The unequivocal conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of an African American suspect, George Floyd, evokes consideration in so many dimensions that it is difficult to know where to begin. On the surface accountability has been served to the satisfaction of the victim’s family and all those who believe that to date the police have brutalized, victimized, persecuted, injured and murdered blacks with little or no consequences. The other first is that the all Chauvin’s supervisors, trainers and the head of the Minnesota Metropolitan Police Department himself, who had fired him after seeing the bystander’s video, testified powerfully for the prosecution. The decision has laser like focussed attention on the crisis that deaths of blacks at the hands of police has evoked. Jay H. Ell will attempt to briefly cover some of the aspects of this central problem in American politics - racial justice.
The Chauvin trial outcome has resulted in an investigation by the Federal Justice Department of the Minnesota Police as to their practices as even on the face of this tragedy three policeman stood by while Chauvin in the cold light of day methodically squeezed the life out of a pathetic and helpless victim. Not only did they not interfere but rather aided and abetted him. To add to the Minnesota Police Department woes before the Chauvin verdict was announced another cop shot and killed yet another African American suspect, Dante Wright. She has been charged with manslaughter and as a metaphor to the whole sorry saga the initial police communique on Floyd’s death was that he died of natural causes in hospital after being arrested,
The trial verdict has drawn attention to policing in general as there are eighteen hundred departments of various sizes throughout the country. Finally, there are four other reactions that reverberate on the national and local scenes - the response of the populace themselves, the growth of the Civil rights Black Lives Matter Movement, the actions taken by local, State and Central Government and legislation that has been proposed.
It will also be instructive as to what the impact of societal views, which have overwhelmingly agreed with the outcome and that policing requires more transparency and accountability, on the Republican and Democratic Parties. They have decidedly different views as to what the legislative action should be. Whichever way this is looked at, this single event will have a profound impact on American Society and its politics and policing.
THE CHAUVIN TRIAL ITSELF - A BLACK SWAN EVENT THAT BROKE THE MOULD
The trail blazing trial of the murder of George Floyd was unique in that the facts were undisptued. Firstly the crime took place in open daylight in front of very brave onlookers some of whom attempted to intervene. It occasioned 911 calls to the police both from the dispatcher who viewed the scene with horror and a spectator - the police reporting the police. The bystanders who randomly represented all age groups from a nine year old to a saddened old man who wrongly perceived that Floyd was resisting and instructed him to give up as he tellingly told him you can’t win. Then there was an off duty trained EMS firefighter who offered to render resuscitation who was brushed off, a martial arts expert who frantically scolded the “bros” and then conclusively there was the brave recording, by a teenager using the modern means of communication, the cell phone. Very soon her recording went viral via the modern day social media platforms. The murder in all its brutality, cruelty, torture, sociopathy, casualness, indifference to the pathetic appeals of a dying man to cease and desist was witnessed by a nation.
All this coupled with their subsequent heartrending testimony juxtaposed to what appeared to be an indifferent Chauvin, his lack of emotion concealed by his face mask scribbling away on legal notepads as the damning evidence rolled on, contributed to the unanimous decision of the jury of lay people.
If that was not enough the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a man of color himself assembled together a top class legal team with endless expert witnesses including pulmonologists, cardiologists, pathologists and a world renowned expert in breathing. All this as the unprecedented line up of every supervisor that Chauvin came into contact with whether it be the highest ranking in the police division, the chief of police himself and police trainers particularly in the area of force testified for the prosecution.
What persuaded the police to break the thin steely blue line that they have stuck too with sickening monotony is not quite clear. Perhaps it was the clear cut compelling viral video of the brave teary seventeen year old Danielle Frazier, who couldn’t fall asleep at night because she didn’t intervene or the ever growing multiracial street protests accompanying the death or the growing power of Black Lives Matter. Perhaps they were finding it extremely difficult to espouse the value system that is written into their procedures and this case provided an ideal opportunity to do so. Whatever the reason their decision is an important and groundbreaking contribution to the debate and was an important thunder cloud to the perfect storm.
THE ENORMITY OF THE PROBLEM AND THE CHAUVIN IMPACT ON SOCIETY
With in quick succession deaths at the hands of police followed Dwante Wright, just ten miles from the Court room where the Chauvin trial was unfolding, a thirteen year old boy in Chicago was shot, in Jackson Florida the police fired and killed a thirty - year old man in a hotel, a forty year old man in New Hampshire succumbed to police fire and a sixteen year old black girl was felled in Columbus Ohio. The largest storm was created by the incident in North Carolina where State law does not allow body camera video to be shown without a court order. Ten members of the police department have left for one or other reason and this is the next hurricane in the making. With the exception of Dwante Wright in Minnesota no allegations have been made nor are the circumstances fully available, however they magnify society’s awareness that there is a problem.
There is a recent history of a number of nation wide protests following deaths where the perception has been that the police have had to take no accountability or responsibility when it appeared blatantly obvious that there was probable cause for legal consequences. Black Lives Matter was initiated in 2013 and since then the deaths have evoked a flood of nightlong protests into the streets. Most notable were Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown in 2014, Walter Scott in 2015, Alton Sterling and Philande Castile in 2016, Stephen Clarke in 2018 and Breonna Taylor in 2020. Finally, George Floyd’s plight lit up not only America but the world in protest. It is interesting to note that in these and scores of other instances, the only mechanism that the aggrieved could employ to redress the obvious wrong was by civil suits. The compensation awarded runs into the millions of dollars. Even though Chauvin was criminally charged the Municipality paid out twenty - nine million dollars prior to the outcome of the trial.
A study emanating from NorthWestern University researchers revealed that the commonest cause of death in all young men in America was police violence with blacks having statistically higher numbers. One in a thousand blacks between the ages of twenty and thirty - five can be expected to be killed by the police. The deaths in women, native Americans were also significantly higher in people of color. There were more police deaths in the USA in three months than in Wales and England in ten years. All in all there are, annually, a thousand police deaths in America.
The question now is does the Floyd/Chauvin cause celebre have any impact on societal opinion and the behavior of political entities? It is fair to say this dilemma is not going to go away.
RESPONSE BY SOCIETY
Certain circumstances in history become symbolic of a problem changing attitudes of chunks of society. One far reaching example was the trumped up show trial of Alfred Dreyfus in France which together with the anti semitic protests became the forerunner of Zionism and eventually the State of Israel.
On the announcement of the verdict racial justice activists declared it as their “Selma” moment. The latter being the protest march, led by Martin Luther King, from Selma to Montgomery which was hailed to be the final push to enact the Civil Rights Bill signed into law by President Johnson in.1964. The Attorney General and Governor of Minnesota signaled the trial outcome as the beginning of change and acknowledging the unjust status quo. The enormity of the development occasioned a nation wide address of the President of he United States of America - let that sink in - a verdict of murder in an open and shut case merited the leader of the most powerful country in the world, that prides itself on its justice system, to have a national address.
The Ipsos poll following the Chauvin verdict revealed a stunning result in a populace that can agree on almost nothing. Seventy - one percent concured and only thirteen percent didn’t. Fifty - five percent of Republicans accepted the verdict as opposed to eighty - five percent of the Democrats. The other startling figure in this day and age of competition for audiences nearly every American watched some part of the trial and or had seen the video
This appears to be yet another catharsis by the electorate with the Breona Taylor death, the Dwane Wright shooting and the video of the blatantly abusive and dangerous behavior of the officers in the Zimmerman civil litigation. When it is realized that the Republican Party has shrunk already having lost a large number of suburban white women with Trump’s border policy of separating children from parents with no apparent system to ever reunite them again, the “Republicans” such as they are going to be hard put to win back the House and Senate in the midterms.
POLITICAL RESPONSE.
The Democrats, some time ago, passed the House Resolution entitled, “The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act”. This included some crucial changes to the status quo as well as creating a standard across the fifty states and the eighteen hundred entities across the country. To date the criminal standard is “willful” behavior of the officer. The suggestion that the criterion as to criminal liability will be whether the defendant knew that the action was “illegal” or was reckless in carrying out his/her duty. Also in the Act police immunity against civil litigation is lifted while a national registry of disciplinary action against police be installed. Some of the components of the Act are already policy in several departments. These include the reporting of all force and the wearing of body cameras, and training including awareness of racial bias.
The Act has been languishing in the Senate for almost a year. Initially because Mitch McConnell ignored it and then made it quite clear that he would not provide the ten votes needed to make it law. However McConnell is not deaf to public opinion so there are negotiations taking place between the one Republican African American senator who is as conservative as the best of them and Corie Booker a Democrat who is also an African American.
In short the Republican response reflects the chaos of the Republican party at the moment. The majority, the Trumpists, are against change and are for “law and order” except when democracy itself is attacked and the Capitol and its police are attacked. Then there are the Bush Republicans in and out of the party who are ready to negotiate. Finally, there are the McConnell Republicans who have two objectives, non co operation with Democrats on everything and carrying the water of their major donors - big corporations and the evangelicals. This translates into appointing conservative judges and lower taxes for the wealthy and corporations. The latter have had enough of Trump as reflected in McConnell’s attack on Trump following the impeachment trial.
In effect, the Republicans have been largely silent in this crisis leaving it to Fox News who have ducked the central issue. Rather they believe that Chauvin will win his appeal because Democrat Maxine Walters called for increased protests while the trial was in progress and Biden maintained, while the jury was sequestered, that the nation was awaiting the outcome anxiously. Fox can do what they like as they don’t need to be re elected.
THE POLICE AND POLICING
The Policemen and women are mighty powerful individuals. Although it is argued that one is innocent till proved guilty what happens at the initial point of contact goes a long way in dictating what the course of the defendant’s burden is going to be. If, for example, the officer interprets your attitude as obstruction or your swing around when he tries to put the handcuffs as resisting arrest that is what you have to answer to. Also try and persuade the Judge that you weren’t speeding… The “innocent” is always led away in handcuffs and better get a good lawyer.
However the good news is by far the minority of nearly a million cops have a history of abuse - approximately seven percent. Derek Chauvin had seventeen complaints against him. Some of those complainants were interviewed and the allegations were pretty serious. However sociopathic behavior of the type demonstrated in the Floyd trial has to be rare. Recklessness and deviations from protocol are more likely to be the cause of police infractions. Also it is argued, understandably, that cops have to make split second decisions and it is easy to spend months analyzing and criticizing them.
The black Americans since the time of slavery have had a stormy relationship with police. In fact the first time “police” came on the scene in 1702 was the police patrol to hunt down escaped slaves in North Carolina. The history continues through the free reign of the Klu Klux Klan, and the non prosecution of the lynchings. To this day the research shows that people of color are discriminated against whether it be for alleged drug offenses or for “stop and frisk” to the statistic that they are more likely to end up dead having been stopped by the police for whatever reason. A most concerning observation is that many of the fatalities resulted from escalation of what was a minor offense.
Rosa Brooks, a Law Professor has just published a book on her training as a reserve police officer entitled “Tangle Up in Blue”. She writes that much of the problems can be ascribed to two factors - their training and the plethora of guns in America. Brooks argues, “If one learns over and over that there is no such thing as a routine stop and anyone can kill you at anytime” in a world awash with guns it is inevitably going to get the current situation. She discusses “The Blue Wall of Silence” in addition that it is a “you versus them” culture that the training creates.
SOLUTIONS
The George Floyd Act has many positive aspects to it which if carried out will alleviate the situation. It is obvious that the bad eggs need to be weeded out as quickly as possible but the focus as Ms. Brooks points out is on training. Daniel Kahneman’s Nobel Prize winning work on thinking processes provides a framework for solutions. He simplistically frames all thinking into fast and slow thinking. The former is the intuitive response that is mostly in use in day to day interactions and the latter the more reasoned thought. The police incidents involve mainly the former. It was so much easier to convict Chauvin, even under the current legislation, as obviously a nine minute murder is not a split second decision. Malcolm Gladwell has written about how all police killings are different.
However to take up the Law professor/cop arguments that fear and guns cause the problem and then add racial bias you have a lethal situation. Kahneman and his collaborator Twerski point out that intuitive fast thinking can be taught as in learning to drive. With experience driving becomes intuitive and doesn’t require “slow thinking”. It is ridiculous to train cops that stopping some one for speeding as a potential life or death situation when they know that is rare. They have already checked the number plate of the car before they even venture out limiting the risk even further. Some of the video material that has been produced show cops as out and out confrontative from the word go resulting in a response from the African American driver who expects “brutality” form the cop. In training it is no use pretending that racial bias doesn’t exist.
While it would take ten volumes to outline “Solutions”, social workers should be sent to domestic altercations and psychiatric social workers should administer to those with mental issues, not the police. Just one last gasp any accused who has not committed a violent act should not be shot at.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Obviously this is highly complex subject but hopefully, now that there has been a cathartic moment and a realization by society that this amounts to racial discrimination of the most dangerous degree, the politicians will act.
No comments:
Post a Comment