I'm not a sociologist or psychologist, but I'd like someone in those
disciplines to look into an observation that I've made. I'm beginning to
think the policing of Black neighborhoods fuels White racism against
Blacks. It skews White perceptions of Black violence, and even generates felonies out of minor incidences, which are cited by Whites as evidence that Blacks are a violent menace.
I believe the policing practices must be changed, and not only because of the egregious loss of life and abnegation of civil rights for Blacks. I
think the way Black neighborhoods are policed not only oppresses and creates danger
for them, but that it drives a cycle of racism.
The skewed arrests
from the extreme policing create the perception that Black neighborhoods are out of control "war zones." This has an immediate effect on police that makes them crack down harder and be more aggressive. This in turn puts the Black citizens
there on edge and raises the general tension level. Meanwhile, the White police--who after all--have friends
and family, communicate the danger to the rest of the White community.
This in turn feeds the White people's perceptions of Black violence and
fuels more racism. This is reinforced by the media, who sell a perception of crime. They take police
accounts of incidents exactly as the police feed it to them. As the
policing, and the racist feedback fuels White racism, the following generations
of police are taken from the very communities conditioned to be racist.
IMHO, the over-policing is a self-fulfilling prophecy; the
police being there cracking down on crime actually make things more unsafe, and it skews the officers' own attitudes toward the people policed.
Americans,
especially White Americans, are fixated on police. Much of our news is about crime. In Pop
Culture, so much of our films, TV Shows and fiction literature are about
police. While it's true that some of these give a negative picture of
some police, the very fact that so many of our dramas are drawn from law
enforcement says something about the importance we give it. This also
feeds back the message that a career in law enforcement will make a
person important.
Many police at least lean
conservative. Among the White police, they're drawn from the very
population of segregated suburban people most affected by stories of
policing Black neighborhoods. Police candidates tend
to be people who see disrespect of authority as being a main problem, and not coincidentally, they themselves want to be the authority that's obeyed.
Now, think about this: in
St. Charles County, a White person can go weeks without seeing one Black person. What somebody's friend or relative in law enforcement says has both authority and persistence in the rumor mill. It's precisely the stories the officers tell when they come home that condition the neighborhoods toward racism. It also matters how, in their private lives, the officers refer to the people they're policing. If they call them n*gg*rs you can bet that gets passed on. The next generation of law enforcement is informed and conditioned by these authority figures.
The results are, in almost any
discussion group over the current racial conflicts, you'll have a White
commentator say, "Why doesn't the media report on Black on White crime?"
(Because over 80 percent of violent crime against Whites is perpetrated
by other Whites); Or "Why don't they demonstrate against Black on Black
crime?" (Because they'd be petitioning for the criminal element to
become democratically responsive, which is a joke, when our police are supposed to be.)
They make other, more shamelessly ignorant and racist remarks. They are totally misinformed, most likely by law enforcement people talking about their work.
In the last four months, we've seen the country drawn apart due to egregious murders by White police officers of Black males. The flagship example, Darren Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown, is illustrative. It's perfectly plain that if Darren Wilson had to defend himself at the scene, he was no longer defending himself when he took the last three shots, the fatal ones, especially when the distance from Wilson's SUV is considered (148 feet, as they measure it out in this video). Most Whites do not even ask that question, do not care to hear it.
The difference of opinion between Blacks and Whites about this incident comes down to this: Whites give Darren Wilson the right to take three extra shots under the auspices of self-defense even if they're informed that he "technically" did it because he was pissed off. They do it specifically to give other police the discretion, courtesy and BOD to control the "Black Menace."
This is true in all recent examples of police shooting unarmed, sometimes totally innocent Black males. The no indictment vote against the officers who used a lethal choke-hold against Eric Garner was egregious given that the video plainly showed Garner was at most an anticipated danger, not a real one. Like Ferguson, it was a case of police taking a misdemeanor and turning it into a fatality. But even when taken to that extreme, Whites consider that police having such extreme discretion when dealing with Blacks to be reasonable given the importance and danger. Therefore, they call it self-defense even when it plainly wasn't.
Police having broad powers to defend themselves is ironic considering law enforcement is statistically not one of the most dangerous jobs. Also, it's apparently getting safer. Statistically, there are fewer deaths and injuries for police officers than there have been since the eighties. One could never draw that conclusion from what officers say about their work in Black neighborhoods and how they must have what amounts to the power of summary execution just to stay safe.
Yet, there've been millions of recent examples on social media of Whites absolving police officers for using deadly force when the danger was questionable and definitely not dire. Even when the police officers' stories are demonstrated false by video, even when nine other witnesses contradict the officer's testimony. Yet, in almost any
discussion group over the current racial matters, you'll have a White
commentator say, "Why doesn't the media report on Black on White crime?"
(Because over 80 percent of violent crime against Whites is perpetrated
by other Whites); Or "Why don't they demonstrate against Black on Black
crime?" (Because they'd be petitioning for the criminal element to
become democratically responsive, when our police are supposed to be.)
They'd make other, more shamelessly racist remarks.
I never thought we'd still be struggling with racism in the twenty-first century. Maybe the focus should have always been on policing rather than enforced segregation. Discrimination will always be with us, but racism doesn't have to be.
