In March 1991, Rodney King was brutally attacked by the LAPD. As a child, the image of him laying on the ground helpless while officers beat him is emblazoned in my memory forever. I did not understand why they were beating him, and in my memory, I remember the video footage shot by a bystander. This footage was played over and over on television.
As a child, this footage frightened me. I did not understand what was going on. King was unarmed, and attacked by police with batons and a tazer. King and his friends were coming home from a friend's house, and pulled over by cops for no reason. His alchohol level was below the legal limit, and he was unarmed. Prior to this video, police brutality was not (and still is not)
uncommon among black and hispanics in the United States, and especially at the hands of the LAPD and NYPD. The cops were tried, but later acquitted, despite this footage.
Viewing this footage as a child made me more aware of these kinds of attacks at the hands of those who are supposed to be protecting the public good. This video proved to me that I could not trust cops, and that despite what I had been taught, they do not always have our best interests at heart. Rather, they abuse their power, and shoot us down like dogs. This trend has not changed.
Recently other attacks have gained media attention as well such as those of Sean Bell in 2006 and Oscar Grant.
All of these instances are examples of how innocent men were attacked or killed by police when pulled over or stopped and frisked for no reason. Lives have been lost at the hands of those who are supposed to protect us.
In both cases, the cops were acquitted, or given minimal charges for the murder of these men. In the case of Sean Bell I was particularly upset because one of the cops involved, Michael Oliver, was free the day after the trial, and he worked out at my old gym. In fact, that day, as I was upset over the verdict, he held the door open for me as I walked into the gym. In Oscar Grant's case, we see a similar result.
It is noteworthy that Oscar Grant's case did not get as much media coverage as Bell's and King's. However, in the King and Bell cases, the public experienced these attacks, and their aftermath collectively. I believe that it raised awareness to police brutality. Furthermore, the messages conveyed about police brutality, are that the police can get away with murder, literally and that we cannot therefore trust that they are here to "protect and serve."
The physical attack of King remains in my mind one of the more strikingly horrifying examples of blatant disregard for our commonality as living beings and our right to bodily safety and integrity. The fact the attack was all but brushed off not only by the police and courts only served as evidence of and justification for the continued abhorrent treatment of (severely disproportionately, people of color) in the US under the guise of public safety.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I think it is as dangerous to assume all police officers are power-hungry mongrels who have no genuine interest in keeping the general public safe as it is to think all police are angels living outside of the inescapable larger systems of racism, sexism, ableism (etc.), it is hard to deny the fact the media has a HUGE role in helping to construct, maintain, and perpetuate the ways in which we see race as a functioning machine. We’re constantly seeing VASTLY more (generally) poorer, (generally) younger, (generally) non-white-looking, (generally) male individuals being roped up for alleged wrongdoings. How many times do we not only hear but see reports of petty non-violent crimes being committed over say, crooked stock brokers and financial advisors? It seems like our attention and efforts are very much misguided and not being put towards choices that could actually benefit the US as a collective—we’re allowing (and contributing) attention to be diverted from the much more important larger social issues that are at fault for setting up systems of great inequity that leave some groups of people in VERY different circumstances with very different access to certain opportunities than others.
There’s this idea black men are inherently dangerous (and EVERYWHERE!!!) as reflected on (as ridiculously bad as it is) Cops, nightly news reports, movies etc., which is bs. Instead of doing the work to really figure out and alter the harmful ways we navigate through and explain our surroundings based on other people’s appearances and experiences, we use certain people as scapegoats to explain the world’s problems. It’s really nothing more than an excuse we give power to because it’s easy. But it's not okay.
This is a great post and something I've been thinking about a lot lately because of what happened to Oscar Grant, whose murderer walked away with 2-4 years on involuntary manslaughter, instead of a more serious charge like murder or even voluntary manslaughter.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it was on the news on Tuesday that another unarmed man was shot in New Jersey by an undercover police officer while allegedly soliciting sex in a park [which is gross and criminal but doesn't warrant execution] In that case, they're not even filing charges against the officer. If anything, they could at least take a second look at what happened instead of automatically taking the officer's word for it.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/prosecutor_ex-nj_man_was_mastu.html
[link to the story about the NJ man]
It's too easy for me to make this a Black/White thing, so I'll just say this: If it were you or I who had shot a man lying face down on a train platform, we'd be rotting in jail for life. Police officers should not be above the laws they are supposed to enforce. Simple as that.
thanks for the comments guys....
ReplyDeletehere's an update
family and friends of bell "win" 7 million in federal settlement
http://bossip.com/271012/nyc-to-pay-sean-bell-family-and-friends-7-million/