It’s been said that for every societal problem — no matter what the issue is … poverty, lack of education, healthcare concerns, workplace and gender discrimination issues, prisoner reentry … you name it — a study group or Task Force is formed to impact on (and hopefully improve upon, if not entirely eradicate) it.
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that President Obama and Governor Kasich both have empaneled a Task Force to discern what euphemistically is being called the “lack of trust between police officers and members of minority communities.”
But “lack of trust” isn’t what’s killing young black males at such an alarming rate … it’s bullets from the guns of overly aggressive white cops that are causing the deaths (of course along with strangulations, Tazering and old-fashioned beat downs). More pointedly, lack of trust between blacks and the police has existed for at least the last 150 or so years, ever since the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, so the question has to be: Why this alarming increase in the number of deaths of young black males since 2008? (See graph below)
Additionally, why don’t black cops — who patrol the same streets as white cops — feel so threatened, so in fear for their lives, they have to routinely use deadly force to protect themselves? Although this is purely anecdotal, I can’t recall one instance of a black cop killing a black male anywhere in America under suspicious circumstances, although I’m sure such instances have occurred.
Indeed, if black cops are able to complete their shifts and go home safely to their families every night (which, indeed, is every cop’s right) without having to take a life, that has to lead us to the conclusion these white cops that open fire upon the smallest of provocations are one of two things: Either they’re cowboys or cowards … both of which are dangerous to the general public at large, and young black males in particular.
Nonetheless, neither of those conjectures answer of the question of “why?” Why these increases in the body count of young black males dead at the hands of white cops now?
The graph (below) I recently came across on the website FiveThirtyEight while doing research is entitled “Problematic Police Homicide Statistics” and it revealed something I find troubling: The Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the increase in the number of killings of this demographic began in 2008 (on a 45-degree upwards angle) the same year Barack Obama took office, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) shows the exact same increase a little over a year later; only the FBI statistics didn’t show any increase. So either two federal agencies are wrong in their data, or the FBI (which works hand-and-glove with police departments across the country on a regular basis) is sandbagging its figures.
Now, I’m not big on conspiracy theories, and there could be a logical explanation for the increase at that particular point in time: It could be that new, more powerful weapons were being used by police departments nationwide are causing the deaths (although I couldn’t find any evidence of that occurring), or it could be that a generation of young white cops raised on violent video games which make them more violence prone joined police forces … or there could be some other logical explanation that eludes me … but if that’s the case I sure as hell would like to know what it is.
These graphs could be something the recently formed Task Forces might want to take a look at, if only to analyze and dismiss them for some logical reason. Granted, even if it was proven that cops began killing black males at an increased rate upon Obama’s ascendancy to the presidency, what would that really mean?
History is a great teacher. Immediately after the Emancipation Proclamation, black males — who previously were worth somewhere around $1,500 each to their owners (that’s $30,000 in today’s dollars) — quickly went from being prized, valuable possessions … to despised, dangerous and demented individuals once they were manumitted; they instantly became men whose lives were of little value to whites since they could no longer be owned. The backlash to blacks gaining their freedom was immediate, pervasive, and resulted in roving bands of white vigilantes that soon morphed into the Klu Klux Klan. Lynching became a form of intimidation, and just as importantly, a form of payback for the North winning the Civil War.
Fast forward to this century in Brooklyn, NY. Rudy Giuliani had succeeded David Dinkins as mayor in 1994, and police began an unprecedented crackdown on crimes of all types. In spite of the fact crime was falling all across America, Giuliani nonetheless credited his ruthless tactics for reducing crime in the Big Apple and he became a hero.
However, in 1997, NYPD officer Justin Volpe, caught up in the atmosphere that encouraged brutalizing citizens, sodomized a 30-year-old Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, with a mop handle in the bathroom of a police precinct, while supposedly shouting racial slurs and the phrase, “It’s Giuliani-time now” … obviously referencing the change in climate of accepted police conduct due to a change in politics.
I reference this to raise the point that politics certainly can play a role in how policing is carried out in America. So, given the level of vitriol extant among right wingers in reaction to Obama’s winning of the White House, it’s not that much of a stretch to envision white cops that already harbored racist sentiments acting out on their twisted beliefs by becoming trigger happy when black suspects are involved.
But again, even if this posit is true, what does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Just this: Understanding this dynamic just might prevent these Task Forces from chasing their tails looking for complicated reasons for the increase in black deaths at the hands of white cops … when it just might something as simple and commonplace as age-old institutionalized racism. And in the end, having an accurate take on what the root causes of the problem actually are can lead to better-crafted solutions that can have a stronger positive impact … thus saving the lives of an untold number of young black males.
[Photo: Niccolò Caranti (Flickr)]
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Studying the Issue of Black Killings”
Cicero
So what’s the point? These graphs include fully justifiable homicides and whites as well as blacks killed. Means nothing.
And if you blame the uptick on Obama, perhaps you should encourage Obama to resign before his term ends. That would surely help the country out in a lot of other ways as well.
Harriet Petti
Actually Cicero, the reason the graph for the FBI includes justifiable homicides and whites is because they do not track white cops shooting black unarmed men as a demographic, i wonder why? Could it be they don’t want to know? Might have to do something about it?
However the CDC may be tracking the demograhic as it is a direct threat to Black mens health. I bet if we broke out the demographic to show only that statistic you would see the trend for blackmen dying at the hands of white policemen far exceedsthat of whites.
Mansfield is not blaming Obama, he is citing the success and shift in power to a African American President as the root of the uptick. The institutionalized racism of white men fearing a loss of their position of power as a demographic is where this fear based killing has its root.
Men who are secure and confident of their place in the universe would not hate to see another demographic rise to a position of equality.