Once again the country has been rocked by the death of two African American citizens at the hands of the police. This follows a series of high profile homicides resulting from the actions of the officers of the law that have plagued the country these past few years. All of these incidents were recorded by modern day technology, in the hands of all and sundry, or by societal pressured police body cameras. All of these police actions to the eyes of broad sections of society, to put it at its lowest, have been questionable or to put it the highest, unprovoked violence. None of these episodes have resulted in convictions of the perpetrators. The latter fact is central to the growing anger, particularly in the African American community. The whole cause celebre has precipitated the formation of an activist group entitled “Black Lives Matter” that is growing by the day. Whichever way the whole unhappy circumstance is viewed it is dominating the news cycle even overriding America’s principle preoccupation - the presidential race.
INDIVIDUAL AUTHORITY’S RESPONSE
The individual civic authority’s response to a particular episode dictates, to a large extent, the immediate behavior in the streets. In Tulsa Oklahoma the police body cam was released and the officer charged for manslaughter. In Charlotte North Carolina the police steadfastly refuse to show the video to the public and the Police Chief is very defensive of the shooter officer maintaining that the investigative judicial process must play out. As could be expected the streets of Tulsa are in quiet mourning and those of Charlotte are in chaos. However, the central problem remains - are blacks profiled for police violence in the same way, as studies show, they are in every other aspect of the legal process whether it be arrests or more severe sentencing for similar infringements of the law, for example?
ALREADY AN ISSUE IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE
This pervasive societal problem has entered into the Presidential race. Clinton has shown empathy and support throughout and the significant others of police victims have backed her throughout this election cycle. Mindful too that the police are, for the most part, performing a tough job, she also has paraded Officers of the Law that were supportive of her. Till the most recent incidents Trump was unambiguously the law and order candidate. As he so often does he is now sending a double message opining to an African American audience that he is”disturbed” by the Tulsa video. However both he and his Vice Presidential candidate do not categorize the problem as racial. Rather they see it as inappropriately trained law officers.
The protest has infiltrated America’s number one pass time - football. The latter is a national obsession and is dominated by African American players. A San Francisco major league player signified his involvement by failing to join in the pregame national anthem. He has followed up by pledging his first $1,000,000 in earnings to the cause. His declaration has been supported by several High School teams and to date a smattering of national players.
The argument by the protestors is that this is just part and parcel of their profiling, which only now is receiving attention because of the emergence of visual evidence. The point was hammered home by a black Charlotte pastor who at 2.00 am while entering his car was harassed by the Charlotte police and told to get a move on. The pastor had just attended a meeting with the Charlotte mayor to discuss the defusing of this explosive situation. He poignantly pointed out that the whites attending that meeting were not subject to similar treatment.
MEANWHILE BACK ON THE STUMP
On the stump Clinton has just stuck to her earlier positions but Trump, currently desperate for minority votes has offered solutions all over the show as is his want. He has suggested a stop and frisk approach by the police. He falsely attributes a similar approach by the New York police as the reason for their decrease in crime. This explanation has been debunked by the current Mayor of New York who reminded Trump that anyhow it was declared unconstitutional by a Federal Court. As a solution it is crazy if Trump is using this to court the African American votes who were singled out for this humiliating process. In addition it flies in the teeth of his uncompromising second amendment stand. All and sundry should have guns he maintains as this will eliminate all these shootings is his mantra. All except the minorities it would now appear. But who expects Trump to be able to string two sentences together without contradicting himself.
Trump’s central thesis is that the country is in chaos and ungovernable and he is the solution. This has to be a hard sell. He has advanced this to the African American constituency claiming they have never had it so bad. This is an even tougher assignment. There are a large number of African America Chief’s of Police as is the one in Charlotte. Without going into too much detail for Mr. Trump’s enlightenment the President and the current attorney general as well as a sizable caucus in the legislature are too from that minority group. Where was Mr. Trump during the Civil Rights Movement? Is he aware that there was once slavery and Jim Crow?
THE POLICE FEAR IS BASED ON GUNS
This brings Jay H. Ell to his final points. Even when the officers are tried the bar is very high to convict them and in the past this has merely inflamed the aggrieved minority communities. You see the Supreme Court ruled that all the police officer has to claim that he had a “reasonable” fear for his life. In spite of an attempt to objectify the fear no jury will be dissuaded that an individual who thought he saw a gun, or that the victim made a quick movement or that the suspect was fleeing from the police and known to be armed, did not fear for his life. Objectively too everyone is mindful that the police have a tough job and on any day they could be murdered.
In case the irony has escaped anyone inevitably the police fear, real or imagined, is based on the dread that the suspect has a gun. The assumption is reasonable in and of itself as anyone can get a gun and an AK 47 in America. Thus you have the bizarre situation where, the selfsame politicians, on the one hand, will fight to the death for all to have guns, and on the other, like The Donald, would like to deploy an army of law officers to stop all in the streets and if they find a gun remove it! One can only hope Mr. Trump is asked to explain in the debate but even if he is he will say that is not what he said.
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