How to Dismantle Racism and End Police Burtality
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Police brutality is a preventable cause of death that does not burden all racial groups equally. That is clear. When stories like that of Jordan Edwards make the morning news, we should force ourselves to reckon with the harsh reality that another life has ended. Given past is often prologue, we will soon see reports that justify his murder. Why was he at a party — he was only 15! Were they backing up or going forward? And we will twist as spectators find ways to justify that another family is ripped apart and that as a nation, we have lost.
Time to stop the twisting in search of an answer that really lies in a preventable cause of death. One that makes us all uncomfortable to address — racism.
The deaths of unarmed black men highlight broader racial issues reflected in police-public relations that we have not quite addressed in the U.S. These issues create inequities in health, well-being and in productivity. To address police brutality and limit its impact, we must focus upstream.
What constitutes police brutality?
Police brutality is not just about people dying during interactions with law enforcement. Brutality goes beyond the use of unjustified physical force that might cause death. It includes emotional and verbal assault and intimidation that ultimately dehumanize the victim. Brutality can occur regardless of conscious intent of the officer.
Research shows that police brutality has health consequences for individuals who are victimized, and that those who live in disproportionately policed communities have poor health as a direct result, regardless of whether they themselves are victims of police brutality. But let’s face it, when people who are unarmed die directly from police intervention and when the videos go viral, we pay more attention.
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Despite the numerous deaths of unarmed citizens, massive public outcry, and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality against brown and black people continues. One of the reasons why this still happens is that as a society, we have focused on being reactive rather than proactive. Reviewing videos from body cameras, having grand juries, settling civil rights cases and the like will not ultimately prevent these deaths or restore what families and communities have lost. Instead, addressing the root cause of police brutality is a preventive strategy that will be more impactful and have positive ripple effects across various sectors of the American society.
We must confront our past and the reality of the present
The disproportionate killing of black people is not a new phenomenon. Even though it was not until 1991 when the first public beating — post-civil rights era — was captured on camera (Rodney King), the historical evidence of public harming and devaluing of black bodies dates to enslavement, and was reinforced in the 19th century when lynching laws were in place. In a lot of ways, police brutality against black people mirrors lynching. That today, blacks, Latinos and Native Americans are disproportionately killed by the police should come as no surprise given that policing in the U.S. has its origins in the mission to conquer Native Americans and then to prevent enslaved Africans from fleeing.
No matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel, we should frame police brutality against people of color as a structural racism and white supremacy problem. It is not simply the fault of individual ill-intentioned, racist, power-hungry, authority-abusing officers. It goes much larger and deeper than that.
Police brutality is one of several ways in which systems and institutions oppress some groups and afford opportunities to others simply based on race. It is sadly consistent with what is happening in the education system, where some children receive high-quality education in resource-rich school districts and some don’t simply because of their skin color. Police brutality is not different from the policies and structures that maintain the school-to-prison pipeline for students of color, especially black students. It is not different from what is happening in the criminal justice and law enforcement systems where being black means being more likely than your white peer to be arrested, charged and incarcerated for the same crime.
How to prevent police brutality, address structural racism and eliminate white supremacy?
There are several ways by which an individual can contribute towards achieving health equity, improving the well-being of communities of color, increasing national productivity and creating a more equitable society.
- Join scholars to advocate for documenting police related deaths as notifiable conditions so that public health departments can monitor these deaths.
- Support calls for more collaboration and partnerships among communities, researchers, policymakers and law enforcement systems.
- Learn about how structural racism and white supremacy operate within institutions, policies and laws.
- Regardless of your field of work, evaluate whether policies, laws, requirements, guidelines, etc., have unintentional negative consequences for people of color. Similarly, evaluate whether they disproportionately benefit white people and think of ways to level the playing field.
- Advocate for and support criminal justice reform, demilitarization of police, and decriminalization of behaviors such as loitering and minor traffic violations, and ending stop-and-frisk.
- Support movements like Black Lives Matter that raise awareness of police brutality, and help expose and dismantle structural racism.
- Remember the names — the people killed. His name was Jordan Edwards. He was 15. He was leaving a house party. Tomorrow his story may be replaced in the news by a new victim; but just remember his name.
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