Resolved: on balance, police are more responsible than protesters for recent civil unrest in the United States

Aff Case 1

On August 9^th, 2014, Michael Brown allegedly stole cigarillos from his local market and was walking down the street with his friend when he was told to move to the sidewalk, when officer Brown realized that Mr. Brown fit the description of the alleged thief from the market, he then directed his police cruiser to Mr. Brown, in which a series of events unfolded which left Mr. Brown dead in the streets. The response from his killing was multiple protests across the country. The police deployed en masse using military gear in order to stop protests from occurring, and arrested individuals without paperwork. According to Davey and Bosman in 2014, “the decision of the grand jury of nine whites and three blacks was announced… the killing, on a residential street in Ferguson, set off weeks of civil unrest.” Clearly, the killing of Michael Brown that occurred at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson led to and caused civil unrest in Ferguson. Therefore, this is an instance in which civil unrest occurred due to police action, and the police must be held more responsible than the protesters for recent civil unrest in the united states.

On April 12^th 2015, Freddie Gray was taken on a rough ride after being unlawfully arrested in Baltimore, when he arrived at the police station, he was not breathing, and multiple requests for medical assistance were denied by police officers. As crowds of protesters grew around the world as Mr. Gray lay incapacitated in a coma, when the news of his death on the 19^th of April, protests exploded around the globe. In response, police deployed again en masse and used tear gas and pepper balls to disperse crowds of protesters, and even used military vehicles to send protesters to their homes while they demanded justice. As Justin George observes from the Baltimore sun “Gray's death launched Baltimore into weeks of protests that culminated with a day of rioting across the city.” Because of the officers negligence and failure to follow their own policies and laws, Mr. Gray’s death sent a major metro area into anarchy. This is yet another instance of civil unrest being caused by police action, and again the police must be held more responsible than the protesters for civil unrest in the united states.

In Staten Island the NYPD attempted to arrest a man for selling untaxed cigarettes, but upon being arrested he resisted. Garner was an asthmatic, and when he was brought down by a choke hold he suffocated and the autopsy report indicated that the death was caused by homicide. But the officer wasn’t indicted. Later, protests were organized in Chicago, DC, Boston, Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Atlanta. This shows that the lack of indictment of officers that were responsible for the killing of Eric Garner caused protests within the city and throughout the world. Therefore this is yet another incident that was a police incident that led to civil unrest.

A Stanford report by Jeff Roberson in August 2014 reports that "the militarization of police departments is doing more harm than good." And further, regarding whether or not police militarization has a disparate effect on communities of color he concurs that militarization absolutely has a different presence in communities of color, you don't tend to hear about police using battering Rams and stun grenades to execute search warrants in white neighborhoods. Earlier this year the ACLU reviewed SWAT deployments in hundreds of police departments across the country and found that members of racial minorities were significantly more likely than whites to be affected. In some places the disparity was truly astounding. In Allentown, Pa., blacks were 24 times more likely than whites to be impacted by a SWAT deployment. In Ogden, Utah, the ratio was 40:1. In Burlingame, N.C., it was close to 50:1. All of this means that militarization only escalated civil unrest because it fosters racial tension, atmospheres for violence, and distrust in the community.

In a study by Kindy and Lowery in 2014 writes that "Hundreds of protesters have been arrested since August for violating unwritten rules and committing minor offenses, such as failure to disperse or unlawful assembly, and for violating a noise ordinance. Many have been taken to jail without being told what charges they may face and have often been released without any paperwork. For weeks, officers employed a “five-second rule” under which any protester who stopped walking was subject to arrest — a policy ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge this week." A report by the Washington Post in December of 2014 writes "The Justice Department says in a new release letter that Fairfax 'withheld materials' from the probe and that there were 'a number of challenges in investigating this case.'" Even though the police had full ability to disclose information regarding this case. These instances of refusing to protect the public and withholding information proves that the police are in fact perpetuating civil unrest.