Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was recently charged and found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of Geogre Floyd on May 25, 2020. While Chauvin’s conviction was a win for the Black community and Floyd’s family, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to prevent another incident as well as to bring justice to the hundreds of other victims of police brutality.
Police brutality is not a new complication. The police force that we know today started as a slave patrol in the 1700s, and after the Civil War, going back into the Jim Crow Era, the police enforced “black codes” which restricted the rights of Black civilians. Black citizens that were thought to be breaking these codes were subjected to extreme amounts of brutality from police.
This behavior transitioned into the deeply corrupt justice system that was made to continue the brutal punishment of Black citizens in America. This needs to be changed.
The first step that needs to be taken is educating ourselves, and staying educated. Understand why we are pushing for a police reform, defunding of the police, the history of the police as well as the justice system and how they play a role in the systematic oppression of Black people. It is far too rare for police officers involved with unnecessary on-duty shootings and killings to be charged, and we still have to remember that only one of the four police officers responsible for Floyd’s murder were convicted.
Some solutions have been put in place, such as requiring body cameras for police officers, diversiving first responders that reflect the communities they assist, and even requiring a more extensive training program, but research suggests that they have all been ineffective with little to no change to brutality rates. So what is next? The answer is looking at it from a legislative point.
Starting with broken window policing, this is one of the largest contributors to the brutality Black Americans face. Broken window policing is the over-policing of any petty non-violent crimes such as the consumption of alcohol on streets, marijuana possession or even riding a bicycle on the sidewalk. Decriminalizing or just de-prioritizing these crimes can vastly reduce the impact the police have on Black Americans.
Broken window policing is nothing more than an excuse for police officers to continually threaten predominantly black neighborhoods. Not to mention the “Stop-and-Frisk” policy that allows police officers to stop anyone for “suspicious” activity, continuing the cycle of racial profiling. While one can arguably say that life for Black Americans has been easier since gaining freedom, we do not get the privilege to ignore the flaws of our current “justice” system.
According to Campaign Zero, “Nationwide, only 5 percent of all arrests made in 2018 involved alleged violent crimes and only 4 percent of what police spend their time doing overall involves enforcing violent crime. Meanwhile, the vast majority of arrests are for low-level, non-violent activities in encounters that often escalate to deadly force.”
Police brutality has been an issue for years, and with the recent influence of social media, the targeting of Black Americans has been more televised to the public. We need to continue educating ourselves on what police officers are to the Black community, and pushing for change through our legislators so more officers like Chauvin can be convicted and charged.