I think we are looking in the wrong direction
I believe race is tangential here. Surely there are racists in America, in the police, in the DA offices. I don't think anyone would deny that, and that is a problem that needs its own solutions. I am not sure that is what we are seeing in these more high profile cases.
Let us look at one of the most famous police chases in history, the OJ slow speed chase. At no point did the police try to stop the Bronco. There were no roadblocks, no spike sticks, no pivot maneuvers. The Bronco drove, and drove, and drove. The police were willing to wait until, well, until it ended. I don't for a moment believe that would have been the case if in the back were OJ Sampson an unemployed Black.
Nor do I believe the police would have been in a hurry to tackle NY Giants football player Jason Pierre Paul if he were guilty of the same crime and reacted the same way as Eric Garner. Somehow the police would have found a way to wait and let the process play out, even if it took hours. Just as I don't believe there would be a raid on Bill Cosby's home if it is determined he raped someone within the statue of limitations. His lawyer will get a phone call to present him by a specific time.
But Eric Garner wasn't a millionaire. So the police weren't going to wait. I'm not even suggesting that is wrong, I am suggesting if the police weren't willing to wait for Garner they shouldn't then wait for someone wealthy in a similar circumstance. The police should behave the same, and I'm not sure anyone here can say they would have behaved the same.
Now this becomes slightly racial because a black is more likely to be poor than a white. But that isn't the driving force in these examples.
During the riots in August, and again 10 days ago, I found General Russel Honore an interesting talking head. On night two last week he was discussing some of the problems we saw in Ferguson from his point of view. He seemed to suggest on night one the police were desperate to keep a road clear, and kept pushing protesters off of it. He was noting in night 2, the big protests in NY and LA, the police were letting the crowd go where they want. He was strongly saying that as long as violence didn't break out, that was the proper response. He said a lot of problems develop when those in authority issue an edict "because I said so" .
I think somewhere in our poorer neighborhoods we are seeing a lot of "because I said so". The police want, and expect full cooperation. The residents believe the police are harassing them. The "because I said so" becomes a wedge. Yes, there are times that it is important for a police officer to exert that authority. I am just not sure that authority doesn't get used too often, creating the problem.
And we clearly didn't see that authority attempted with OJ. I doubt it is used very often in gated communities even in cases of domestic violence and other more violent crime. I suspect, but can't prove it, the police begin out a bit more differential. And that comes from the second point.
One of CNN's analysts had been a police officer. He said that the one thing he and his police friends knew as a truism is that the fate of a trial can be determined the moment the defense attorney walks in. If it is a high priced attorney, the trial is going to go far worse for the DA than if it is a public defender. I doubt too many here would disagree with that overall concept (and again OJ can be the poster child). So the police know any mistakes they make investigating someone who can hire whomever today's Gerry Spence is will be greatly magnified. From the beginning they will treat that person differently and again I theorize, with more deference.
In this case, I know Eric Garner needed arrested for what he did. But he did not appear at any time to resist, nor try to escape. Even if he tried to escape, looking at him I'm doubtful he was capable of anything but a slow speed chase. I don't know why the decision was made to end it at that moment, but I am very skeptical that moment would have been chosen if Eric Garner were someone who was clearly very wealthy. I'm not sure there wouldn't have been more of an effort to talk him in.
Justice is supposed to be blind, and I'm not sure she is. I'm not sure this is a racial problem, though I am sure there are at times racial issues. As is pointed out below, there are issues like Driving While Black. But more so I believe we have a class problem. From the moment a Bentley is pulled over I suspect everything goes different than when a rusted out 1980's Civic is pulled over. Am I wrong? Even in a DWB, I suspect the Bentley driver is treated differently than the Civic.
To a small extent, I think part of the problem is Fort Apache (or the remake, Fort Apache The Bronx). We have come to believe the police are the only hope to keep civilization in what would otherwise surely be lawless territory. And that may be true, but the police can't have that view. Once they view themselves as someone separate/different than the civilians they encounter there is a problem.
Somewhere we need people in these communities to offer police more respect, and at the exact same time we need the police to show the same respect to the civilians if it is a gated community or section 8. I have sympathies for the police, even if this post may not indicate it. They aren't liked in these communities which leads to this us/them atmosphere. And it is surely more dangerous to be a cop in center township Indy than in Carmel. So I get the fear from that increased danger creates some of this tension. I know if I feared for my life I wouldn't behave close to the same. But that is what training has to do. The training has to have them able to treat Eric Garner the same as OJ Simpson. We know it's possible, I have a friend who was a Captain in Fallujah and they had to deal with this exact same problem. Most civilians they encountered were peaceful, but some desperately wanted to kill him and his men.
Lastly, it may be needed to train some police in martial arts. I have several friends who are heavily into the sport, and I've both seen and been demonstrated on the value of joint locks. I believe there were ways a Garner could be brought to his knees by something like that which is far safer than going for the neck. Maybe it isn't worth investing in for every officer, but all it would have taken is one out of five.
I feel bad for the officer involved, I don't think he wanted to hurt Garner. I also am not sure he consciously saw a black man and reacted differently. But in our history, the large black male was long used as a source of fear among whites. I can point out civil war literature of Southerners using the physical prowess of the large black male as the reason they had to be enslaved. I can point you to sports boards today where white posters will state with no fear that blacks are faster and stronger than whites. We saw it in the book Moneyball, when Beane won the footrace against people like Strawberry the scouts had them lineup and run again as clearly Beane had to have a false start. Somewhere deep in the recesses of the officers involved, I suspect this played a small role. But, I still believe it isn't the main driver, if that were a black NY Giant or Jet standing there not wanting to be handcuffed I believe some other solution would have been found. The cops were scared, they felt a time crunch for some reason and acted. I believe they suspected that action was safe, I just don't think they would have acted that way 100 times out of 100 depending on many factors (the suspect's size, color, and wealth).
