Who is ultimately responsible for the deaths of New York City police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos? A reasoned argument could be made placing the blame at the feet of the grand jurors (who, all over the country, allow themselves to be led around by the nose by prosecuting attorneys) that failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for placing Eric Garner in a lethal — and illegal — chokehold, thus igniting protests that set off a madman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who slaughtered the two unsuspecting New York City cops. However, grand juries — nor any other part of our broken criminal justice system — are ever held accountable for their abject failures.
Similarly, the jurors who found the cops who brutalized Rodney King innocent took no responsibility for the 51 men and 7 women who died in the rioting that took place after the verdict, nor for the estimated $1 billion in damage that occurred over the ensuing six days. In their minds it was all Rodney King’s fault for upsetting the cops so much they couldn’t restrain themselves from brutalizing him.
Such cause and effect relationships are never given voice to when law enforcement is involved because cops and their supporters will spare no effort to spin every incident, every confrontation that leads to harm or death into a believable — albeit specious — story that an all too willing majority of the populace — juries included — is willing (even eager) to hear.
In the case of the death on Staten Island, evidently Pantaleo didn’t place Garner in an illegal “chokehold” as the video of the incident clearly indicates — it was merely a “headlock.” This practice of wholesale mendacity when black lives are taken unjustly will of course eventually lead to dire consequences.
Unless changes are made in how the nation is policed, the taking of young black lives will continue unabated, and what, to this point, have largely been peaceful demonstrations will eventually turn ugly and violent. That’s not a threat — it’s a promise.
Of course I’ll be taken to task for making this prediction, as if my speaking truth to power will cause the violence … since those who seek to maintain the status quo would much rather shoot the messenger than heed the message. It’s the American way.
Nonetheless, change is in the wind, and some of America’s most brilliant minds are beginning to weigh in with commonsense solutions.
Writing in the Washington Post, Yale law professors Ian Ayres and Daniel Markovits pose the logical question: Should lethal force be employed by cops in misdemeanor situations? They cite the fact that in both the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, the “crimes” they initially were approached by police for, respectfully, were jaywalking and selling loose cigarettes. But somehow the incidents escalated into situations where both men lost their lives. How did that escalation occur?
The duo writes, “The steps taken to secure arrests … must, at every point, be proportional to the suspected crimes that underlie the arrests.” But that’s obviously not happening in many cases when white cops confront black suspects; the cops are employing the use of sledgehammers to swat flies, and the rule of the streets (based on the debunked “broken windows” theory) is, when confronted by a cop, “comply or die.”
The “broken windows theory” is a criminological theory of the norm-setting and signaling effect of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social behavior,” according to a post on Wikipedia. Developed by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, and introduced in a 1982 article in The Atlantic, “The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and toll-jumping [one could suppose the selling of loose cigarettes also fits into this category] helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.”
The theory, once adopted by law enforcement, quickly morphed into a quasi-official policy whereby cops had to “win” every confrontation with a citizen/suspect, no matter how much force had to be brought to bear — even lethal.
Ayres and Markovits write that in the Garner case a ticket should have been issued, rather than an arrest attempted. “But under current law, when police arrest someone based on nothing more than probable cause of a minor crime, they can treat the wrongdoer more severely than the punishment that would ordinarily be imposed by a court of law, even after a full trial,” they wrote. In other words, cops become judge, jury and executioner right there on the curb.
“That’s wrong,” they argue, “an arrest should not impose a burden greater than a conviction. When it does, that amounts to police oppression.” Which, by the way, is the point minorities have been making (albeit less elegantly) all along.
Over a decade ago the police chief of Providence, RI, stated that he wanted more female cops on the force, for one simple reason: They are not testosterone driven like male cops, and therefore more easily deescalate confrontational situations rather than further escalate them. So there are answers, we simply have to force them on police departments in order to save lives.
[Photo: Elvert Barnes (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: Comply! (Or Die)”
Jim Schade
“A reasoned argument could be made placing the blame at the feet of the grand jurors”? Mansfield, no reasonable person can make that argument. Not to make light of it, but it’s weaker than “the Otter defense” in Animal House. Accountability, responsibility, humanity apply to all. Police, civilians, whites, blacks, urban, rural, on and on. ALL LIVES MATTER!
Cicero
Just exactly who has debunked the “broken windows theory?” As implemented under Mayor Rudy Giulani, it reduced murders by many thousands, probably most of them black.
So what should we do? Let Michael Brown attack the police officer, take his gun, and kill him? Let Garner simply take a ticket and throw it away, ignoring the law like he had in the previous 31 arrests?
Great. Stop interfering with criminals while they are committing crimes. That way Mansfield will stop threatening us with race riots.
Incidentally, Mansfield, is there any shred of evidence that either incident was racially motivated or that the officers would have acted differently if the perps were white?