We have all seen this movie before. A black person is killed by the police under suspicious circumstances and the justice system yields an unsatisfactory response.
Street demonstrations follow, producing mixed results at best. Officials at all levels vow to do better. I have seen this movie more times than I can count.
In 1969 I headed a police-community relations project in Philadelphia, a city marked by police violence and corruption. The project was part of a U.S. government program that focused on major cities where police violence was prevalent. As part of that project I investigated many cases of police violence and represented some of the victims.
The black community wanted accountability and justice. It was not to be. The โsystemโ was stacked against change and against minorities.
Those within the system knew all the steps to the dance. The officers committing the violence knew what to do: charge the victim with resisting arrest, assaulting an officer, and disturbing the peace. Magistrates and prosecutors accepted the officers accounts regardless of evidence to the contrary. Judges and juries gave the police the benefit of the doubt even when there was very little doubt.
The Philadelphia story was not unique. Projects like mine operated in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Oakland, and elsewhere. The same patterns appeared. How could that be? A major factor is the police unions and their marriage to the political system. Between them they paint a picture of a threat to public safety that requires firm and aggressive police action; without that aggressive behavior the โpublicโ will not be safe.
What the black community sees is highly selective protection of a โpublicโ that very frequently does not include them. They see different standards favoring the white community. And they see the system excusing police misconduct.
Police unions and politicians have resisted an effective role for the community in dealing with claims of misconduct. And they have offered no effective alternative to deal with the problems. And that appears to be okay with the larger white community, who are rarely victims of police violence.
That was true in Philadelphia in 1969 and appears to be the case in most major cities to this day.
One must ask why the white community has not demanded reform.
In the aftermath of demonstrations against police violence from Selma to Minneapolis, the white community wants things to return to โnormal.โ The hard, cruel fact is that โnormalโ perpetuates white supremacy.
(Richard A. Hesse of Hopkinton is a retired lawyer and law professor.)