tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/norwich-university-4549/articlesNorwich University2021-04-02T14:18:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583462021-04-02T14:18:25Z2021-04-02T14:18:25ZComenzó el juicio contra el policía que asesinó a George Floyd: 5 lecturas esenciales sobre la violencia policial contra los hombres negros<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393216/original/file-20210401-17-tkxwng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7717%2C5348&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">El sobrino de Floyd, Brandon Williams (centro), con el reverendo Al Sharpton (izquierda) fuera del tribunal en Minneapolis, Minnesota, antes de que comenzara el juicio por asesinato del oficial Derek Chauvin, el 29 de marzo de 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brandon-williams-wears-a-mask-and-pendant-with-the-image-of-news-photo/1232003463?adppopup=true">Stephen Maturen / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>El juicio del ex oficial de policía, Derek Chauvin, por <a href="https://www.startribune.com/derek-chauvin-murder-trial-opens-today-in-minneapolis-with-opening-statements-evidence/600039838/">la muerte de George Floyd está en marcha en la ciudad de Minneapolis, Minnesota</a>, en Estados Unidos. </p>
<p>Chauvin, que es blanco, está acusado de asesinato en segundo grado, asesinato en tercer grado y homicidio involuntario por la muerte de George Floyd, quien era negro, durante un arresto en mayo pasado. Durante <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/george-floyd-timing.html">8 minutos y 46 segundos</a>, Floyd – esposado y boca abajo en el pavimento – dijo repetidamente que no podía respirar, mientras otros oficiales solo miraban. </p>
<p>Un video que registró la muerte de Floyd se volvió viral y se desencadenó <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyd-protests-arent-just-anti-racist-they-are-anti-authoritarian-139932">una ola sin precedentes de protestas masivas</a> contra la violencia policial y el racismo. Se espera que el juicio por asesinato de Chauvin dure hasta cuatro semanas.</p>
<p>Este texto resume importantes investigaciones y antecedentes clave sobre la violencia policial, el historial de Derek Chauvin y el racismo en la aplicación de la ley estadounidense.</p>
<h2>1. Violencia policial es una causa principal de muertes de hombres negros</h2>
<p>Desde 2000, la policía estadounidense ha matado entre 1.000 y 1.200 personas por año, según Fatal Encounters, un archivo actualizado de asesinatos policiales. <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-are-more-likely-to-kill-men-and-women-of-color-121158">Es desproporcionadamente probable que las víctimas sean negros, hombres y jóvenes</a>, según un estudio de Frank Edwards en la Escuela de Justicia Criminal de Rutgers, en Newark.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man helping a woman during a street protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Manifestantes en Kenosha, Wisc. después de otro tiroteo en 2020 de un hombre negro, Jacob Blake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-helps-a-woman-during-a-clash-with-law-enforcement-in-news-photo/1228208322?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>En 2019, Edwards y dos coautores analizaron los datos de Fatal Encounters para evaluar cómo el riesgo de muerte a manos de la policía varía según edad, sexo y raza o el origen étnico. Descubrieron que, si bien “la policía es responsable de una parte muy pequeña de todas las muertes” en cualquier año, “es responsable de una proporción sustancial de todas las muertes de jóvenes.”</p>
<p>La violencia policial fue la sexta causa principal de muerte de hombres jóvenes en los Estados Unidos en 2019, después de accidentes, suicidios, homicidios, enfermedades cardíacas y cáncer.</p>
<p>Ese riesgo es particularmente alto para los hombres jóvenes de color, especialmente para los hombres negros jóvenes.</p>
<p>“Aproximadamente 1 de cada 1,000 hombres y niños negros son asesinados por la policía durante su vida”, escribió Edwards.</p>
<p>Por el contrario, la población masculina general de Estados Unidos es asesinada a una tasa de 0,52 de 1.000 – aproximadamente la mitad de la frecuencia.</p>
<h2>2. Chauvin tiene una historial de abuso</h2>
<p>Muchos agentes de policía que matan a civiles tienen antecedentes de violencia o mala conducta, incluido Chauvin.</p>
<p>En <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-officers-accused-of-brutal-violence-often-have-a-history-of-complaints-by-citizens-139709">un artículo sobre la violencia policial</a> escrito después del asesinato de George Floyd, la académica en justicia penal Jill McCorkel señaló que Derek Chauvin fue “objeto de al menos 18 denuncias de mala conducta por separado y estuvo involucrado en dos incidentes de disparos adicionales.”</p>
<p>Durante una parada en la carretera en 2006, Chauvin fue uno de los seis oficiales que dispararon 43 tiros contra un camión conducido por un hombre buscado para ser interrogado en un asalto doméstico. El hombre, Wayne Reyes, quien según la policía les apuntó con una escopeta recortada, murió. Un gran jurado de Minnesota no culpó a ninguno de los oficiales.</p>
<p>A nivel nacional, menos de 1 de cada 12 denuncias de mala conducta policial resulta en algún tipo de acción disciplinaria, según McCorkel.</p>
<h2>3. Las malas interacciones policiales perjudican a las familias negras</h2>
<p>Incluso cuando se despide a los agentes que usan fuerza excesiva, como lo fue Chauvin después del asesinato de George Floyd, estos incidentes – que ocurren con tanta frecuencia y durante años – tienen un precio emocional en las comunidades negras.</p>
<p>En una encuesta de Gallup de 2020, uno de cada cuatro hombres negros de entre 18 y 34 años informó que la policía lo había tratado injustamente durante el último mes.</p>
<p>Los investigadores de racismo y desigualdad Deadric T. Williams y Armon Perry analizaron datos del Estudio de familias frágiles y bienestar infantil, que encuestó a casi 5.000 familias de ciudades de EEUU, y encontró que las interacciones policiales negativas tienen “<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-police-stop-black-men-the-effects-reach-into-their-homes-and-families-144321">implicancias de gran alcance para las familias negras</a>.”</p>
<p>“Los padres que informaron haber sido detenidos por la policía tenían más probabilidades de tener conflictos o falta de cooperación en la relación con la madre de sus hijos,” escribieron.</p>
<p>Las madres negras también informan “sentimientos de incertidumbre y agitación” después de que la policía detiene a los padres, encontraron Williams y Perry. Eso puede “afectar la forma en que ella ve la relación, provocando enojo y frustración.”</p>
<h2>4. Esto ocurre mucho menos en Europa</h2>
<p>Según un estudio de 2014 sobre vigilancia policial en Europa y Estados Unidos realizado por el investigador de Rutgers Paul Hirschfield, la policía estadounidense era 18 veces más letal que la policía danesa y 100 veces más letal que la policía finlandesa.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Tiroteos policiales fatales anuales por millón de residentes a partir de 2014. Los datos se basan en los más recientes disponibles. Estados Unidos: 2014; Francia: 1995-2000; Dinamarca: 1996-2006; Portugal: 1995-2005; Suecia: 1996-2006; Países Bajos: 2013-2014; Noruega: 1996-2006; Alemania: 2012; Finlandia: 1996-2006; Inglaterra y Gales: 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>La principal razón de esta diferencia, escribió Hirschfield <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-american-cops-kill-so-many-compared-to-european-cops-49696">en un artículo que explica sus hallazgos, es simple</a>: armas.</p>
<p>En la mayoría de los estados de EEUU, es “fácil para los adultos comprar pistolas,” escribió el investigador, por lo que “la policía estadounidense presupone que hay armas.” Eso puede hacerlos “más propensos a identificar erróneamente teléfonos celulares y destornilladores como armas.”</p>
<p>La ley estadounidense es relativamente indulgente con tales errores. Si los agentes pueden demostrar que tenían una “creencia razonable” de que había vidas en peligro, pueden ser absueltos por matar a civiles desarmados. En contraste, la mayoría de los países europeos permiten la fuerza letal solo cuando es “absolutamente necesario” para hacer cumplir la ley.</p>
<p>“El miedo infundado de Darren Wilson de que Brown estaba armado probablemente no lo habría absuelto en Europa,” escribe Hirschfield (se refiere al caso del ex policía de Ferguson que mató a tiros a Michael Brown).</p>
<h2>5. La policía en Estados Unidos tiene raíces racistas</h2>
<p>Mucho antes de las leyes modernas sobre armas, <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyds-death-reflects-the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-139805">el racismo estaba profundamente arraigado en la policía estadounidense</a>, como escribió la investigadora de justicia penal Connie Hassett-Walker en junio de 2020.</p>
<p>En el sur, las primeras organizaciones para hacer cumplir la ley fueron las patrullas de esclavos, compuestas de hombres blancos.</p>
<p>“Las primeras patrullas de esclavos surgieron en el Sur de Carolina a principios de 1700s,” escribió Hassett-Walker. A finales de siglo, todos los estados esclavistas los tenían. Las patrullas de esclavos podían entrar legalmente al hogar de cualquier persona basándose en la sospecha de que estaban albergando a personas que habían escapado de la esclavitud.</p>
<p>Las fuerzas policiales del norte no se originaron en el terror racial, pero Hassett-Walker escribe que, no obstante, lo inflingieron.</p>
<p>Desde la ciudad de Nueva York hasta Boston, los primeros policías municipales “eran abrumadoramente blancos, hombres y más enfocados en responder al desorden que al crimen,” escribe Hassett-Walker. “Se esperaba que los oficiales controlaran las ‘clases peligrosas’ que incluían afroamericanos, inmigrantes y los pobres.”</p>
<p>Esta historia persiste hoy en los estereotipos negativos de los hombres negros como peligrosos. Eso hace que personas como George Floyd sean más propensas a ser tratadas agresivamente por la policía, con resultados potencialmente letales.</p>
<p><em>Este artículo fue traducido por <a href="https://www.ciperchile.cl/2021/04/01/a-proposito-del-juicio-contra-el-policia-que-asesino-a-george-floyd-cinco-lecturas-esenciales-sobre-la-violencia-policial-contra-los-hombres-negros/">Ciper Chile</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
La muerte de Floyd, quien era negro, desencadenó una ola de protestas masivas contra el racismo en Estados Unidos. Este es un resumen de importantes investigaciones sobre la violencia policial.Catesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1580932021-03-29T18:26:40Z2021-03-29T18:26:40ZDerek Chauvin trial begins in George Floyd murder case: 5 essential reads on police violence against Black men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392319/original/file-20210329-17-f3uaon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C34%2C7717%2C5325&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Floyd's nephew, Brandon Williams (center), with the Rev. Al Sharpton (left) outside the heavily guarded Hennepin County Government Center, in Minneapolis, Minn., before the murder trial of Officer Derek Chauvin began, March 29, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brandon-williams-wears-a-mask-and-pendant-with-the-image-of-news-photo/1232003463?adppopup=true">Stephen Maturen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/derek-chauvin-murder-trial-opens-today-in-minneapolis-with-opening-statements-evidence/600039838/">murder of George Floyd is underway in Minneapolis, Minnesota</a>. </p>
<p>Chauvin, who is white, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the death of George Floyd, who was Black, during an arrest last May. For <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/george-floyd-timing.html">8 minutes and 46 seconds</a>, Floyd – handcuffed and face down on the pavement – said repeatedly that he could not breathe, while other officers looked on. </p>
<p>A video of Floyd’s agonizing death soon went viral, triggering last summer’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyd-protests-arent-just-anti-racist-they-are-anti-authoritarian-139932">unprecedented wave of mass protests</a> against police violence and racism. Chauvin’s murder trial is expected to last up to four weeks.</p>
<p>These five stories offer expert analysis and key background on police violence, Derek Chauvin’s record and racism in U.S. law enforcement.</p>
<h2>1. Police violence is a top cause of death for Black men</h2>
<p>Since 2000, U.S. police have killed between 1,000 and 1,200 people per year, according to Fatal Encounters, an up-to-date archive of police killings. The victims are <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-are-more-likely-to-kill-men-and-women-of-color-121158">disproportionately likely to be Black, male and young</a>, according to a study by Frank Edwards at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, in Newark. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man helping a woman during a street protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355160/original/file-20200827-22-c1qrds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protesters in Kenosha, Wisc. after another 2020 shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-helps-a-woman-during-a-clash-with-law-enforcement-in-news-photo/1228208322?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In 2019, Edwards and two co-authors analyzed the Fatal Encounters data to assess how risk of death at the hands of police varies by age, sex and race or ethnicity. They found that while “police are responsible for a very small share of all deaths” in any given year, they “are responsible for a substantial proportion of all deaths of young people.” </p>
<p>Police violence was the sixth-leading cause of death for young men in the United States in 2019, after accidents, suicides, homicides, heart disease and cancer. </p>
<p>That risk is particularly high pronounced for young men of color, especially young Black men.</p>
<p>“About 1 in 1,000 Black men and boys are killed by police” during their lifetime, Edwards wrote. </p>
<p>In contrast, the general U.S. male population is killed by police at a rate of .52 per 1,000 – about half as often.</p>
<h2>2. Chauvin has a track record of abuse</h2>
<p>Many police officers who kill civilians have a history of violence or misconduct, including Chauvin.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-officers-accused-of-brutal-violence-often-have-a-history-of-complaints-by-citizens-139709">an article on police violence</a> written after George Floyd’s killing, criminal justice scholar Jill McCorkel noted that Derek Chauvin was “the subject of at least 18 separate misconduct complaints and was involved in two additional shooting incidents.” </p>
<p>During a 2006 roadside stop, Chauvin was among six officers who fired 43 rounds into a truck driven by a man wanted for questioning in a domestic assault. The man, Wayne Reyes, who police said aimed a sawed-off shotgun at them, died. A Minnesota grand jury did not indict any of the officers.</p>
<p>Nationwide fewer than one in 12 complaints of police misconduct result in any kind of disciplinary action, according to McCorkel. </p>
<h2>3. Bad police interactions hurt Black families</h2>
<p>Even when officers who use excessive force are fired, as Chauvin was after the George Floyd killing, these incidents – occurring so frequently, for so many years – take an emotional toll on Black communities. </p>
<p>In a 2020 Gallup survey, one in four Black men ages 18 to 34 reported they had been treated unfairly by police within the last month.</p>
<p>The racism and inequality researchers Deadric T. Williams and Armon Perry analyzed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which surveyed nearly 5,000 families from U.S. cities, and found that negative police interactions have “<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-police-stop-black-men-the-effects-reach-into-their-homes-and-families-144321">far-reaching implications for Black families</a>.”</p>
<p>“Fathers who reported experiencing a police stop were more likely to report conflict or lack of cooperation in their relationships with their children’s mother,” they wrote. </p>
<p>Black mothers also report “feelings of uncertainty and agitation” after Black fathers are stopped by police, Williams and Perry found. That can “affect the way that she views the relationship, leading to anger and frustration.”</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<h2>4. This happens far less in Europe</h2>
<p>According to a 2014 study on policing in Europe and the U.S. by Rutgers researcher Paul Hirschfield, American police were 18 times more lethal than Danish police and 100 times more lethal than Finnish police. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103120/original/image-20151125-18267-gnya28.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Annual fatal police shootings per million residents as of 2014. Data are based on most recent available. US: 2014; France: 1995-2000; Denmark: 1996-2006; Portugal: 1995-2005; Sweden: 1996-2006; Netherlands: 2013-2014; Norway: 1996-2006; Germany: 2012; Finland: 1996-2006; England & Wales: 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The top reason for this difference, Hirschfield <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-american-cops-kill-so-many-compared-to-european-cops-49696">wrote in an article explaining his findings, is simple</a>: guns.</p>
<p>In most U.S. states, it is “easy for adults to purchase handguns,” Hirschfield wrote, so “American police are primed to expect guns.” That may make them “more prone to misidentifying cellphones and screwdrivers as weapons.” </p>
<p>U.S. law is relatively forgiving of such mistakes. If officers can prove they had a “reasonable belief” that lives were in danger, they may be acquitted for killing unarmed civilians. In contrast, most European countries permit deadly force only when it is “absolutely necessary” to enforce the law. </p>
<p>“The unfounded fear of Darren Wilson – the former Ferguson cop who fatally shot Michael Brown – that Brown was armed would not have likely absolved him in Europe,” writes Hirschfield. </p>
<h2>5. American policing has racist roots</h2>
<p>Well before modern gun laws, <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyds-death-reflects-the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-139805">racism ran deep in American policing</a>, as criminal justice researcher Connie Hassett-Walker wrote in June 2020. </p>
<p>In the South, the first organized law enforcement was white slave patrols.</p>
<p>“The first slave patrols arose in South Carolina in the early 1700s,” Hassett-Walker wrote. By century’s end, every slave state had them. Slave patrols could legally enter anyone’s home based on suspicions that they were sheltering people who had escaped bondage.</p>
<p>Northern police forces did not originate in racial terror, but Hassett-Walker writes that they nonetheless inflicted it. </p>
<p>From New York City to Boston, early municipal police “were overwhelmingly white, male and more focused on responding to disorder than crime,” writes Hassett-Walker. “Officers were expected to control ‘dangerous classes’ that included African Americans, immigrants and the poor.” </p>
<p>This history persists today in the negative stereotypes of Black men as dangerous. That makes people like George Floyd more likely to be treated aggressively by police, with potentially lethal results.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Research on racism and policing in the US, explained by the experts who study it.Catesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1398052020-06-02T12:18:48Z2020-06-02T12:18:48ZGeorge Floyd’s death reflects the racist roots of American policing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338938/original/file-20200601-95032-1m6roxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C77%2C7713%2C4770&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer has sparked widespread outrage.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-carrying-banners-march-to-protest-over-the-death-of-news-photo/1216633357">John Rudoff/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Outrage over <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-killing-of-ahmaud-arbery-highlights-the-danger-of-jogging-while-black-138085">racial profiling</a> and the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/george-floyd-three-videos-minneapolis/index.html">killing of African Americans</a> by <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/08/police-officer-shootings-gun-violence-racial-bias-crime-data/595528/">police officers</a> and vigilantes has recently resurfaced following the death of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864732088/minneapolis-seethes-over-george-floyds-death-as-trump-calls-protesters-thugs">George Floyd</a> on May 25, 2020. Video footage a bystander took of Floyd’s death while a now-former police officer pressed his knee into the man’s neck quickly went viral.</p>
<p>But tensions between the police and black communities are nothing new. </p>
<p>There were many precedents to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/17/black-lives-matter-birth-of-a-movement">Ferguson, Missouri, protests</a> that ushered in the <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter</a> movement <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/2014/11/michael-brown-case-fact-sheet">in 2014</a>.</p>
<p>Those precedents include the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Los-Angeles-Riots-of-1992">Los Angeles</a> riots that broke out after the 1992 acquittal of police officers for beating <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/rodney-king-9542141">Rodney King</a>. That upheaval happened nearly three decades after the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/watts-riots">1965 Watts riots</a>, which began with <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-19-me-2790-story.html">Marquette Frye</a>, an African American, being pulled over for suspected drunk driving and roughed up by the police for resisting arrest. </p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MAKZ6okAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">criminal justice researcher</a> who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2010.526868">often focuses</a> on issues of race, class and crime. Through my research and from teaching a course on diversity in criminal justice, I have come to see how the roots of racism in American policing – first planted centuries ago – have not yet been fully purged. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=247&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new slogan for an old problem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Nationwide-Protests-Ferguson/98026cc4d4b14bfa9f2d7c6627d6634d/3/0">Photo/Lynne Sladky</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Slave patrols</h2>
<p>There are two historical narratives about the origins of American law enforcement. </p>
<p>Policing in southern slave-holding states had roots in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511250500335627">slave patrols</a>, squadrons made up of white volunteers empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery. They located and returned enslaved people who had escaped, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/did-african-american-slaves-rebel/">crushed uprisings</a> led by enslaved people and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511250500335627">punished enslaved workers</a> found or believed to have violated plantation rules. </p>
<p>The first <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1">slave patrols</a> arose <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511250500335627">in South Carolina</a> in the early 1700s. As University of Georgia social work professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yrO6KIMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Michael A. Robinson</a> has written, by the time John Adams became the second U.S. president, every <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934717702134">state that had not yet abolished slavery</a> had them.</p>
<p>Members of slave patrols could <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511250500335627">forcefully enter anyone’s home</a>, regardless of their race or ethnicity, based on suspicions that they were sheltering people who had escaped bondage.</p>
<p>The more commonly known precursors to modern law enforcement were <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1">centralized municipal police departments</a> that began to form in the early 19th century, beginning in Boston and soon cropping up in New York City, Albany, Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere. </p>
<p>The first police forces were overwhelmingly <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/02-2017/african_americans_in_law_enforcement.asp">white</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Stebbins-Wells">male</a> and more focused on responding to <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf">disorder</a> than crime.</p>
<p>As Eastern Kentucky University criminologist <a href="https://justicestudies.eku.edu/recent-scholarship/dr-gary-potter">Gary Potter</a> explains, officers were expected to control “<a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf">dangerous classes</a>” that included African Americans, immigrants and the poor. Through the early 20th century, there were <a href="https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/50819_ch_1.pdf">few standards</a> for hiring or training officers. </p>
<p>Police corruption and violence – particularly against vulnerable people – were commonplace during the early 1900s. Additionally, the few <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/the-long-history-of-black-officers-reforming-policing-from-within/547457/">African Americans</a> who joined police forces were often assigned to black neighborhoods and faced discrimination on the job. In my opinion, these factors – controlling disorder, lack of adequate police training, lack of nonwhite officers and slave patrol origins – are among the forerunners of modern-day police brutality against African Americans. </p>
<h2>Jim Crow laws</h2>
<p>Slave patrols formally dissolved after the Civil War ended. But formerly enslaved people saw little relief from racist government policies as they promptly became subject to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">Black Codes</a>. </p>
<p>For the next three years, these new laws specified how, when and where African Americans could work and how much they would be paid. They also restricted <a href="http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/race-and-voting-in-the-segregated-south">black voting rights</a>, dictated how and where African Americans could <a href="https://www.history.com/news/the-green-book-the-black-travelers-guide-to-jim-crow-america">travel</a> and limited where they could live.</p>
<p>The ratification of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">14th Amendment</a> in 1868 quickly made the Black Codes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934717702134">illegal</a> by giving formerly enslaved blacks equal protection of laws through the Constitution. But within two decades, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">Jim Crow laws</a> aimed at subjugating African Americans and denying their civil rights were enacted across southern and some northern states, replacing the Black Codes.</p>
<p>For about 80 years, Jim Crow laws <a href="http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/southern-black-codes.html">mandated separate public spaces</a> for blacks and whites, such as schools, libraries, <a href="https://sophiedaveyphoto.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/photographs-that-tell-a-story-elliot-erwitts-segregated-water-fountains/">water fountains</a> and restaurants – and enforcing them was part of the police’s job. Blacks who broke laws or violated social norms often endured <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/85472/1/usappblog-2017-10-05-from-the-slave-codes-to-mike-brown-the-brutal.pdf">police brutality</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the authorities didn’t punish the perpetrators when <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-heal-african-americans-traumatic-history-98298">African Americans were lynched</a>. Nor did the judicial system <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/mississippi-burning">hold the police accountable</a> for failing to intervene when black people were being <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-lynching-america/">murdered by mobs</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1131268349827137536"}"></div></p>
<h2>Reverberating today</h2>
<p>For the past five decades, the federal government has forbidden the use of racist regulations at the state and local level. Yet people of color are still <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/reconciling-results-racial-differences-police-shootings">more likely to be killed</a> by the police than whites.</p>
<p>The Washington Post tracks the number of Americans killed by the police by race, gender and other characteristics. The newspaper’s database indicates that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/">229 out of 992</a> of those who died that way in 2018, 23% of the total, were black, even though only about 12% of the country is African American. </p>
<p>Policing’s institutional racism of decades and centuries ago still matters because policing culture has not changed as much as it could. For many African Americans, law enforcement represents a <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/why-black-america-fears-the-police">legacy of reinforced inequality</a> in the justice system and resistance to advancement – even under pressure from the civil rights movement and its legacy.</p>
<p>In addition, the police disproportionately target <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820200095291">black drivers</a>.</p>
<p>When a <a href="https://openpolicing.stanford.edu/publications/">Stanford University</a> research team analyzed data collected between 2011 and 2017 from nearly 100 million traffic stops to look for evidence of systemic <a href="https://5harad.com/papers/100M-stops.pdf">racial profiling</a>, they found that black drivers were more likely to be pulled over and to have their cars searched than white drivers. They also found that the percentage of black drivers being stopped by police dropped after dark when a driver’s complexion is harder to see from outside the vehicle.</p>
<p>This persistent disparity in policing is disappointing because of progress in other regards.</p>
<p>There is <a href="http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/creating-a-multicultural-law-enforcement-agency/">greater understanding within the police</a> that brutality, particularly lethal force, leads to public mistrust, and police forces are <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/soc/333050/">becoming more diverse</a>.</p>
<p>What’s more, college students majoring in criminal justice who plan to become future law enforcement officers now frequently take <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511253.2017.1409781">“diversity in criminal justice” courses</a>. This relatively new curriculum is designed to, among other things, make future police professionals more aware of their own biases and those of others. In my view, what these students learn in these classes will make them more attuned to the communities they serve once they enter the workforce.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officers and leaders are being trained to <a href="https://trustandjustice.org/">recognize and minimize their own biases</a> in <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/82-fair-policing-contract-produce/68a8bf346ec3c8dc560c/optimized/full.pdf#page=1">New York City</a> and other places where people of color are disproportionately stopped by the authorities and arrested.</p>
<p>But the persistence of racially biased policing means that unless American policing reckons with its racist roots, it is likely to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021934717702134">keep repeating mistakes</a> of the past. This will hinder police from fully protecting and serving the entire public.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article first published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-from-slave-patrols-to-traffic-stops-112816">June 4, 2019</a>. It has been updated to correct a quote. Criminologist Gary Potter wrote that 19th-century police officers were expected to control “dangerous classes,” not “a dangerous underclass.”</em></p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139805/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Connie Hassett-Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Half a century after the federal government voided Jim Crow laws, the criminal justice system still discriminates against African Americans.Connie Hassett-Walker, Assistant Professor of Justice Studies and Sociology, Norwich UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1128162019-06-04T12:42:37Z2019-06-04T12:42:37ZThe racist roots of American policing: From slave patrols to traffic stops<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277436/original/file-20190531-69095-14chox3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new slogan for an old problem</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Nationwide-Protests-Ferguson/98026cc4d4b14bfa9f2d7c6627d6634d/3/0">Photo/Lynne Sladky </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article was updated on <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyds-death-reflects-the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-139805">June 2, 2020</a></em>.</p>
<p>Outrage over <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/racial-profiling-definition">racial profiling</a> and the killing of <a href="https://policy.m4bl.org/">African Americans</a> by police officers and vigilantes in recent years helped give rise to the <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter</a> movement. </p>
<p>But tensions between the police and black communities are nothing new. </p>
<p>There are many precedents to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/17/black-lives-matter-birth-of-a-movement">Ferguson, Missouri protests</a> that ushered in the Black Lives Matter movement. Those protests erupted in 2014 after a police officer shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown; the officer was <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/2014/11/michael-brown-case-fact-sheet">subsequently not indicted</a>. </p>
<p>The precedents include the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Los-Angeles-Riots-of-1992">Los Angeles</a> riots that broke out after the 1992 acquittal of police officers for beating <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/rodney-king-9542141">Rodney King</a>. Those riots happened nearly three decades after the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/watts-riots">1965 Watts riots</a>, which began with <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-19-me-2790-story.html">Marquette Frye</a>, an African American, being pulled over for suspected drunk driving and roughed up by the police for resisting arrest. </p>
<p>I’m a <a href="http://50.57.204.193/content/hassett-walker-connie-phd">criminal justice researcher</a> who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15377938.2010.526868">often focuses</a> on issues of race, class and crime. Through my research and from teaching a course on diversity in criminal justice, I have come to see how the roots of racism in American policing – first planted centuries ago – have not yet been fully purged. </p>
<h2>Slave patrols</h2>
<p>There are two historical narratives about the origins of American law enforcement. </p>
<p>Policing in southern slave-holding states had roots in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511250500335627">slave patrols</a>, squadrons made up of white volunteers empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery. They located and returned enslaved people who had escaped, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/did-african-american-slaves-rebel/">crushed uprisings</a> led by enslaved people and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511250500335627">punished enslaved workers</a> found or believed to have violated plantation rules. </p>
<p>The first <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1">slave patrols</a> arose <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511250500335627">in South Carolina</a> in the early 1700s. As University of Georgia social work professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yrO6KIMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Michael A. Robinson</a> has written, by the time John Adams became the second U.S. president, every <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934717702134">state that had not yet abolished slavery</a> had them.</p>
<p>Members of slave patrols could <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511250500335627">forcefully enter anyone’s home</a>, regardless of their race or ethnicity, based on suspicions that they were sheltering people who had escaped bondage.</p>
<p>The more commonly known precursors to modern law enforcement were <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1">centralized municipal police departments</a> that began to form in the early 19th century, beginning in Boston and soon cropping up in New York City, Albany, Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere. </p>
<p>The first police forces were overwhelmingly <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/02-2017/african_americans_in_law_enforcement.asp">white</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Stebbins-Wells">male</a> and more focused on responding to <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf">disorder</a> than crime.</p>
<p>As Eastern Kentucky University criminologist <a href="https://justicestudies.eku.edu/recent-scholarship/dr-gary-potter">Gary Potter</a> explains, officers were expected to control a “<a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf">dangerous underclass</a>” that included African Americans, immigrants and the poor. Through the early 20th century, there were <a href="https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/50819_ch_1.pdf">few standards</a> for hiring or training officers. </p>
<p>Police corruption and violence – particularly against vulnerable people – were commonplace during the early 1900s. Additionally, the few <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/the-long-history-of-black-officers-reforming-policing-from-within/547457/">African Americans</a> who joined police forces were often assigned to black neighborhoods and faced discrimination on the job. In my opinion, these factors – controlling disorder, lack of adequate police training, lack of nonwhite officers and slave patrol origins – are among the forerunners of modern-day police brutality against African Americans. </p>
<h2>Jim Crow laws</h2>
<p>Slave patrols formally dissolved after the Civil War ended. But formerly enslaved people saw little relief from racist government policies as they promptly became subject to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">Black Codes</a>. </p>
<p>For the next three years, these new laws specified how, when and where African Americans could work and how much they would be paid. They also restricted <a href="http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/race-and-voting-in-the-segregated-south">black voting rights</a>, dictated how and where African Americans could <a href="https://www.history.com/news/the-green-book-the-black-travelers-guide-to-jim-crow-america">travel</a> and limited where they could live.</p>
<p>The ratification of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">14th Amendment</a> in 1868 quickly made the Black Codes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934717702134">illegal</a> by giving formerly enslaved blacks equal protection of laws through the Constitution. But within two decades, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">Jim Crow laws</a> aimed at subjugating African Americans and denying their civil rights were enacted across southern and some northern states, replacing the Black Codes.</p>
<p>For about 80 years, Jim Crow laws <a href="http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/southern-black-codes.html">mandated separate public spaces</a> for blacks and whites, such as schools, libraries, <a href="https://sophiedaveyphoto.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/photographs-that-tell-a-story-elliot-erwitts-segregated-water-fountains/">water fountains</a> and restaurants – and enforcing them was part of the police’s job. Blacks who broke laws or violated social norms often endured <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/85472/1/usappblog-2017-10-05-from-the-slave-codes-to-mike-brown-the-brutal.pdf">police brutality</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the authorities didn’t punish the perpetrators when <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-heal-african-americans-traumatic-history-98298">African Americans were lynched</a>. Nor did the judicial system <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/mississippi-burning">hold the police accountable</a> for failing to intervene when black people were being <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-lynching-america/">murdered by mobs</a>. </p>
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<h2>Reverberating today</h2>
<p>For the past five decades, the federal government has forbidden the use of racist regulations at the state and local level. Yet people of color are still <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/reconciling-results-racial-differences-police-shootings">more likely to be killed</a> by the police than whites.</p>
<p>The Washington Post tracks the number of Americans killed by the police by race, gender and other characteristics. The newspaper’s database indicates that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/">229 out of 992</a> of those who died that way in 2018, 23% of the total, were black, even though only about 12% of the country is African American. </p>
<p>Policing’s institutional racism of decades and centuries ago still matters because policing culture has not changed as much as it could. For many African Americans, law enforcement represents a <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/why-black-america-fears-the-police">legacy of reinforced inequality</a> in the justice system and resistance to advancement – even under pressure from the civil rights movement and its legacy.</p>
<p>In addition, the police disproportionately target <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820200095291">black drivers</a>.</p>
<p>When a <a href="https://openpolicing.stanford.edu/publications/">Stanford University</a> research team analyzed data collected between 2011 and 2017 from nearly 100 million traffic stops to look for evidence of systemic <a href="https://5harad.com/papers/100M-stops.pdf">racial profiling</a>, they found that black drivers were more likely to be pulled over and to have their cars searched than white drivers. They also found that the percentage of black drivers being stopped by police dropped after dark when a driver’s complexion is harder to see from outside the vehicle.</p>
<p>This persistent disparity in policing is disappointing because of progress in other regards.</p>
<p>There is <a href="http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/creating-a-multicultural-law-enforcement-agency/">greater understanding within the police</a> that brutality, particularly lethal force, leads to public mistrust, and police forces are <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/soc/333050/">becoming more diverse</a>.</p>
<p>What’s more, college students majoring in criminal justice who plan to become future law enforcement officers now frequently take <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10511253.2017.1409781">“diversity in criminal justice” courses</a>. This relatively new curriculum is designed to, among other things, make future police professionals more aware of their own biases and those of others. In my view, what these students learn in these classes will make them more attuned to the communities they serve once they enter the workforce.</p>
<p>In addition, law enforcement officers and leaders are being trained to <a href="https://trustandjustice.org/">recognize and minimize their own biases</a> in <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/82-fair-policing-contract-produce/68a8bf346ec3c8dc560c/optimized/full.pdf#page=1">New York City</a> and other places where people of color are disproportionately stopped by the authorities and arrested.</p>
<p>But the persistence of racially biased policing means that unless American policing reckons with its racist roots, it is likely to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021934717702134">keep repeating mistakes</a> of the past. This will hinder police from fully protecting and serving the entire public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Connie Hassett-Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Half a century after the federal government voided Jim Crow laws, the criminal justice system still discriminates against African Americans.Connie Hassett-Walker, Assistant Professor of Justice Studies and Sociology, Norwich UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.