To Serve and Protect WHOM?

The recent murder of Ms. Sonya Massey by a law enforcement officer has returned the subject of police violence to the realm of public discourse and, with it, a resurgence in conversations about reform.  According to the Center for American Progress, 50 percent of people killed by law enforcement are, like Ms. Massey, disabled (mental illness is a disability protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act).  More than half of disabled Black Americans have been arrested by the time they turn 28, a rate that is fully double that of white disabled Americans.  But, can a position that was specifically designed to monitor, contain, and, when “necessary”, outright kill enslaved Black Americans be reformed?  Let’s discuss:

Rooted in Racism Although inspired by the “Bobbies” of England, the position known today in the US as “law enforcement officer” has a history wedded with that of the slave patrol officer position that existed prior to the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans.  And, while “Bobbies” were used as an instrument of class warfare in their respective country, slave patrol officers performed a similar function in a uniquely American way, in that they were part of a larger process of creating and maintaining a system of class stratification in the US- with a white supremacist angle. After the official abolition of slavery in 1865, slave patrol officers typically moved into law enforcement officer positions, including that of corrections officer roles, to meet the changing needs of the US as it shifted from exacting free labor from Black people via enslavement to via incarceration.

One step forward, one tiptoe backward Ample historical precedent shows that, when rights, protections, and other similar initiatives are employed by a system, that same system will implement one or more mechanisms to ensure that it is able to operate as it was originally intended.  For instance, the thirteenth amendment ensures that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction," which specifically and intentionally allows for the exploitation of labor from incarcerated individuals, which, today, generates $11 billion annually according to the ACLU.  Additionally, evidence shows that the dramatic militarization of law enforcement departments in the US (over 1,800 departments are currently in existence, operating with a, collectively, 115 million dollar annual budget) coincides with the 1964 passage of the Civil Rights Act, thus ensuring that the criminalization of those meant to positively impact from the legislation could continue.

The George Floyd “Justice” in Policing Act This bill, originally introduced in the US congress in 2020, is an effort to address police violence in the US on a policy, but not systemic, level, including acknowledging, but not eradicating accountability loopholes for law enforcement, creating more parameters for the use, but not elimination of policing practices (like choke holds and no-knock warrants, for instance), removing legal barriers to data collection about police violence, and developing best practices and training requirements.

The bill, although as well-intentioned as most efforts that center reforms are concerned, fails to address, or acknowledge, the fact that the law enforcement officer position in the US was designed for, when deemed “necessary”, the execution of Black Americans who are “out of line”- either literally, pre-emancipation, or figuratively, post-emancipation.

Despite all of this, the bill was unable to pass through the Democrat-majority Senate despite being passed by the Democrat-majority House in 2021. If not reform, then what? Police violence is a systemic issue.  And, although reforms can feel like a step in the right direction, the outcomes of such measures, more often than not, only further inform how the system adapts and sustains itself.   Ultimately systemic responses, not reforms, are needed in order to effectively address systemic issues.

Find Lois Curtis Campus’s fact sheet for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act HERE.