■■ topic paper – police practices
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- VITALE
- , note://// indicates par. breaks)[AR SPRING16]
- McPHERSON 2014
CP – no policeThe police necessarily perpetuate a direct threat to life for people of color – history proves. Abolish the police and reject the securitization logic that abstractly insists on the necessity of the police while discounting present and ongoing killings of people of colorSMITH 2015 (Mychal, contributing writer at The Nation, author of Invisible Man, Got The Whole Wolrd Watching, “Abolish the Police. Instead, Let’s Have Full Social, Economic, and Political Equality”, The Nation, April 9, http://www.thenation.com/article/abolish-police-instead-lets-have-full-social-economic-and-political-equality/, note://// indicates par. breaks)[AR SPRING16] A few weeks ago, there was a shooting at my apartment building. A total of five shots were fired resulting in, thankfully, zero injuries. I was home when it happened, but live on the third floor, away from the shooter’s target. The kids downstairs, who hang out in the hallway pretty much everyday, drinking, smoking, talking shit, and selling weed, had some of their beef meet them at home. That night, I remember hearing one of them scream, “They shot me bro!”—though it seems it was probably the shock of the gunshots plus the shattering of glass from the building’s front door that made him believe he was hit. It was frightening.//// However, more frightening than that is the fact that nearly every night since the shooting there has either been a police car, parked across the street with its lights flashing, or two cops posted outside my building, right at the steps, standing guard. This is supposed to be the measure that prevents further violence, but the presence of the police scares me more than the kids selling drugs or the gunshots ever did.//// One day, while walking into my building, avoiding all eye contact with the two officers, I heard one of them say to other “Wanna do a vertical?” as I put my keys in the front door. A vertical is when police enter a building and go from top to bottom, scoping the place out for any potential criminal activity. I remember that these are the circumstances under which Akai Gurley was killed.//// Another night, I was walking to the bodega to buy some ice cream, and as soon as I hit the bottom of the steps, still needing to walk down the hallway to get to the front door, the officers eyes were fixed on me, and they didn’t let up until I was blocks away. I feel incredibly lucky, especially days later when video surfaced of Walter Scott being shot in the back as he ran away from Officer Michael Slager in South Carolina.//// Slager originally stopped Scott for driving with a broken taillight. Scott ran away, possibly fearing he would be arrested for owing back child support, and Slager chased after him. The video doesn’t show when the taser was drawn, but this interaction escalated to Slager using his taser on Scott, who managed to get away, at which point Slager drew his gun and shot at Scott eight times, hitting him with five shots. Were it not for the video taken by a local bystander, Slager’s account of the shooting—that Scott took the taser and because Slager feared for his life he had no other choice but to shoot him—would be the only account available. Now Slager has been fired and charged with murder.//// That’s it, right? That’s what the movement was about? This is what justice looks like, correct? We’ve learned the mistakes from Darren Wilson killing Michael Brown, and Daniel Pantaleo killing Eric Garner, yeah? We’re going to start holding the police accountable.//// I’ve said this before: there is no justice where there are dead black people. I’ll continue saying it, because if we’re satisfied with charges and potential prison time, we’ve missed the entire point of #BlackLivesMatter. This isn’t about getting “better” police, ones who exercise discretion in using force, but getting away from “needing” police altogether.//// In 1966, James Baldwin wrote for The Nation: “…the police are simply the hired enemies of this population. They are present to keep the Negro in his place and to protect white business interests, and they have no other function.” This remains as true today as it was in 1966, only now we have bought into the myth of police “serving and protecting” wholesale. What do you do with an institution whose core function is the control and elimination of black people specifically, and people of color and the poor more broadly?//// You abolish it. In 1964, Malcolm X told the students of Oxford Union: “You’re living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there’s got to be a change. People in power have misused it and now there has to be change and a better world has to be built. And the only way it’s going to be built is with extreme methods.” Abolishing the police is an extreme measure, but as a measure of justice, it should be our ultimate goal.//// We don’t consider the abolition of police a viable position to take because we believe they’re the only thing standing between upstanding citizens and the violence of the deranged. We’re afraid of being attacked on the street, of having our homes shot at, and being left without access to equally violent retribution. But does this mean we want police, or safety and security? Safety and security are ideas, ones that may never be fully achieved, and the police are an institution that have proved themselves capable of only providing the illusion of safety and security to a select few. The bulk of their jobs has nothing to do with violence prevention. They spend most of their time doing things like Slager did in his initial contact with Scott—stopping people for broken taillights. Writing for Gawker, David Graeber of the London School of Economics says: The police spend very little of their time dealing with violent criminals—indeed, police sociologists report that only about 10% of the average police officer’s time is devoted to criminal matters of any kind. Most of the remaining 90% is spent dealing with infractions of various administrative codes and regulations: all those rules about how and where one can eat, drink, smoke, sell, sit, walk, and drive. If two people punch each other, or even draw a knife on each other, police are unlikely to get involved. Drive down the street in a car without license plates, on the other hand, and the authorities will show up instantly, threatening all sorts of dire consequences if you don’t do exactly what they tell you.//// The police, then, are essentially just bureaucrats with weapons. Their main role in society is to bring the threat of physical force—even, death—into situations where it would never have been otherwise invoked, such as the enforcement of civic ordinances about the sale of untaxed cigarettes. Ninety percent of an officer’s time isn’t devoted to our safety, but rather to things we may find annoying (or in the case of things like untaxed cigarettes, create a black market for goods that threaten the profits of businesses), inserting the potential for violence where there is cause for none. And when it comes to preventing heinous acts of violence (or holding the perpetrators accountable) that should be condemned by all, like domestic violence and sexual assault, the police are largely ineffectual. The police are not performing the function we say they are, and there are real ways to achieve a world with less violence that don’t include the police. We simply haven’t tried. Until we invest in full employment, universal healthcare that includes mental health services, free education at every level, comprehensive sex education that teaches about consent and bodily autonomy, the decriminalization of drugs and erasure of the stigma around drug use, affordable and adequate housing, eliminating homophobia and transphobia—things that actually reduce the amount of violence we witness—I don’t want to hear about how necessary the police are. They are only necessary because we are all too willing to hide behind our cowardice and not actually put forth the effort to create a better world. It’s too extreme.//// When I say, “abolish the police,” I’m usually asked what I would have us replace them with. My answer is always full social, economic, and political equality, but that’s not what’s actually being asked. What people mean is “who is going to protect us?” Who protects us now? If you’re white and well-off, perhaps the police protect you. The rest of us, not so much. What use do I have for an institution that routinely kills people who look like me, and make it so I’m afraid to walk out of my home?//// My honest answer is that I don’t know what a world without police looks like. I only know there will be less dead black people. I know that a world without police is a world with one less institution dedicated to the maintenance of white supremacy and inequality. It’s a world worth imagining. No permutation – the aff tries to make the police better. Those methods all fail. Only a paradigm shift towards community empowerment with no police can solve.VITALE professor sociology @ Brooklyn College 2014 (Alex, associate professor, auhor of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics, senior advisor to the Police reform Organizing Project, serves on the New York State Advisory Committee to the US Civil Right Commission, “We Don’t Just Need Nicer Cops. We Need Fewer Cops”, The Nation, Dec 4, http://www.thenation.com/article/we-dont-just-need-nicer-cops-we-need-fewer-cops/, note://// indicates par. breaks)[AR SPRING16] Changing the Police Role //// What we really need, though, is a major rethink of the police role. A part of the story of over-policing is hundreds of years old and is about slave patrols, Black Codes, and Jim Crow. Another part of the story, however, is more recent. It’s about the war on drugs, the war on crime and “quality of life” and “broken windows” policing. We need to push back on this dramatic expansion of police power and its role in the development of mass incarceration that has radically transformed poor communities of color in profoundly negative ways and is at the heart of the “new Jim Crow.”//// For too long, residents in these communities have faced a terrible dilemma. On the one hand, they have suffered the consequences of high crime and disorder. It is their children who are shot and robbed. But they have also had to bear the brunt of aggressive, invasive and humiliating policing that has criminalized huge swaths of the community. There must be an alternative to this.//// We have to take steps to dial back our reliance on the police as the primary tool of resolving neighborhood crime and disorder problems. For instance, we have overwhelming evidence that the policing of drugs is a corrosive and counterproductive strategy that has done nothing to reduce the negative impact of drugs on communities. Drugs are a public health problem, not a policing problem. The same approach should be taken for sex work.//// Recently Mayor de Blasio announced a new $130 million package to divert people with mental illness from the criminal justice system and to better treat those who are already there. Our nation’s jails and prisons have become massive warehouses for the mentally ill, and this is a welcome development. However, it still rests on a foundation of police intervention. Access to services is still predicated on coming into contact with the police. The tragedy is that police are poorly trained and equipped for this role. They are primarily equipped with the tools of arrest and physical coercion, which can be incredibly counterproductive when dealing with a person in crisis. Instead, we should rely on civilian crisis intervention teams. We also need to develop community-based mental health services that don’t require criminal justice involvement to access. Similar arguments can be made for dealing with homeless people.//// Even more serious crime, such as violence committed by youths, may be more receptive to community-based efforts that do not rely on the punitive and coercive power of the police. Across the country community-based organizations in high-crime areas are working with young people to stop the violence using a variety of public health and community empowerment strategies. The overall effectiveness of these strategies is still being evaluated, but we know that they do not come with the many negative collateral consequences of mass criminalization.//// Along the same lines, we need to get police out of schools. Numerous studies have shown that criminalizing school children worsens safety in the schools and drives the most needy students onto the streets, where they often become involved in more serious criminality. Enlightened school leaders with adequate resources have shown that they can increase school safety through creative restorative justice programs that involve students in disciplinary procedures and attempt to take home and community conditions into consideration in resolving problems.//// Any real agenda for police reform must look not to make the police friendlier and more professional. Instead, it must work to reduce the police role and replace it with empowered communities working to solve their own problems. We don’t need community control of the police. We need community control over services that will create safer and more stable neighborhoods and cities. A world without police is possible – status quo police are ineffective and often increase harm. YES some crime is inevitable but private citizens *could* handle itMcPHERSON 2014 (Scott, writes for copblock, which is a media group that pushes for activism and vigilant awareness of police misconduct, atrocities, etc, “Do We Need Police?”, copblock.org, Dec 9, note:////indicates par. breaks)[AR SPRING16] Last week police killed another unarmed man, this time in Phoenix. Rumain Brisbon was shot twice in the chest for selling drugs.//// That’s not the official version. The officers said they “mistook” a pill bottle he was carrying for a gun. Of course. //// And Eric Garner’s open, empty hand – held outstretched before him as a police officer choked his life away – was no doubt trying to effect a Karate chop. //// No account of Brisbon’s actions – including from the police – claims that he was threatening anyone at the time of his death. //// He also didn’t have a gun on him. That fact too has been acknowledged by police. //// According to some, police officers are professional, highly-trained officers of the law on whom we must rely for our protection every single moment of the day. In these people’s terrifying world, barbarian hordes would overrun civilization if not for our “brave boys in blue.” //// For many Americans, the boys in blue are the barbarians. //// Police do from time to time save innocent lives. //// Other times, however, they’re not so useful. They Taser old ladies, and throw hand grenades into babies’ cribs during their many commando-style SWAT raids. They even shoot kids that are playing with toy guns. An investigation of the Cleveland Police Department recently revealed that officers ”engage in excessive force far too often.” //// But two issues loom larger than the efficacy or pathology of a professional enforcement class. //// First, what purpose do police serve in a free society? //// Cops should exist to keep the peace, to protect life, liberty, and property. Period. Those whose actions do not harm others or interfere with their equal freedom to use their own bodies and/or property in a peaceful manner should never face a thug scrum of uniformed harassers. Ever. Accidents happen, and mistakes can be made. But they should result from human error, not design. //// Some members of the public seem to delight in seeing police officers employing all manner of force against legally disarmed civilians, for purposes other than the protection of life, liberty, and property – which tells us a lot about the psychology of such people. It doesn’t change the nature of legitimate power. //// Second, we should remember that police power is by definition nothing but an extension of the legitimate power each person holds to defend his life and property, and the lives and property of others, against criminals. Most people prefer to spend their time in more productive pursuits, and so delegate that task to the police. Yet in order to delegate authority to an individual or group, one must first have that power in oneself. It is not a magic conferred from on high to an enlightened elite, but instead an extension of everyone’s right to self-defense. //// Nor does the day-to-day performance (in theory) of this task by a professional police force mean that individuals surrender this right and power. Far from it: In the United States alone, millions of private citizens use force to defend themselves, their loved ones, and their property every single year. Private citizens kill more dangerous maniacs each year than do the police, and self-defense radically reduces the likelihood that one will be injured in a criminal attack. Tips from the public, and not ”good police work” – and certainly not Gestapo-like tactics – are what solves the vast majority of crimes. There is evidence to suggest that private use of force against criminals is not only more effective, but considerably cheaper. //// Despite the number of cops killed “in the line of duty” (which conjures images of deadly shootouts with bad guys, but is also applied to health-related and automobile-related deaths while on the job) dropping to an all-time low, and violent crime in general steadily decreasing over the last two decades, those killed by the police remains constant. Police departments are also becoming more militarized. In other words, ”the public” is less of a threat to police (who, remember, volunteer for this job), or to each other, while the police pose a continued and growing threat to the civilian population. //// It has been estimated that for every police officer in the United States, three private security guards are employed. It’s easy to mock these security officers for being second-rate; the federal government knows better. That’s why groups like Blackwater are in Baghdad, or New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Less qualified security officers are found watching convenience stores and the like precisely because property owners realize that they can deter criminals without looking for trouble. To a hammer, by comparison, everything looks like a nail. //// Many people are either unwilling or unable to protect themselves, or do not have the financial means to employ private security. For them, the existence of a professional police force is vital. Everyone should be able to dial 911 and get help. Sadly, this image too of police is much more myth than reality: They have no obligation to respond, and you have no legal recourse if they do not. Not that it will stop them from trying to sue you, if you don’t do enough to protect them! //// More often than not, cops only show up after crimes have been committed to take pictures and file paper work – that is somehow forgotten, as is the much more typical use of police officers as revenue collection agents for the State. For example, Eric Garner died for selling untaxed cigarettes. //// Whenever – if ever – the usefulness of police is questioned, a cadre of apologists are always on hand to declare that we would all be helpless babes without them. //// Almost every single one of your fellow citizens – probably better than 99 percent – are decent people, who do not require a cop breathing down their neck to do the right thing. It’s easy to be cynical about others – or to think of them as stupid, as our president does – but the likelihood of your coming into contact with a madman is virtually nil. Each person should still take steps to provide for his or her own security – it’s a matter of personal, moral responsibility. Interestingly, many of those who dismiss the need of each individual to be prepared to defend himself from a potential attacker become terrified of their own shadow when anyone suggests that cops take a more relaxed approach to law enforcement. That’s a bit of a contradiction. //// Should we have professional, tax-funded police officers? Would we better off without them? Maybe so, and maybe not. One thing is for certain though: If we continue to demand that cops police our fellow citizens’ every move and behavior, employing the full force of government power against those who have not themselves engaged in violent behavior, but instead are merely practicing some lifestyle with which we do not approve or, at worst, committing some minor, victimless infraction, the body count of innocent civilians will only grow. That bad people do exist, there is no doubt. That doesn’t justify a hyper-aggressive police forceconstantly looking for skulls to bust open. Download 1 Mb. Share with your friends:
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