On September 6th 2018, Botham Jean was planning to enjoy a relaxing night in, watching Football after a hard days work at a global auditing firm. Sadly, his evening plans were cut short when a white Dallas police officer by the name of Amber R. Guyger shot the unarmed black man in the torso inside his own apartment. He was pronounced dead at the hospital later that evening. There are conflicting reports of what really happened that night. The officers claims that she was exhausted after a 14 hour shift and believed she was walking into her own apartment and perceived Mr. Jean to be an intruder. She also claims that she shouted verbal orders that were ignored by Botham and that the door was slightly open when she arrived. However, Jean’s family’s lawyer stated the door was closed and his neighbors reported that they heard a woman screaming “Let me in” and “Open up” before gunshots were fired. His relatives and lawyers are also confused on how she could mistake his door for hers when he has a bright red doormat in front of the door. His apartment was later searched and there was found to be a small quantity of marijuana and many of Jean’s supporters were infuriated that the media was trying to taint his character after such a tragedy (Fernandez and Martinez). Incidents like this where white police officers are either using excessive force or killing unarmed minority groups are unfortunately becoming more and more common. Stories on the news similar to this have been popping up for years now and that leads to the question: What’s really going on here? Are the police really more likely to harm black citizens over white citizens? If so, has this problem been getting worse in the past 10 years or are we just hearing about it more with increasing access to news outlets. Are white citizens being harmed just as much and it doesn’t make the news? Are these police officers really just trying to do their job and have to protect their own safety? Or are they killing unarmed minorities with little to no reason at all? Police brutality is a very intricate issue and as with all other civil rights issues, there are multiple stances to be taken on the matter.
What is police brutality? According to the Law Dictionary, police brutality is defined as “the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians” (Danilina). When did police brutality start to become a problem? The earliest recorded forms of police brutality dates back to the late 1800s and early 1900s where police would be called on to break up worker strikes. A statement was made in 1903 by former NYC police commissioner Frank Moss regarding the issue :
“For three years, there has been through the courts and streets a dreary procession of citizens with broken heads and bruised bodies against few of whom was violence was needed to effect an arrest. Many of whom had done nothing to deserve an arrest. In a majority of such cases, no complaint was made. If the victim complains, his charge is generally dismissed. The police are practically above the law” .(qtd in Reiss)
Many would make that same argument today, that the police are above the law and are allowed to infringe on the rights of citizens as part of their job description. However, although it existed, police brutality did not become a widespread or well known issue until the civil rights movement during the 1960’s. An article from 1968 highlights just how widespread police brutality was throughout the 60’s. A survey was conducted in Watts, Newark and Detroit. It was found one out of every five “negros” reported that the police have “talked down to him” and more than one in every ten reported that a policeman has “called him a bad name”(Reiss). What’s most interesting is that, at least according to this article at this time, police brutality is most common against lower class citizens and not just minorities. A lower class white man was just as likely to find themselves a target of mistreatment by police officers as a lower class black man. The article cites an instance where the police were trying to get three young white men and a girl to move from a street corner from which they did not belong. They did not immediately comply so the officer took it upon himself to take a lit cigarette from the young boy and shove it in his face. After the teenagers moved on, he stated the young girl was “nothing but a whore” (Reiss). Clearly, the officers did not handle the situation well, and even though these teenagers may have been in the wrong, officers are trained to diffuse the situation, not escalate them.
Despite it being 50 years later in 2018, police brutality still remains a huge issue. As of October 1st 2018, there have so far been 814 fatal police shootings in the U.S this year alone (Fatal Force: 2018 Police Shootings Database). The Washington Post has provided data regarding the number of civilians killed by police each year since 2015. One can organize the data based on race, age, gender, state, whether or not the victim was armed, if a body camera was used, possible mental illnesses, and if the victim was fleeing the scene when the shooting occured. This gives the ability to have a nice insight as to what’s really happening. Since race seems to be the largest issue regarding police brutality, it would only make sense to organize the data by race first. It was found that of the shootings that occured in 2018, 39% of victims were white, 20% were black, 13% were hispanic, 3% were either Native American or Asian and for the remaining victims their race was not published (Fatal Force: 2018 Police Shootings Database). It might be surprising for some to learn that the highest percentage of police shooting victims this year were white. However, it is important to look at the context of these percentages. According to the U.S Census Bureau, 76.6% of this country’s population is white, 13.4 % is African American, and 18.1% is Hispanic (U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: UNITED STATES). Clearly, the meaning of the first statistic changes drastically when population gets taken into account. Although statistically speaking, more white people are victims of police shootings, relatively speaking, black people have a higher chance of being killed by the police.
Police brutality has evidently been an issue for some time, spanning back well over a century. Yet, in the last decade, there have been many movements and events that have led people to use their civil rights to protest against police brutality. For example, Black Lives Matter, a civil rights group formed in mid-2013 that rose to significance in 2014 following the shooting of Michael Brown. According to New York Times, on August 9th 2014, Michael Brown (an 18 year old African American) and his friend Dorian Johnson were leaving Ferguson Market and Liquor after stealing some cigarillos. They were walking in the middle of the street when Officer Darren Wilson arrived on the scene and ordered them to move to the sidewalk. They did not move right away and he then noticed that Michael fits the description of a suspect in a convenience store theft. He called his dispatcher regarding the two young men and decided to block them using his car. A dispute is started between the two as Mr. Brown approached the window of Wilson’s vehicle. The situation is quickly escalated when Wilson fired two shots from inside his car. One of the shots lightly skimmed his thumb and the other missed completely. Michael ran away and the officer started to chase him on foot. There was a moment where both Officer Wilson and Michael stopped and stared at each other. Subsequently, Michael started moving towards Wilson who then fired multiple shots, one of which killed the unarmed black man (“What Happened in Ferguson?”). This incident was a moment of truth for many Americans in which they realized the police weren’t out to protect their best interest. Black Lives Matter Protests immediately followed in the days after the shooting. According to The Telegraph, the demonstrations started the night after the shooting occured. It first began with looting at local businesses and the police quickly responded with riot gear. The following day the protests only got worse and this time the police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. President Obama finally addressed the situation calling this death “heartbreaking”, but urging communities to stay calm. However since the police refused to release the name of the officer in the fatal shooting, President Obama’s words fell on deaf ears. The riots ceased to improve and Obama was forced to address the nation again. This time he stated that violence is not the answer and that there is no need for police to use excessive force to de-escalate these situations. The protests continued for the next couple of weeks and only worsened when the jury made the decision not to indict Officer Wilson that November (Sanchez and Lawler). This was one of the first in a long series of protests regarding the Black Lives Matter movement that would continue to span until today.
Many have compared the Black Lives Matter Movement of today with the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s. However, there is one key difference here: the method of protest. The First Amendment of the U.S constitution guarantees citizens the right to peacefully assemble when they feel their government has wronged them. There is no question that during the Civil Rights Movement, demonstrators were using nonviolent tactics as their method of protest. Even though they were peaceful, they still faced police brutality which was a clear violation of their civil rights. But not all Black Lives Matter protests are nonviolent. The irony here is that protesters against police brutality risk experiencing the very thing they are fighting against. There should hopefully be no question that using violent force to de-escalate nonviolent protests is never justified. But when the protests are violent, it’s a completely different story. How much force are police allowed to use in these situations before it becomes “excessive”? It turns out that police have specific guidelines regarding what level of force to use, which is typically determined by state policy. Most states have a use-of-force continuum that outlines what level of force is appropriate in what situation recognizing that the more violent a citizen is, the higher the officer is allowed to go on the continuum. The National Institute of Justice website provided a example of a typical use-of-force continuum. The first level of the continuum is simply Officer Presence. This is where no force is used to de-escalate a situation and the mere presence of police officers at a scene serve as a natural deterrent to crimes. This level is considered ideal because nobody gets hurt and the situation is handled in a calm and professional manner. The next level is Verbalization in which the force used by the police is not physical. An example of Verbalization would be an officer commanding a moving criminal to “Stop” in a firm tone. Moving up on the continuum next comes Empty- Hand Control. With Empty- Hand Control officers are allowed to use their own bodily force to gain control of a scene. Approaching the top of the continuum are the Less-Lethal Methods. These are where officers can use non-lethal forces such as tear-gas, pepper spray or tasers. The final level on this continuum is Lethal Force. As the name suggests this is where officers use lethal force(such as guns) to control a situation and should only be used when the officer or another citizen is considered to be in serious danger(“The Use-of-Force Continuum.”). Although the state details what these levels are, most of the discretion is left up to the officer as to what level to use. Black Lives Matters supporters would argue that police are using higher levels of the continuum in situations where a lower level would suffice. On the contrary, police supporters, also termed “Blue Lives Matter supporters”, would argue that being a police officer is a very dangerous job and police have the right to protect themselves by any means necessary.
There is no doubt that police officers put themselves at risk for what they do. USA Today ranks police work as the 14th most dangerous job in America with an average fatality rate of 14.6 deaths per 100,000 workers(Stebbins). Since, policing is so dangerous, Blue Lives Matter supporters argue that in these instances the police are only trying to do what’s necessary to protect themselves. The Blue Lives Matters movement started as a reactionary movement to the Black Lives Matter movement after the killings of two New York police officers went viral. Proponents believe that police are being wrongfully targeted need extra protections. The House of Representatives even passed a bill earlier this year that would have very strict penalties for people who target police officers in attacks. This bill, entitled the Protect and Serve Act of 2018 will “allow for federal prosecution of defendants who knowingly assault a law enforcement officer causing serious bodily injury”(“H.R. 5698, Protect and Serve Act of 2018”). So far this bill has passed the House and is waiting on the Senate. Some believe this bill is necessary for protect the lives of those who “protect and serve” the nations while others believe this is perpetuating the false idea that there is a “war on police” and since harming a police officer is already a serious crime in all fifty states, it’s simply unnecessary.
Where do I come down on this issue? I personally believe that police brutality is a very serious issue that needs action taken against it. The unfortunate side of the matter is that whenever citizens try to take a stand against police brutality, the focus always ends up being shifted away from the issue at hand. Take Colin Kaepernick for example. He was protesting police brutality in a very peaceful manner and yet many Americans shifted the focus against police brutality and onto the fact that he was “disrespecting the flag” by kneeling. Another example of focus being shifted is the Black Lives Matter Movement being met with the Blue Lives Matter Movement. Most Black Lives Matters supporters don’t encourage violence against police officers. It is only the extremists that feel that it’s right to “get even” with the cops for the violence they cause to black citizens. While Blue Lives Matters bills get passed in the House and make it all the way to the Senate, Black Lives Matter is still struggling to get their voices put into policy. It’s about time for this country to realize that police need to be held accountable for their actions and that police brutality isn’t a myth- it’s a reality that has to change.