens while under attack?”
This ideology came to mind while I was watching the George Floyd Protests in 2020 be described by some news stations as fascist, anarchy, or a war on the men in blue with the catchy safety slogan.
What these analysts failed to understand was this movement was years in the making, frustration had been mounting, for it was 6 years since Michael Brown lay dead in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th 2014 shot by white police office Darren Wilson. It was just a year after we witnessed the acquittal of George Zimmerman for murdering Trayvon Martin. Often, this generation is described as the “Trayvon Martin Generation,” socially aware of the ways America consistently falls short to ensure justice and liberty for all.
Now, video is directly available on our smartphones, an advancement from the VHS recording of the attack by LAPD in 1991 on Rodney King; we see black bodies murdered by our tax dollars, by a system that has been broken for decades. Broad daylight is often the scene, our viewing eyes trying to ignore the looming cognizance of the number of victims not caught on camera.
Systemic racism in policing is in no way a modern issue facing black Americans. Policing in general was arguably created to preserve racial order considering its historical predecessor of slave patrols. The Washington Post’s deep dive into this concept in their article, “There’s Overwhelming Evidence that the Criminal Justice System is Racist: Here’s the Proof,” explains that: “when you consider that much of the criminal-justice system was built, honed, and firmly established during the Jim Crow era –an era almost everyone, conservatives included, will concede rife with racism—this is pretty intuitive.”
However, to say policing has not evolved from that era discredits the increase in diversity and work of local activists to assist in an attitude shift and policy changes that have encouraged but not yet completely dismantled the pervasive racist culture and system that produces these unjust outcomes.
“When will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” -Martin Luther King Jr. I Have a Dream, 1963.
It is estimated that police kill around 1,000 people every year. This number was calculated based on a study conducted by journalists from 2014 to 2020 that tirelessly collected data from around the country. This journalist led movement is known as FE (Fatal Encounters) who submit FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests across police agencies nationwide to ensure citizen knowledge of the widespread issue. The number they came to was twice that of the count done by the FBI. The official figures are difficult to confirm considering the widespread of silence engrained in police culture known as the Blue Wall of Silence. Some estimates put that figure at 1,700, with an annual rate of citizens being shot at 3,000. Compared to other advanced democracies (England’s estimates sit at around 3 police homicides a year), the United States rate is alarmingly high. When the figures are broken down by race, it is nearly impossible to avoid the conclusion of racialized character in police violence.
In 2020, 226 black people were killed by police compared to 432 white people. Keeping in mind of course that 60% of America is white and 13% is black, that number demonstrated a disproportion. 1 in every 1,000 black men risk being killed by police. The age where that number peaks is 20-35 years old for both black men and women. Between the ages of 25 and 29 years old, black men are killed at a rate of 2.8 to 4.1 per 100,000, white men at a rate of 0.9 and 1.4 per 100, 000.
This makes, police use of force, which includes: asphyxiation, beating, administering chemical agents (i.e ketamine that killed Elijah McClain), taser, or a gunshot, the 6th leading cause of death for young black men in the United States. Black women endure a similar risk, between the ages of 25-29 years old their mortality rate at the hands of police is 0.12 per 100,000 compared to white women at a rate of 0.07.
The figures are so grotesque, that the American Medical Association recognize police contact as a branch of health inequality. The AMA endorses policy reform for policing in the country which they understand to pose a severe threat to the public health of American citizens and disproportionately, minorities. Their research proved that there is a correlation between the police’s use of force and racial profiling that can cause serious bodily injury, and increased stress and anxiety that directly impacts the risk of diseases such as hypertension, high blood pressure, and asthma.
“The data makes clear that police brutality – one manifestation of systemic racism – has significant public health consequences for impacted communities, particularly among the Black community,” said AMA Board Member Willie Underwood III, M.D., MSc, MPH.
The fears and anxieties felt by most black people in this country towards police violence do not go unjustified. A leaked audio out of Wilmington, North Carolina this past year heard Officer Kevin Piner profess to another that “we are just going to go out and start slaughtering [Black],” adding that he “can’t wait’ for a new Civil War so whites could ‘wipe them off the fucking map.” Piner, and the other officers involved were terminated. Although this incident involved 3 officers out of some 900,000 sworn officers across the country, nevertheless it highlights what is already known about the police; that pervasive racist attitudes exist and persist. Former Montgomery Officer Rizer describes this phenomenon of impressing negative ideologies and stereotypes throughout a police agency: “That whole thing about the bad apple? I hate when people say that. The bad apple rots the barrel. And until we do something about the rotten barrel, it doesn’t matter how many good fucking apples you put in.”
This culture forms dangerous circumstances for black people when the “law” operates by gang mentality. This notion was seen throughout most of last year following the death of black person by an officer. Days after Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, the Lieutenant and leader of the city’s police union made it his job to describe Floyd in the most monstrous manner and the protestors, domestic terrorists. He worked tirelessly to reinstate all officers involved, including the man who stood on the neck of George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Unilaterally, the Kentucky police union united in support for the officers who killed Breonna Taylor, Atlanta police organized a “sick-out” in support of the officers who killed Rayshard Brooks, officers took pictures smiling at the scene of the murder of Elijah McClain and texted it to one another, laughing.
It is not just the police officers that engage in this type of cover-up and unity. In 2014, Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot a teenage black boy named Laquan McDonald sixteen times. The police report claimed McDonald came towards the officers with a knife. City leaders endorsed this idea to the public until a freelance journalist sued under FOIA to have the police dash-cam footage released. The footage revealed McDonald walking away, not approaching any officer. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was complicit in this cover-up and although claims to had never seen the video, fought hard for 13 months to keep it concealed. Van Dyke had 20 prior complaints before this incident including use of a racial slur and excessive force during a traffic stop in which the complainant was awarded $350,000 in the settlement. Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2019 and is serving a 6-year sentence. This sentence alone, is incredibly rare, considering only 1% of police involved murders results in charges and even less convicted according to Mapping Police Violence.
Chicago has an appalling history when it comes to policing black communities and secrecy. Between 1972 and 1991, the Chicago Police Department lead by Jon Burge tortured 200 innocent black men in an attempt to coerce confessions. Another journalist lead movement by John Conroy uncovered this story in his article, House of Screams, in 1990. Details of the torture include suffocation with a plastic bag, beatings, handcuffed to a chair for days, burns with radiators and cigarettes, and electric shock. In 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan pardoned four of Burge’s victims who were on death row due to coerced confessions.
The disproportionate murders of black men and women by police can be explained by the concept of a “presumption of dangerousness.” Police determine their threat based on a person’s ethnicity, religion, or social status. These factors that arise from bias contribute to their fear and suspicion levels which affect their decision making when specifically interacting with people of color. The National Bureau for Economic Research conducted a study highlighting this racist predisposition.
They found that “based on information from more than 2 million 911 calls in 2 US cities…. white officers dispatched to Black neighbourhoods fired their guns 5 times as often as black officers dispatched to similar calls to the same neighbourhoods.”
They also looked at 100 million traffic stops across the country and found that black drivers are more likely to be stopped, but that the stops decrease at night, thus, has a correlation with the light outside. They concluded that black drivers get pulled over more when the police can see that they are black.
A database developed in 2013 to track police brutality nationwide, Mapping Police Violence, found that in 2017, of the, “4.5 million traffic stops by the 100 largest police departments in North Carolina, blacks and Latinos were more likely to be searched than whites (5.4 percent, 4.1 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively), even though searches of white motorists were more likely than the others to turn up contraband (whites: 32 percent, blacks: 29 percent, Latinos: 19 percent). “
The Center for Policing Equity found that police were 3.6 times as likely to use force against black people than against whites, and a second study found that black people were 50 percent more likely to be subjected to nonlethal uses of force by the police.
Columbia University professor, John McWhorter explained that, “”Black men are more likely to be handcuffed, pushed against the wall, and treated with weapons drawn. Blacks are still somewhat more likely than whites to suffer physical and verbal abuse from the cops even when the behavior of the suspect is taken into account. Findings like these contribute to a general sense that cops treat black people as an enemy.”
Just like all the other systemic issues we must face and tackle, to change policing in this country that envisions them as the heroes and warriors requires not just a change in policy and training, but culture and attitude. Police brutality has had its place in American society for centuries, but has become more visible in the recent decades. It is imperative that we work on building positive relationships with the police forces in our respective communities and discredit white fear. With a conscious effort, we can increase public safety for all American citizens, and stop the consistent, senseless burials of brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons….humans.
Sources:
www.news.umich.edu/police-sixth-leading-cause-of-death-for-young-black-men/
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/7/21293259/police-racism-violence-ideology-george-floyd
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/7/21293259/police-racism-violence-ideology-george-floyd
www.eji.org/news/federal-judge-calls-for-qualified-immunity-reform/
www. blog.thefactual.com/police-systemic-racism-floyd-blake-media
www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/sunday-reading-a-year-of-new-urgency-for-black-lives-matter
www.eji.org/news/police-abuse-of-people-of-color-not-limited-to-fatal-shootings/
www.eji.org/news/tragic-death-of-george-floyd-reveals-continuing-problem-of-police-violence/
www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/
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