Police brutality and racism – Where protesters have got it all wrong

“They really killed than (sic) man bro”
Wrote high school senior, Darnella Frazier, on Facebook Tuesday 26 may, when she posted the video of a Minneapolis Police officer with his knee on the neck George Floyd.
Her video ignited protests against racism and police brutality all over the Western World. Under the banner of “Black lives matter” and with cardboard signs saying “I can’t breathe”, “No justice, No peace”, “Silence is violence,” “Don’t shoot; Stop killing us,” “Defund police” etc.
While some protests were peaceful, others were marked by violence, vandalism, looting and even death and injury, and the violence of course made it to breaking news media, taking up much of the news in the coming days, perhaps becoming an inspiration for even more violence and general mayhem.
With this essay I try to understand what is happening, trying get behind the shouts, the cardboard slogans and the confusing reactions we have seen. This means looking into these questions and demands, first and foremost of course in the USA.

Police brutality?
Police racism?
Do statistics prove police racism?
“Fuck tha Police!”
“Defund the police!”
Do Black lives matter to Blacks?

Police brutality?
The Darnella Frazier video shows a White policeman, (later known as Derek Chauvin), having his left knee on the neck of black man (George Floyd), while another policeman appears to hold on to the black man’s lower body although during part of the video the body of George Floyd is partly hidden by a police cruiser. In the final part of the video an ambulance arrives and the now unconscious black man is lifted up on a stretcher and put in the ambulance.
Using information from this and other videos it was later established that Derek Chauvin had rested his knee on George Floyds neck for 7 minutes and 46 seconds, including 1 minute and 53 seconds after Floyd appeared to stop breathing. While this is less that the protesters rallying cry of 8 minutes 46 seconds, it still seems an awful long time to press a knee on a man’s neck.
To the protesters the video shows a clear demonstration of police brutality and racism. A White policeman killing a black man, by pressing his knee into the neck of the writhing black and callously keeping up the pressure even after the black man apparently loses consciousness and dies.
Official reaction followed swiftly. On Tuesday 26 May Mayor Jacob Frey announced on Twitter:

“Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated.
This is the right call.”

Later Derek Chauvin was charged with second degree murder and manslaughter, while three three others received lesser charges.
Right then, this was a blatantly case of White police brutality against an unarmed black man. But some questions may linger.
While it is difficult not to see the police actions as a blatant case of police brutality, it raises questions about whether this represents institutional police brutality or whether it is an action of an individual police officer.
Did we really see a White police officer commit cold blooded murder of a black man, and was he really conscious of the possible consequences of his knee on the neck action?
Did Derek Chauvin act with flagrant disregard of rules and regulations?
Well according to Minneapolis Police Department’s Policy & Procedure Manual at the time this kind neck restraint belonged to police use of force techniques.

Short time after the George Floyds Death the rules were apparently changed and now show that neck restraints and choke holds are prohibited.

While it is difficult to see the incident as an intentional killing, there is no way to tell if Derek Chauvin thought he was just following the procedure for “unconscious neck restraint.” Even if that was the case it is difficult to understand why he didn’t realize how dangerous his action might be.
This might be due to lack of training, previous experience with black men resisting arrests, knowledge of Floyd’s criminal record, lack of good sense or judgement, personal lack of empathy or simply stupidity.
Perhaps we may say that while this incidence certainly demonstrated police brutality, it isn’t quite clear if the brutality shown was due to institutional use of force as per rules, lack of training, or personal defects.
Neither do we know whether George Floyd’s death was due to other factors as well. Why did he resist arrest, was he ill or under the influence of something that made him resist?
According to the fact checking site snopes.com “Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s investigation into Floyd’s death showed “no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxiation,” and that “potential intoxicants” and pre-existing cardiovascular disease “likely contributed to his death.”

No-knock warrants and chokeholds exacerbating accusations of police brutality
On March 13 around 12.40 a.m. three plain clothed officers used a no-knock warrant to enter the apartment of a black woman, Breonna Taylor. The no-knock warrant allowing them to enter without announcement. When the officers entered the apartment, they were taken for intruders and met with fire by Breonna’s boyfriend, who was licensed to carry a gun. The officers responded with a volley of fire, that killed Breonna Taylor.
After the killing of Breonna Tayler and the uproar it gave rise to, the local city Council, banned police form using no-knock warrants.
The no-knocks raids were introduced in 1966 as part of the war on drugs. As part of the war, federal and local law enforcement implemented militarized strategies that included no-knock raids.
In the case of George Floyd, his death was caused by variant of the so-called choke holds, as found for in Minneapolis Police Department’s Policy & Procedure Manual until recently
Such militarized strategies or perhaps more correct tactics, may help explain the cases of police brutality and the accusations rightly brought against the police.
 As the result of the recent incidents the Republicans have introduced a Bill “To improve and reform policing practices, accountability and transparency. ” The Democrats have taken a similar initiative, proposing legislation that would lead to a ban on no-knock warrants, chokeholds and carotid holds.
These initiatives finally seem acknowledge that accusations of police brutality through the years weren’t unfounded.
Seen from European perspective the initiatives would not fundamentally correct the militarized approach of law enforcement in the in the US, nor would it seem to make the individual police officers better educated and trained in performing their duties. Nor tighten the criteria for recruitment and strengthen disciplinary action.

Police racism?
To the protesters the answer is simple: “Of course it is racism!” To protesters
seeing the video of a White cop suffocating a black man, who died as a consequence of his actions, with three non-black police officers doing nothing to stop the black man from suffocating, the video is proof of racism.
Police officers would never do that to a White man.
But they do and they have done. On August 10, 2016. an almost similar action by Dallas police officers led to the death of a White man. 32-year-old Tony Timpa was unarmed, barefoot and acting irrational on West Mockingbird Road. Schizophrenic and missing his medication he called 911 for help.
What followed is recorded on police body cam. The “14 minutes …footage shows him held to the ground, mostly face down, with his nose pressed into the ground and a police officer’s knee pressed on his back. Thirteen minutes into the video one can no longer hear Tony Timpa complaining, and one of officers finally realizes that something might be wrong. Later attempts to resuscitate Tony Timpa minutes were in vain.
No questions of racism here, not much media activity and certainly no fiery protest actions, but certainly a case where police action resulted in the death of a White male asking for help.
Still these singular cases cannot be used to prove or disprove the accusation of racism by the police.

Do statistics prove police racism?
According to research done by people from “The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy” at Harvard it is difficult to find accurate data on how many black Americans that have died, while being apprehended arrested or transported by law enforcement officers.
In fact, official sources seem unable to come up with statistics that would allow a precise comparison of deaths in police custody for the different ethnic groups. There have attempt to make sure that such data will be collected but apparently, we still have to depend on non-official sources to get an estimate of these numbers.
Here are data collected by “The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice” for the period 1999-2011. They show that people from minority groups are more likely to be killed by police than people from majority of the population.

On the face of it the data certainly seem to indicate that there is a racial bias in killings by law enforcements. Data collected by the Centre also shows that there has been a drastic reduction in the killings of young Black African Americans from the sixties, but the killings of African Americans and Native Americans remain high during the period observed.
How is situation today, or as close as we can get to today?
Using data from the website “Fatal Encounters,” a database set up by a journalist from Nevada, we find data from 2013- 2018 indicating that almost 100 Blacks out of 100,000 risk being killed by police during their lifetime, while the similar rate for White males is 39.
Recent data from Statista show the actual number of people from different ethnic groups shot by the police in the years 2017 to 2020:

The proportion of African Americans shot during these years looks to be about half the number of Whites shot by police. How does that compare with the percentage distribution of Black African Americans, Non-Hispanic Whites and others ethnic groups in the US population.
A histogram from Statista show the distribution in 2016.

According to the data Blacks or African Americans make up a little more than one fifth of the Non-Hispanic White population.
Evidently there is an overrepresentation of Blacks that are being shot by the police. There is also an overrepresentation of Hispanics, but it is less marked.
In the simple mindset of the recent protesters this would be irrefutable proof of racism in the law enforcement.
Is that so, or are there other explanations for the overrepresentation of Blacks being shot by police?
What does crime statistics tell us? Do they show a similar picture, and if so, what would that indicate?
A table from FBI from 2018 show the total number of arrests for total number offences and for the most serious offences, by race:

A simple comparison shows that total number offences by Black or African Americans make up around 40% of the number offences by White offenders. For violent crime like murder and non-negligent manslaughter the number of Black offenders make up around 120% of the number of White offenders. In both cases very significant overrepresentation of Black offenders.
Another interesting table from U.S. Department of Justice show the number and percentage of violent incidents, by victim and offender race or ethnicity for 2018.

 (According to FBI violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault).

The 62.1% of the violent incidents committed against White victims represents just about the proportion as the White proportion of the population.
Violent incidents committed by Blacks against White victim is slightly higher than Black’s share of the population (U.S. Department of Justice here calculates 12% of the population to be Black).
Notable is the fact that 70.3 % of the violent incidents committed against Black victims are committed by Blacks. A proportion more than 5 times higher than their share of the population.
The proportion of violent incidents committed against Black victims by Whites in comparison were only 10.6 %, and thus much smaller than their share of the population.
What all this means? That Blacks are mostly at risk of violent incidents from Black people.
Leading to one to ask somewhat provocatively if Black Lives really matter that much to Black people themselves.
What we have seen from the date presented here would seem to indicate that Black and African American’s share in violent crime like murder and manslaughter is very much higher than their share of the population.
One would of course expect that to be reflected in the number of Blacks arrested and brought into custody by law officers. From which it also follows that the overrepresentation of incidents involving police killings of Black people may not be surprising, and cannot in themselves be taken as irrefutable proof of police racism.
We have seen that incidents of violent crime against Blacks are mostly committed by Blacks, meaning that Black people are mostly in danger of being victims of violent crimes from Black people. Which certainly doesn’t point to White racism, but perhaps to serious problems within the Black people in the US.

Racial profiling
“Racial profiling” refers to the targeting of particular individuals by law enforcement authorities, based not on their behaviour, but rather their personal characteristics. It is generally used to encompass more than simply an individual’s race…, it encompasses race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion—and means the impermissible use by law enforcement authorities of these personal characteristics, to any degree, in determining which individuals to stop, detain, question, or subject to other law enforcement activities” (Report by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights 2011).
A recent report from California’s “Racial and Identity Profiling and Advisory Board” (RIPA) indicates evidence of such racial disparity in California police stops.
Here an excerpt showing some of the disparities in relations to police stops and searches (apnews.com):

While the proportion of stops of Hispanic and White people in general seem to reflect their share of the population, the data show large disparities for Black people, from the proportion of stops being about twice their share of population to a proportion three times their share. Apparently, a clear indication of racial profiling. Asians on the other are less likely be stopped and searched than their share of the population would indicate.
There we have it, proof of police racism, confirming the accusation made by the protesters.
Or is there another explanation for the clear overrepresentation of Blacks in stop and search procedures by police, and perhaps also for the underrepresentation of Asians?
Again, it may be important to see if “the groups that are disproportionately targeted are equally disproportionately involved in criminal behavior."
We have already seen that Blacks are disproportionately represented in violent crimes, and this in itself would at least partly help explain the that they also targeted in stops and searches by the police.
Having seen the disparities in California we may also take look at the composition of the prison population in California. In 2017 28.5% of the state’s male prisoners were African American—compared to just 5.6% of the state’s adult male residents. Imprisonment rate thus being around 5 times their share of the population. If this is taken to represent a fair representation of their share in the number of crimes committed, the overrepresentation of Blacks in stops and searches in relation their share of population should come as no surprise. Actually, Blacks may not even be proportionately targeted in relation to their proportion of criminal behavior.

Accusations of racial profiling in Europe
California and the US in general are not alone in showing racial disparities in stops and searches by police. According to 2018 data from the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), 43% of searches were of Black people, who make up only 15,6 % of the population, while 35,5% were of White people, who make up 59,8% of the population. Indicating a large degree of racial profiling.
In 2019 The Guardian reported that “The figures for 2018 shows there were 10.8 stops for every 1,000 White people, while for black people in London it was 50.2 stops per thousand of population.” This surely show that accusations of racial profiling are correct, at least for the London metropolitan area.
The metropolitan police explanation: “Knife crime and street violence disproportionately affects boys and young men, particularly of African- Caribbean heritage both in terms of victims and perpetrators.”
Data for the metropolitan areas show that ethnicity of people proceeded against in 2018:
557 of these were White Europeans, 122 dark Europeans, 833 Afro-Caribbean, 209 Asians 16 Oriental and finally 52 Egyptians.
With these numbers in mind, it is not be surprising that the proportion of stop searches in London involving Black suspects adults was equal to the proportion involving White suspects, in both cases representing around 37% of all stop searches.
Racial profiling yes and no. Yes, seeing the overrepresentation of Black people in relation to their share of the population. No, seeing the overrepresentation in knife crime and street violence. Proof of racism, hardly, seeing the data behind the stop searches.
What we have seen do certainly not represent conclusive and irrefutable evidence of police racism.
In fact, it would be unfair to other ethnic groups, if it was politically decided that the number of stop and searches were to be carried out in strict proportion to the different ethnic group’s share of the population.
Such a decision would also result in less efficient police work, with fewer perpetrators of crime being caught, less crime prevented from happening, and presumably contribute to higher crime rates in society.

A White police force?
The Floyd killing involved a White police officer with a knee on the neck of Black man, but what is the degree of whiteness in the police force.
Date from 2018 show the composition of the police force (axios.com):

Black police officers are overrepresented in relation to their share of the population, while Hispanic and Latino officers are underrepresented.
While this may show that the police overall are more black than society, it does not show if higher ranks and thus the actual decision makers have less than their share of black officers,
But on the face of it, the composition of the police force doesn’t support charges of racism.

“Fuck tha Police!”
What have seen certainly supports the accusation of police brutality. It also shows that Blacks are disparately targeted by the police, and while there may good reasons for that, as we have seen, it may also explain why Blacks are seeing the police as the racist enemy of Black people.
Which potentially may lead to more Blacks not accepting police authority, seeing every stop and search as unjustified, and thus perhaps in their anger be more prone to seek to avoid and resist arrest, as in both Floyd’s and the recent Rayshard Brooks’ case.
If this happens one would of course see more evidence of what might be seen as police brutality and racism, contributing to vicious spiral of eye-catching prejudice and animosity between Black perpetrators and police, leading to even more accusations of brutality and racism.
Perhaps also explaining an expanding list of “Fuck tha Police” Pop Rock, Hip Hop songs or rap against police brutality and racism, like 2 Pac’s “Trapped”:

“If one more cop harrasses me I just might go psycho
…
They got me trapped, can barely walk the city streets
Without a cop harasskin' me, searching me, then askin' my identity
Hands up, throw me up against the wall, didn't do a thing at all
I'm telling you one day these suckers gotta fall
Cuffed up throw me on the concrete”

Firing up animosity against police by Black people and left leaning young White People, and worsening overall relations between police and large parts of society.
Perhaps explaining why FBI wrote to record company behind the N.W.A.’s “Fuck tha Police” expletive, complaining that the song “encourages violence against and disrespect for the law enforcement officer.” Although that was in 1989, it may be show exactly what is happening today.

“Defund the police!”
 On Sunday June 7 a majority of nine Minneapolis City Council members announced their reaction to the cry, by publicly announced their intention to initiate a year long process to end The Minneapolis’ Police Department (MPD), in direct response to the George Floyd killing, but also in response to years of complaints against MPD:

“Decades of police reform efforts have proved that the Minneapolis Police Department cannot be reformed and will never be accountable for its actions … We are here today to begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department and creating a new, transformative model for cultivating safety in Minneapolis…

We recognize that we don’t have all the answers about what a police-free future looks like, but our community does … We’re committed to engaging with every willing community member in the City of Minneapolis over the next year to identify what safety looks like for you.”
 
One may well ask, what does this mean, “end the police department”? Evidently the nine councillors have no idea, but somehow seem to act in the vain hope that an answer to what it means will emerge during the coming year.
Even if many presumable would disagree, a fairly large proportion of the US population would seem to support some form of defund the police, according to a recent IPSOS opinion survey:

The survey indicates support from 57% of the African Americans, less with Hispanics, and very little support with White people.

For the people supporting the demand, we still do not know what they mean, some variant of Seattle’s Chaz or what?
Possible answers may range from police reforms, the upending existing forms of policing, to CHAZ-like utopian ideas of no police.

Institutional reform the answer?
Republicans and Democrats have reacted to the protests with their own proposals for police reform.
The Republican proposal contain important sections related to use of force “Alternatives to the use of force, de-escalation, behavioral health crises and duty to intervene training,” while other sections would enhance “Law enforcement hiring and education.”
The Democrats also have proposals related to the use of force like “Bans on choke holds and carotid holds”, “Ban on no-knock warrants in drug cases” and require the police to exercise care with everyone. Other proposals have their focus on training on racial bias and duty to intervene.
While the need for police reform in the USA seems evident it is doubtful whether the suggestions for reforms proposed either by the Republicans or the Democrats will be enough to quell the protests from Black people and White activists. Too big perhaps is the chasm between them and the police.

Divesting and upending police?
Hazy ideas of divesting in the police, upending the present police force and creating a different police department, supplemented by other forms of intervention may be what the city councillors in Minneapolis had in mind.
“In this view, abolishing, or at least defunding, police departments would serve one other practical goal: to free up money for other local services that might actually help to reduce crime, like mental health treatment, drug rehabilitation, poverty relief, education and housing.” (Politico)
Diverting resources from the police departments to local services and interventions that might actually reduce crime by alleviating or removing conditions that may give rise to crime, like better education, reduction of poverty, better living conditions and early inventions in emerging problem areas. Thus, reducing the need for a large police force.
 Other suggestions include proposals to “de-militarize” the police force making it less aggressive in its tactics, for instance through better education and training.
Instead of just seeing more police, more aggressive tactics and heavier equipment as the solution, putting the emphasis instead on preventing crime by bettering some of those conditions that may incite crime in the first place.
 Often the town of Camden, New Jersey, is seen as model example of what can be done by disbanding and rebuilding the police force. What actually happened is perhaps less rosy that the stories about it.
“At the end of 2012, the Camden Police Department was plagued by rising crime, budget cuts, layoffs, and low morale. In 2013, the new Camden County Police Department was approaching fully staffed status, with 411 officers, up from 250, and stocked with the latest crime-fighting technology. Both the updated technology and the increased manpower.”
Substituting an inefficient local police department with a county police department and more resources doesn’t sound quite as sensational as the hype would have it.
According to Washington Post article from June 2020, this reorganization in itself wasn’t the explanation for the revolution in Camden.
“In reality, Camden’s police restructuring was deeply undemocratic and involved a doubling-down on “broken windows” policing strategies that increased excessive-force complaints. It was only tireless efforts from local activists and watchdogs that eventually pressured the new police force to adopt a new force policy requiring officers to avoid escalation, training them to do so and requiring them to intercede if another officer was incorrectly using force. It is this local activism — not disbanding the police force — that is the key to understanding the gains made in Camden.”
And Camden is still a city with high number of crimes compared to the national average.

Radical abolishment
For the more radical protesters with cardboards yelling “Defund the police” or “Abolish police,” the unthinking reaction to what they see as police brutality and racism, may be a continuation of the Hip Hop songs or rap against police brutality and racism.
In Seattle the protesters got caught by their own enthusiastic calls for the abolishment of the police. What may have started a rallying cry caught on and led to violent clashes with the police, leading to the whole area being abandoned by the police.

“The idea soon took off among the protesters. City personnel showed up the day after the precinct was abandoned to remove the barricades that police had set up to control the protests, but protesters convinced the workers to let them set up roadblocks to keep city traffic out of the area. They ended up sequestering an approximately six-block area in the central Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill.”
 
The area then became known known variously as CHOP (The Capitol Hill Organized Protest) or CHAZ (The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
The protesters’ version of the abolishment of the police was hyped as an example of peaceful protest, and of the establishment a leaderless, self-organising community, giving out free food, and shelter to the homeless people from other parts of Seattle.
Then a few days later “One person is dead and another in critical condition after a shooting in Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.” Police trying to get access to the victim were met by angry protesters, and yells of “You don't belong here, they're gone, the victim is gone.” Forcing the police to back off.
The Chaz may be seen by some as the ultimate answer in practice to cries of “Abolish the police.”
 What they seem to forget is that this answer is worst one for exactly the people protesters and activist of the BLM movement pretend to support. To poor Blacks living in neighbourhoods with high with a high rate of crimes, it might represent the worst possible answer. Remember that the data shows that that Blacks are mostly at risk of violent crime from Black people.
No police at all certainly isn’t the answer to police brutality and accusations and prejudice and racism.

Do Black lives matter to Blacks?
Stupid and callous question! Of course, Black lives matter to Black people. Of course, to every one of them singly, but to all them as collective?
We have seen that incidents of violent crime against Blacks are mostly committed by Blacks, meaning that Black people are mostly in danger of being victims of violent crimes from Black people. Which certainly doesn’t point to White racism, but perhaps to serious problems within the Black people in the US. Leading to one to ask the provocative question: “Do Black lives really matter to Black people themselves? And if they do, who and what are they going to accuse for the frequency of crimes committed by Blacks against Blacks? Poverty, lack of education and of opportunities, racism, the long history of oppression, or …?
Perhaps these are the next questions that need to be answered after protests and the look into the questions of police brutality and racism.

Addendum July  2, 2020
After several shooting episodes and complaints the Mayor of Seattle,  Jenny Durkan, has issued an executive order to reestablish order in the  CHAZ/CHOP area: