What is it going to take?

Another week in America brings with it another fatal shooting at the hands of police. This time the victim was a 17 year old girl in Texas. The details of the incident remain unclear, but what is clear is that this is a story that has become entirely too common in this country. The past year has witnessed much unrest as citizens have protested around the country against the conduct of law enforcement, and the sense that the criminal justice system is incapable of holding officers accountable when they use deadly force against unarmed citizens. Much of this conflict has been viewed through the lens of race, and rightly so, as any honest appraisal of the situation would lead one to conclude that minorities face disparate treatment in our legal system. However, racial injustice is not the only issue at work in these scenarios. Police shootings in this country occur at rates far higher than in other industrialized nations. The reasons for this undoubtedly have to do with numerous factors, with racial profiling of suspects serving as only one (although almost assuredly a dominant) factor. The killing mentioned above was not of a person of color; Kristiana Coignard was a small white girl. However, she did have a history of mental illness, and that factor is consistent with research complied by D. Brian Burghart, which concludes that in less densely populated areas the most frequent victims of police deadly force are the mentally ill.

A separate incident occurred this weekend which serves as some confirmation of another conclusion Burghart has reached—specifically, that black males are the most likely to die due to police action in densely populated areas. In New Haven, Connecticut, a Yale student and the son of New York Times columnist Charles Blow was detained at gunpoint by a police officer responding to a report of a burglary. While the student survived the encounter physically unharmed, the fact that the officer encountered the young college student with his sidearm already drawn underscores the risk that young black men face regardless of socioeconomic status. That we are likely only hearing this story because the student in question just happened to be the son of a celebrated columnist underscores the circumstances faced by others across the country on the daily basis.

Recently, Congress finally took the step of passing legislation requiring states to report the number of deaths of individuals in police custody, including demographic factors such as race and gender. Currently, it is almost impossible to determine how many individuals die at the hands of law enforcement each year, with current estimates ranging from 400 to over 1,000 annually. While the actions of Congress are an important first step, they remain inadequate to the situation. However, how to proceed forward is at best an open question. Particularly since law enforcement remains one of the few institutions in this country that the public retains a modicum of faith in. In New York, the ongoing conflict between the Mayor’s office and the Police Benevolent Association highlights the challenges that can come from attempting even modest reforms of an institution which is viewed favorably (at least by the “right” type of people). 

I honestly don’t have the answer to this question, and I don’t want to come off as completely unsympathetic to police officers, who perform a difficult and unquestionably necessary job, and do so the overwhelming majority of the time with a high degree of professionalism. Maybe the responsibility is ultimately societal-wide? Perhaps we’re living in the police state that we’ve demanded? (If you think characterizing the nation as a police state is overstating the case, I’d like to remind you that we incarcerate more people in raw numbers and as a percentage of population than any country in the developed world.) If that is the case, changing course is going to have to begin with changing what we demand from our shared society.

When is a riot not a riot?

You’ve no doubt seen news coverage of the recent tragic events in France last week. You are also likely aware of the ambush and murder of two New York City police officers last month. These stories have generated wall-to-wall coverage in the news media that is, in some respects, ongoing. However, unless you are a news junkie or follow the right accounts on Twitter, you are probably unaware of a failed bombing attempt of the NAACP offices in Colorado, or a recently foiled domestic terrorism plot in rural Georgia.

In one respect, the discrepancy in coverage makes a certain amount of sense. The adage “that if it bleeds it leads” is a truism for a reason, but on another level, it reflects differing approaches and standards for how news is covered. If you doubt me I’d like you to take a look at this headline and then look at this one. I’ll go ahead and spoil the suspense; the first headline describes the scene after Ohio State fans set nearly 90 fires after their team triumphed in the inaugural college football playoff as “revelry”. The second headline describes the aftermath of the protests in Ferguson, Missouri after a grand jury failed to indict police officer Darren Wilson for killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown as “riot-scarred”.

The truth is that media in this country is a creature of the establishment, and it has an interest, financial and otherwise, in pandering to the sensibilities of other members of the establishment. Don’t misread my intent here, the establishment is important; it is vital to the material well-being of millions of people in this country. Your local gas and electric company is a part of the establishment. You won’t hear me arguing that it must be dismantled. The same holds true for our colleges and universities. I would like to see reform, but I am in no way inclined to throw out the baby with the bath water. However, the truth is that if you are a person of color, chances are that you are not a part of that establishment. If you are a poor or working-class person, you are probably not a part of it either. If you’re a member of the middle-class (however that gets defined in this country) and you’re attempting to hang on to that, I think it’s important to realize that one of the things that the system is trying to do to you, is to make it so that your voice and your life experience is just as marginalized as those people whom they call rioters. That is the lesson of the last three and a half decades of American life. It is only through solidarity that we can push back against the hollowing-out of the middle class, and to offer the opportunity of a better life to all Americans. If you’re inclined to retain your place at the table, the answer is not to look down for someone to step on in the hopes of propping yourself up for a brief time, but to look up at the forces that are attempting to push you down and negate your existence, and to insist that all lives have meaning. The meaning you preserve is almost assuredly to eventually be your own.