Police Racism: The Crossroad of Power, Race, and the Law

Written By: Arman Momeni

The responsibility of a police officer is simple: to enforce laws and regulations with an objective to build and foster a safe society. However, despite their public duty, countless police officers display biased behaviour towards individuals of color, proving themselves to be one of the most prominent forms of systemic racism. The policing system in the United States of America has not only become a symbol of inequality, but it has also established itself as one of the greatest threats to people of color. In the United States, police brutality towards Black Americans is heavily disproportionate to White Americans; Black Americans account for under 15% of the population and are murdered by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans (“The Washington Post's database”). The inordinate murder rate towards Black Americans is not coincidental, as over the last decade countless innocent Black Americans have had their lives taken at the hands of an officer of the law. As injustice towards people of color rises, American citizens fight for change and protest for political reform. The public rebellion began its uproar in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, at the hands of a police officer. Thousands of citizens swarmed the streets of the United States to express their outrage. Inequality in the American police system is at an all time high, which brings up the question: How can we ensure that police in the United States have no bias towards African American citizens? Overall, an analysis through the historical, social, and political perspectives shows that an adjustment in police training methods can mitigate police racism and brutality.

Racial injustice within the American police force and justice system is not a recently developed issue and has plagued African Americans for centuries. According to Kala Bhattar, an author for the University of Alabama at Birmingham Human Rights Blog, the first unofficial police in American were known as slave patrols, who were in charge of capturing runaway slaves and returning them to their masters. Bhattar notes that the notion of slave patrol began to change throughout the Civil War, transitioning slave patrols from colonial oppressors to policing units in charge of breaking up revolts that originated in the aftermath of the Civil War (Bhattar). With modern day policing being built on the backbones of slavery–perhaps the United States’ most direct and significant display of racism–it  is not surprising that the policing system continues to be corrupted with racial inequity. Even with the abolishment of slavery and slave patrols, the newfound police system still acted in accordance with spiteful ideals and a primary objective of maintaining Pre-Civil War Era principles. Kate Masur from Washington History, a peer-reviewed journal, notes that “The development of urban policing in the United States closely followed that of industrializing Europe, where the purposes of the earliest city police forces were to secure private property and regulate the poor … In many American cities, free and enslaved African Americans formed a distinctive part of the poor, marginal population and were subjected to special regulations designed to protect slavery and preserve White supremacy” (1). Evidently, a fatal flaw of the police system lies within its foundation, which rests on racist objectives, providing an understandable, yet saddening explanation towards the current problematic police system.

With the rise of social media, public awareness towards police racism has increased and the public’s permissibility towards the issue has decreased. Despite police racism being a prevalent issue for over a century, the United States had never before experienced a public retaliation that was on the scale of the Black Lives Matter protests. Michael T. Heaney accredits the vast scale of the protests to the decentralization of communications media, stating that “Protest is so easy to organize these days that anyone can do it, even without substantial resources or a formal organization supporting them” (201). The ‘Social Age’ has completely restructured and redefined American culture and has provided citizens with a practical outlet for change. Additionally, social media platforms allow citizens to maximize their right of expression and ensures that their opinions against the issue are heard. Nevertheless, despite momentous public effort, the issue of police racism has continued to persist, and a viable solution has not been constructed. It is clear that public action can only function as a starting point for change and does not contain enough power to resolve the issue of police racism as a whole.

 Despite the impressive scale of public protests and the unity of the Black Lives Matter movement, there are those who argue that the protests are inconclusive in their criticism of American police. For example, John McWhorter, an African American writer for the New York Times, suggests that people should be more knowledgeable and informed before flagging the policing system as racist. He believes that “Police killings of unarmed or unthreatening American citizens are a national disgrace and one that requires action. But action requires comprehension, and the simplest explanation – ‘racist white cops kill Black people’ – is clearly often not the correct one” (McWhorter). McWhorter offers the perspective that the problem with the police force is not that it is racist, but that the police force holds a strong bias towards countless demographics as a whole. There are certainly other factors which create bias within the police force, such as poverty and location. Racism is unarguably an issue within the police force; however it is important to understand that the United States’ policing system is corrupt beyond solely racism. The Black Lives Matter movement may be successful in its attempt to vocalize the problem of police racism, but it neglects several other issues that amass to the bias in the police force.

Despite the limitations that the Black Lives Matter movement holds, it continues to be one of the most influential public movements within the United States. African American citizens demonstrate their resilience against the traumatic actions of American police, fighting against racism and injustice. Surbhi Godsay and Anne E. Brodsky of the Community Psychology in Global Perspective journal praise the Black Lives Matter movements for its “influence [on] resilience and empowerment by: 1) providing awareness about racial injustice, 2) reinforcing racial pride, 3) offering resources, and 4) opening a window of opportunity for participants to enact change within their local context” (55). The resilience shown by citizens is impressive and displays their diligence and dedication for change. Nonetheless, as injustice towards African Americans predates police racism in the United States, this is not the first time that people of color have had to show resilience and fight back against a system of racial segregation. During Apartheid, a system of institutionalised racial prejudice in South Africa during the 20th century, many Black individuals, such as Nelson Mandela, retaliated against the system and refused to give up their efforts for equality. As a result of his rebellion, Mandela spent 27 years in prison. In spite of everything he had lost, Mandela maintained his resilient mindset, fighting for change both in and out of prison. In an excerpt from his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela says: “I was now on the sidelines, but I also knew that I would not give up the fight … We would fight inside as we fought outside” (Mandela Ch. 60). Regardless of Mandela’s situation, free or imprisoned, he was determined to make a difference. Mandela’s story shows that the Black Lives Matter movement has the potential to create serious change. Mandela began his journey as no more than a political activist who wanted change, however, his persistence backed with resilience allowed him to eliminate racial segregation in South Africa. That same resilience has transpired into today’s society with African American citizens continuing to fight for true equality, hurdling through obstacles and barriers.

Given that police and law enforcement systems are under government control, the  issue of police racism could, in theory, be resolved through political reform and adjustment. Many government officials such as Christy E. Lopez, a former Justice Department official, join nationwide protests and advocate for political reform, stating that it is essential in solving the issue. Lopez takes an adamant stance, stating that it has been “known for a long time [that] we have bad police culture. [It] just underscores the enormity of a problem that requires every state to work and every community to work on … In some ways, we have to remake expectations of what policing is” (“From George Floyd to Tyre Nichols”). Lopez’s stance on change, although optimistic, is unrealistic in its expectations of unified nationwide agreements without controversy and disaccord. With major policing units being operated by individual states or municipalities, cohesive agreements and adjustments are impractical and unlikely to succeed. The issue of police bias and racism has been clear for over a century, yet the problem has only become more prominent and severe in our society. Nirej Sekhon of the Columbia Law Review discusses the clear lack of improvement, arguing that “there have been many state and federal reforms … But the reforms have not dramatically changed municipal policing” (1713). Despite political reform being the most obvious solution, the problem of police racism lies within each individual officer and does not necessarily reflect the entire policing system. Sekhon argues that the critical problem with the policing system is that the state has “invested the police with coercive power to resolve problems on the street with finality and based less on law than personal intuition” (1719). Political reform without ramifications towards individual biased officers is deemed useless, as officers have the power to overrule the law and act in a manner best suited to how they interpret a certain situation. If an officer’s philosophy is unprincipled, then they are more likely to act in an unjust manner when compared to an officer who possesses a strong moral code.

The issue of police racism is primarily based on the actions of individual officers; the dishonorable mistakes of a single officer do not reflect the actions and ideals of an entire union. It is evident that an effective solution is one directed towards specific officers: those who lack morals and those who display unethical actions. Officers who display unjust behaviour must be trained and educated to ensure that they behave and act properly in all situations. However, it is not possible to precisely identify which officers need to be recognized and which officers do not. Instead, a model must be created in which each officer is trained to the proper ethical standards. Nonetheless, removing police bias as a whole is a daunting task, as bias and racism are embroidered into the minds of the offender. However, if implemented properly, improved training can be effective in reducing police officer bias. Currently, police training focuses primarily on skills and in-field work, with a lack of focus on ethical actions as an officer of the law. Instead, more focus should be allocated to teaching proper morals, ethics, and behaviours. Jim Wallis, an American theologian, advocates for focus on ethical training, stating that “when we are granting these officers the power over life and death, we should ensure their consciences are informed by the best of our religious and moral traditions. Anything less is criminal negligence” (Wallis). Shifting a person’s moral compass is not simple, especially that of a mature citizen who has already accumulated their ideals and sense of self, but by continuously educating officers on bias and ethical standards, one can widen the range of perspectives and deepen judgement during a police interaction.

In conclusion, ever since the initiation of the modern police force, police bias and racism have been a prevailing issue in the United States. Issues within the policing system have not only prevented the development of an equitable society but have also put the lives of countless innocent Americans at risk. Racist perspectives are more than just an issue of inequality; they have erupted into acts of violence, demolishing the safety of people of color within the United States. In retaliation, the citizens of the United States formed the Black Lives Matter movement, proving their resilience and exercising their rights to fight back against the clear injustice within the United States. Social action is an excellent first step; however, change led by political action must be made in order to resolve the injustice and comply with the United States’ promise of a place with equal rights. Nonetheless, in order to be effective, political action must take a specific route. Solely implementing new laws is not enough as political adjustment does not hold power to change perspectives or remove bias. Improved training is the proper way of reforming views and ameliorating the inclusivity of the United States police force. African Americans citizens have put up with racial discrimination from the police force–the ones who vowed to protect them–for far too long. The deep-rooted soils of racism cannot be cleaned overnight, but it is the responsibility of the United States government and police unions to take a step in the right direction, walk alongside their citizens, and be the leaders in the fight for change.

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