Very good paper. Well written, well researched and very thorough and timely.

Grade A

Too Far From a Civilized System:

Police Brutality Against African Americans

Miriam Holbrook

SW 620: University of Michigan

Many of us are trying to understand the seeming upsurge in police

brutality, due to the recent media coverage of police killings against unarmed

African Americans in New York, Cleveland, and St. Louis. Often the timing of the

coverage in the news will guide the focus of the media- so depending, most

incidents don’t go on to become a national media outcry- it really just depends on

the timing of what the media needs at any given time. (Bernasconi, 2014). But

the truth is that these cases present nothing new for African Americans, who live

this everyday, media coverage or not, which explains why much of the shock and

outrage against such events seems to come from the white population. But even

for them, if we go back 25 years since the say, “white-awareness” of these

events began, at least for my generation, little has been gained for African

American civil rights involving the excessive use of force by law enforcement

officials.

Actually, since the brutal beating of Rodney King by LA Police officers in

1988, incidents of police brutality have increased. We seemed to have learned

nothing from our past (Chaney & Robertson, 2014). According to the Malcolm X

Grassroots Movement Organization’s findings, 313 African Americans were killed

at the hands of law enforcement during 2012 (Bernasconi, 2014); of those killed,

69% of were aged 13-31; 46% were unarmed (Chaney & Robertson, 2014). This

amounts to one death every 28 hours (Martinot, 2014).

Finding consistent statistics can be difficult, as there is no national

database on the police killings of African Americans. Data is most often collected

from news reports. The Department of Justice has investigated over 17 police

departments throughout the US since 2010. In Houston there have been an

excessive number of recent shootings involving mostly unarmed African

Americans. Two of the cases are particularly striking. Brian Claunch, a 45 year

old one armed, one-legged mentally ill African American was killed for apparently

threatening police with a pen. In the other case involving the killing of Rufino

Lara, several witnesses reported that he was unarmed and holding his hands up

in the air while being shot several times. (Chaney & Robertson, 2014). The same

type of reporting came from 16 of the 18 witnesses in the recent Michael Brown

case (PBS.org).

The cases presented here, all involving unarmed African American men,

represent some of the 2012 cases listed in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

report, many of which received limited national media coverage.

Jamaal Moore, was a 23 year old unarmed who was shot by police during

the day, at a gas station near a busy Chicago intersection in 2012. This shooting

was videotaped by the station surveillance. Police confiscated the tape and it

was never seen again. The officer reported that Jamaal was “charging at her.”

Lying on the ground in

handcuffs, no one

attended to Jamaal after

he was shot- it was simply

assumed he was dead.

When Jamaal’s Mother

arrived at scene, one

police officer said to her:

“just another nigger dead.” Witnesses rioted and were arrested. However, no

arrests for the shooting death or for confiscation of evidence were made.

(Bernasconi, 2014).

Kenneth Chamberlain was a war veteran with a bad heart. One night, his

emergency heart monitor accidentally went off, sending a signal out to the

medical alert dispatcher. At the time, there were no doctors to call, so the worker

called police instead. Several officers arrived at Kenneth’s home and demanded

he open the door, but Kenneth told them he was all right and to go away; instead,

police down the door in and killed him. (Martinot, 2014).

When police suspected Kenneth Harding of planning to run out after his

bus ride without paying the 2.00 fare, they forced him off of the bus and shoved

him to the ground. Kenneth ran from police and was shot in the back. Police

claimed they shot him in the leg and that Kenneth shot himself in the head (killing

himself) despite that no gun was found (Martinot, 2014).

Martinot argues that it is far easier for white men to surrender without

incident than it is for black men. In 20012, DeJuan Colbert robbed a dollar store

in Wichita. When police came to his door, DeJuan dropped the knife he was

carrying and said, “I give up.” At that time police shot him 13 times (2014).

Hyunseok et al. (2010) argues that police’s excessive use of force, occurs

disproportionately in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. Rejecting critical race

theory, the study found that resistance to police as the most predictive factor in

how much force is used. Police are three times more likely to use force when

faced with resistance, particularly male resistance. Typically, police are met with

more resistance in higher poverty areas. Hyunseok found that lower

unemployment rates correlated with police’s use of higher levels of force. The

authors argued that higher use of force is associated more with socioeconomic

status rather than race, explaining that when police work in these areas, they are

more often met with resistance.

Clemons (2014) has argued that higher violent crimes and crimes against

property do correlate with socioeconomic status- so disadvantaged

neighborhoods will experience higher rates of crime regardless of racial

composition. But why the huge disproportion in excessive force and incarceration

specifically to race? Clemons believes it the way the system is administered:

“one of the primary sources of the disparity is internal, residing within each key

actor in the criminal justice system from police officers and prosecutor to judges

and juries.” Implicit racial bias has plagued and permeated every level of the

justice system, much as it does “even the best intentioned among us.” 691.

Clemons argues that most Americans harbor negative implicit

associations about black Americans. We are all victim to these stereotypes when

dealing with police officers. Since officials often state that they rely on their “gut

instincts” or “hunches,” these racial biases influence police decisions about

whether to use deadly force as well. In a study of “shooter bias,” researchers

pattered a simulation test based on the Implicit Attitude Test and found that in

every study, “the threshold of the certainty of danger that participants required to

shoot a black man was significantly lower than the threshold required to shoot a

white man.” (Clemons, 2014: 695).

So what’s the missing variable here? The war on drugs permitted more

latitude for law enforcement to search and stop. It added the element that could

explode into a grab bag of ambiguous reasons for police officers to use in order

to detain people of their choosing. If police officers and other law enforcement

officials are allowed to act on racist attitudes, then the rates of arrest would

certainly end up disproportionate- as they would reflect those racist biases.

Perhaps this lends some understanding as to why prison rates of African

Americans are higher than 40 percent, while they make up only 13 percent of the

population.

If we assume our criminal laws to operate under neutrality, as so many

people to day do, when looking at crime statistics, we would assume that African

Americans commit a hugely disproportionate share of the crimes committed.

However, research has shown that since the war on drugs began in 1980, the

black drug arrest rate has more than quadrupled- while the white arrest rate has

remained the same, despite that drug use and sales among both are no different

(Clemons, 2014).

The problem is systemic because it is so deeply entrenched in our history:

As early as 1693, court officials in Philadelphia instructed police to arrest any

“‘negro’ seen ‘gadding about’ without a pass from his or her master.” This did not

make any “distinction between those who were free or slave (Staples, 2011, 32.)

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 punished law enforcement and regular citizens if

they did not help capture suspected runaway slaves. Blacks (free or slave) did

not have the right to defend themselves in court against these claims (Staples,

2011).

So, this “new Jim Crow” is really not new at all, but has continued since

slavery ended. Indeed, today, more black Americans are under the control of

corrections than were enslaved in 1850 (Clemons, 2014). At the beginning of

reconstruction, just after the Civil War ended, The Black Codes were created to

keep recently freed slaves under continued white control. The system worked like

this: basically, business owners who still needed free labor would provide the

names of black people to the sheriff- these were names of mostly young, black

men (and often children as young as four years old) who would be ideal for the

labor they needed. The sheriff would then go out and arrest these people and the

business owner would pay a certain amount for each one. Charges, of course,

were usually vague and sentencing terms would often range according to how

long the labor was needed. To be sure, some of the parallels from our past are

eerily similar.

The Black Scholar

A review of data from the Illinois Department of Transportation revealed

that from 2004-20011, police stopped African Americans 48% more often than

Oh, I wish I was an Alabama trooper

That is what I’d truly like to be

‘Cause if I was an Alabama trooper

Than I could shoot the niggers legally

(taunt used by white citizens in Bridgeport,

Chicago, 1965. Fikes, 2012, 41).

whites (Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, 2014). The review also showed that in 2011,

88% of the 744 people arrested for jaywalking in Champaign, Illinois were African

American. These arrests serve several purposes besides providing a fair amount

of revenue (jaywalking citations cost 120.00), they operate as a device of social

control. But more importantly, this profiling helps to incorporate black youth into

the criminal justice system when they might otherwise escape it- so it while also

providing police records disproportionately of the black male youth population.

Understanding these skewed numbers, it comes as no surprise that Michael

Brown was initially stopped by officer Darren Wilson for jaywalking only 90

seconds before he was shot to death.

Often working class African

American neighborhoods are targeted

by police to randomly stop youth-

check ID, run background checks on

simple code violations or “trespassing”

through a park (hanging out after

“close.”) It is often cases like these

that somehow manage to escalate into

beatings or killings. These are all

examples of what Sundiata Keita Cha-

Jua calls “crimes of control” (2014).

Former pro athlete and

businessman, Earl Graves Jr- recalled

being stopped and searched one

morning in 1996 as he arrived at Grand Central in New York City. Apparently he

“fit a description of a suspect.” Graves was dressed in a suite and carrying a

briefcase. The suspect was 5 10 with a mustache; Graves was 6 4 and clean

shaven. “I’m black,” he said, “and that’s all they saw.” (Fikes, 2012, 52).

Philosophy professor Cornel West recalled an incident from his college

days 2006. He was stopped because he fit the description provided by a

neighbor who’d recently been attacked. Despite her trying to explain to the police

that they had the wrong person, the police tried to convince her that she was

wrong. West explained that if this woman had not been completely convinced,

he’d have gone to jail (Fikes, 2012).

Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a professor in Cambridge Massachusetts was

having problems getting into his house after returning from the airport with his

driver (in a limousine). The officer, after hearing his description from a neighbor

who called police, assumed he may need “back up,” so more and more officers

started to arrive on the scene. Gates was deemed “uncooperative” when police

tried to question him (he was in his home at this point). This creates a build-up of

hostility on both sides- the victim feeling more harassed and getting angrier and

police seeing them as becoming more hostile and thus, affirming their

stereotypes and the feeling that something could break – so need further

protection and show of force. These are the things that escalate into killings. It’s

a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Staples argues that The Civil Rights Act of 1964 “may have reduced the

possibility that entire racial groups could be sanctioned for mistreatment, but in

reality, law enforcement can still” legally profile anyone based on their affiliation

to a particular ethnic group- as long as police provide a reason for the it- which

includes simply having a “hunch” about the person (32). And despite police

perceptions of threats- whether they stop someone for walking with their hands in

their pockets, or if they are carrying a power drill, their perceptions are not based

on facts or even experience, but by learned stereotypes. And as Clemons

explains, implicit racial bias functions independently of explicit racial attitudes and

these tendencies are not checked at the courtroom door (2011).

A study completed by Center for Constitutional Rights showed that white

suspects, when stopped, are 70 percent more likely than black suspects to have

a weapon (Staples, 2011). Yet, Studies conducted when participants are asked

to push “shoot” or “don’t shoot” shown images of people with ambiguous objects

(which could or could not be a weapon), subjects tend to unconsciously

associate violent objects with black people and neutral objects with white people

(James, Klinger, & Vila, 2014). White people working in law enforcement and in

the court system, including judges have shown to consistently associate African

Americans with crime (Staples, 2011). They will often “think” they see a weapon

because these stereotypes/schemas are already entrenched in their neurological

patterns of thinking. The brain plays tricks on people based on their previous

learning- it is a survival instinct that does not serve them- or in these cases, their

victims, well when attempting to recall what they saw/what happened or even

what they actually see as things occur in the present.

Another issue is the

discrepancy in the ratio of white

officers to black residents in

some communities. In southern

cities with higher percentages

of African Americans, the

difference is considerable. New

Orleans did not have African

American officers on their force

at all until 1950. By 1981, 23 percent of the officers were African American,

though the population represented 46 percent, with only 2.4 percent of African

Americans serving as police supervisors. And the police brutality seems to

correlate- with significant incidents of police violence occurring through the 1940s

through the 90s (Moore, 2010).

Clemons argues that since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, our court systems

have not changed the way they determine racism, since it is based solely on

intent-based (explicit) standard for racism, but is impotent against fighting

discrimination on the most important (implicit) level- since implicit racial

bias is not considered in court decisions The view of racial discrimination held by

most justices of the US Supreme court is basically “that the only racial

discrimination that exists- or at least the only kind that matters under the

constitution- is explicit and susceptible to conscious control. Decades of

psychological research has demonstrated that the most insidious form of racial

bias is actually implicit and subconscious, however.” (Clemons, 2011, 689).

Clemons explains how these implicit biases affects those working at all

levels of our court system. Federal sentencing outcomes present some disturbing

trends on the impact of implicit racial bias- particularly in the area of prosecutorial

discretion when considering a departure from the mandatory minimum

sentences, for some defendants that may seem “salvageable” or “sympathetic.”

While prosecutors may have more time to make decisions than police in the field,

they have very high caseloads, and often must make snap judgments on a case,

with little info on the suspect other than a short description. In a study of over

77,000 cases, prosecutors were found to be significantly less likely to request

shorter sentences for black and Hispanic male defendants than for white male

defendants, accounting for 56% of the total racial disparity in length of sentencing

(Clemons, 2011).

Public defenders also have high caseloads and must determine where to

allocate their time and effort. They are also well aware of being up against a

system stacked against their African American clients to begin with, which may

also influence their putting less effort in providing the best defense for them. The

Implicit racial biases of trial judges have been shown to be as high as those in

the general population. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that jurors treat

defendants unlike themselves more harshly than those they perceive as a

member of their own identities. Since the majority of juries are predominantly

white, this “out-group bias” disproportionately disadvantages minority

defendants.” (Clemons, 2011, 699). A study analyzing jury decisions in criminal

cases demonstrated that 33% of convicted whites received a prison sentence

compared to 51% of African Americans.

Studies have shown that when judging

white or black defendants, all other things

being equal, white jurors were more

empathetic and thus more lenient toward

white defendants than black defendants

(Chaney & Robertson, 2014).

So why aren’t more people outraged?

Perhaps the most concerning and most

obstructing statistic in all of this is that

whites have a very different view of our

justice system. Thirty eight percent of

whites believe the system is biased against African Americans, with 56%

believing it is fair. However, 89% African Americans believe the system is biased

against them, with only 8% believing the system treats them fairly. (Chaney &

Robertson, 2014).

Since white people are not subjected to the same side of the system as

African Americans, they will usually only respond to what they see in the media.

Martinot agues however, that the media treat each case individually, not showing

the trend of multiple murders or tying them in to show a trend in the structure.

So, it spreads throughout communities, but ceases to make news (2014).

It is also important to understand that the mainstream media gets its

reports from the police- and rarely are those accounts questioned. If the victims

of the police shootings or brutality have any former criminal record, the media is

sure to mention this in detail, regardless of its relevance to the incident, and any

thing in the police version of events is reported first without question, even when

there are other conflicting reports from witnesses or even medical records, and

despite how ridiculous the police side of the story is.

Interestingly, Martinot argues, the Media often grants humanity and

personhood to white people only. When white people are the targets of

shootings, The media will go into depth about the lives and families of the

victims. Conversely, when white people are the actual shooters and the victims

are black citizens, the focus becomes the lives and family of the shooters (2011).

Men are also often portrayed as prototypes of criminal suspects. Black

males in particular are seen as aggressive and criminal, fitting into the stereotype

of perpetrator. Studies have shown the more Afrocentric the African American’s

facial features, the more prone he or she is to be perceived as deviant in some

way (Martinot, 2011). Officer Darren Wilson described Michael Brown as some

sort of non-human “demon” who seemed to “bulk-up” and get angrier the more

he was shot, even referring to Brown as “it” at one time during testimony. When

one compares the manner in which the media has portrayed black men, perhaps

this explains why the majority of white Americans seemed to accept this

description as justification for the shooting.

Without a change in the awareness and attitudes of the dominant culture,

which are driven by strong learned implicit biases, significant changes may still

be generations away. Body cameras and more training cannot wipe these biases

away. Hyunseok et al. maintained that white people in positions of power may

react aggressively because they perceive minorities as a threat to their

dominance (2010). Considering the projections showing the white numerical a

way toward that change ourselves.

Works Cited/Bibliography/Notes:

Bernasconi, R. (2014). When police violence is more than violent policing. The

New Centennial Review. 14(2). 145-152.

Chaney, C. and Robertson, R.V. (2014). Can we all get along? Blacks' historical

and contemporary (in) justice with law enforcement. Western Journal of

Black Studies. 38(2) 122-108.

Sean Bell- shot at 50 times; Amadou Diallo shot at 40 times, Devin Brown (13 years old); Adolf Grimes- shot 12 times in the back; Timothy Thomas- shooting in Detroit.

Chaney, C. and Robertson, R. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America.

Journal of African American Studies. 17(4). 480-505.

Clemons, J. T. (2014). Blind injustice: The supreme court, implicit racial bias, and

the racial disparity in the criminal justice system. American Criminal Law

Review. 51(3). 689-713.

“The cumulative influence of implicit racial bias on the various decisions made by the” actors within the criminal justice system “creates a wave of racial disparity that swells from the moment a police officer decides to stop an individual to the final bang of the judge’s gavel” in the sentencing hearing. “At each decision point along the way, the disparity grows. Blacks are more likely to be stopped,” arrested, charged, charged with harsher charges, “and less likely to receive effective defense counsel,” “more likely to be convicted and more likely to receive harsher sentences.”

Fikes, R. (2012). Breathing while black: Rude and frightful encounters with

the police recalled by distinguished African Americans, 1860-2012. The

Journal of Pan African Studies. 5(5). 41-65.

James, L., Klinger, D., and Vila, B. (2014). Racial and ethnic bias in decisions to

shoot seen through a stronger lens: experimental results from high-fidelity

laboratory simulations. Journal of Experimental Criminology. 10(3) 323-

340.

Lee, H. Hyunseok, J., Yun, I., Lim, H., Tushaus, D.W. (2010). An examination of

police use of force utilizing police training and neighborhood contextual

factors: A multilevel analysis. Policing: An International Journal of Police

Strategies & Management. 33 (4). 681-702.

Martinot, S. (2014). On the epidemic of police killings. Social Justice. 39(4). 52-

75.

Alan Blueford killed in 2012 when Oakland police stopped him on a street corner where he was hanging with his friends. He ran- but didn’t do anything. Unarmed. Upward trajectory shows officer was standing over him when shot three times. Fourth shot actually hit the officer’s foot. Officer was “exonerated” Blueford- lying on his back with hands up- lied on the ground for four hours (familiar?), the assumption being that he was dead.

Parallel this with George Zimmerman, a citizen who followed Trayvon Martin as he talked on his cell phone. Zimmerman called police, who told him not to take any action as they headed that way- then when police arrived, Trayvon was dead with a bullet through his chest; Zimmerman claimed self defense; Trayvon was unarmed. Again, Exonerated. – “honor?”

Ramarley Graham- 2012 a teenager who went inside his apartment when he saw police stop in front of it- Police came and ordered him to open the door, graham refused, so they forced it open and shot him (he was in the bathroom).

Gary King- street corner with friends, officer drove by and stopped, walked over to him and his friends. The officer claimed he saw King reach for his waistband and felt threatened.

Chavis Carter, 21 years old shot while sitting handcuffed in the back of a police car in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The police said he shot himself.

Hayward police (2012)- killed California resident, Edgar Alvarez as he sat in his car. He fit the description of a suspect from a bar shooting several blocks away. As Alvarez put his car in reverse, he was shot and killed.

Moore, L. N. (2010). Black Rage in New Orleans: Police Brutality and

African American Activism from World War II to Hurricane Katrina.

Baton Rough: Louisiana State UP.

Public Broadcasting Corporation. (2014). Witness interviews from the Michael

Brown shooting investigation (Chart). Retrieved from

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/newly-released-witness-testimony-

tell-us-michael-brown-shooting/

Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua. (2014). We believe it was murder: Mobilizing black

resistance to police brutality in Champaign, Illinois. The Black

Scholar. 44(1). 58-85.

Case 2009- Kiwane A Carrington. 1:30 afternoon- on the porch of aunt’s house with a friend- police acting on reports of burglary- police stated they asked the boys to get down- they sat- but police state Kiwane continued walking toward him (what does this sound like?) shooting killed the15 -year old- ruled accidental though took less than a minute.

Staples, R. (2011). White power, black crime, and racial politics. The Black

Scholar, 41(4). 31-41.

Many brutal cases of African American killings by white police in NYC- perhaps the most revealing fact is that twenty black officers, working off duty or undercover, have been shot by their white colleagues. (p 35).