Can We Stop Pretending George Floyd’s Death Didn't Have Anything to Do with Racism?

[Joe Capitalist]

George Floyd's death reflects the racist roots of American policing

Outrage over racial profiling and the killing of African Americans by police officers and vigilantes has recently resurfaced following the death of George Floyd on May 25. Video footage a bystander took of Floyd’s death while a now-former police officer pressed his knee into the man’s neck quickly went viral.

But tensions between the police and black communities are nothing new.

There were many precedents to the Ferguson, Missouri, protests that ushered in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014.

Those precedents include the Los Angeles riots that broke out after the 1992 acquittal of police officers for beating Rodney King. That upheaval happened nearly three decades after the 1965 Watts riots, which began with Marquette Frye, an African American, being pulled over for suspected drunk driving and roughed up by the police for resisting arrest.

I’m a criminal justice researcher who often focuses on issues of race, class and crime. Through my research and from teaching a course on diversity in criminal justice, I have come to see how the roots of racism in American policing – first planted centuries ago – have not yet been fully purged.

There are two historical narratives about the origins of American law enforcement.

Policing in southern slave-holding states had roots in slave patrols, squadrons made up of white volunteers empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery. They located and returned enslaved people who had escaped, crushed uprisings led by enslaved people and punished enslaved workers found or believed to have violated plantation rules.

The first slave patrols arose in South Carolina in the early 1700s. As University of Georgia social work professor Michael A. Robinson has written, by the time John Adams became the second U.S. president, every state that had not yet abolished slavery had them.

Members of slave patrols could forcefully enter anyone’s home, regardless of their race or ethnicity, based on suspicions that they were sheltering people who had escaped bondage.

The more commonly known precursors to modern law enforcement were centralized municipal police departments that began to form in the early 19th century, beginning in Boston and soon cropping up in New York City, Albany, Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

The first police forces were overwhelmingly white, male and more focused on responding to disorder than crime.

As Eastern Kentucky University criminologist Gary Potter explains, officers were expected to control a “dangerous underclass” that included African Americans, immigrants and the poor. Through the early 20th century, there were few standards for hiring or training officers.

Police corruption and violence – particularly against vulnerable people – were commonplace during the early 1900s. Additionally, the few African Americans who joined police forces were often assigned to black neighborhoods and faced discrimination on the job. In my opinion, these factors – controlling disorder, lack of adequate police training, lack of nonwhite officers and slave patrol origins – are among the forerunners of modern-day police brutality against African Americans.

Jim Crow laws

Slave patrols formally dissolved after the Civil War ended. But formerly enslaved people saw little relief from racist government policies as they promptly became subject to Black Codes.

For the next three years, these new laws specified how, when and where African Americans could work and how much they would be paid. They also restricted black voting rights, dictated how and where African Americans could travel and limited where they could live.

The ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868 quickly made the Black Codes illegal by giving formerly enslaved blacks equal protection of laws through the Constitution. But within two decades, Jim Crow laws aimed at subjugating African Americans and denying their civil rights were enacted across southern and some northern states, replacing the Black Codes.

For about 80 years, Jim Crow laws mandated separate public spaces for blacks and whites, such as schools, libraries, water fountains and restaurants – and enforcing them was part of the police’s job. Blacks who broke laws or violated social norms often endured police brutality.

Meanwhile, the authorities didn’t punish the perpetrators when African Americans were lynched. Nor did the judicial system hold the police accountable for failing to intervene when black people were being murdered by mobs.

[Joe Capitalist]

[BidenPresident]

Might be racism, but not the issue of the trial.

It will be discussed after trial is over.

[blackascoal]

Might be racism, but not the issue of the trial.

It will be discussed after trial is over.

It’s being discussed throughout many nonwhite communities right now. It’s being discussed throughout the world right now. Of course racism is central to this case, and central to the reason for Floyd’s family being awarded 27 million dollars. The murder of Floyd was so egregious and blatantly racist that the prosecution could win without factoring it in, but there is little doubt of its existence.

[BidenPresident]

It’s being discussed throughout many nonwhite communities right now. It’s being discussed throughout the world right now. Of course racism is central to this case, and central to the reason for Floyd’s family being awarded 27 million dollars. The murder of Floyd was so egregious and blatantly racist that the prosecution could win without factoring it in, but there is little doubt of its existence.

Not disagreeing with what you said. My point was, the prosecution never mentioned race as a cause for Chauvin's actions.

[Joe Capitalist]

It’s being discussed throughout many nonwhite communities right now. It’s being discussed throughout the world right now. Of course racism is central to this case, and central to the reason for Floyd’s family being awarded 27 million dollars. The murder of Floyd was so egregious and blatantly racist that the prosecution could win without factoring it in, but there is little doubt of its existence.

I think 27 million dollars is excessive but some form of compensation should be met.

[blackascoal]

Not disagreeing with what you said. My point was, the prosecution never mentioned race as a cause for Chauvin's actions.

Agreed, because they didn’t have to distract the jury with what we all know is true. My point is in accordance with the OP, stop pretending that race wasn’t a factor, even if the prosecution avoids it.

[ThatOwlWoman]

It’s being discussed throughout many nonwhite communities right now. It’s being discussed throughout the world right now. Of course racism is central to this case, and central to the reason for Floyd’s family being awarded 27 million dollars. The murder of Floyd was so egregious and blatantly racist that the prosecution could win without factoring it in, but there is little doubt of its existence.

I don't think I've ever seen a trial where the defendant's own cop dept. personnel turned against him. Convicting him will help in healing, and send a strong message to police depts. everywhere to clean house and return to "protect and serve."

[BidenPresident]

I don't think I've ever seen a trial where the defendant's own cop dept. personnel turned against him. Convicting him will help in healing, and send a strong message to police depts. everywhere to clean house and return to "protect and serve."

This trial is significant because whole nation can watch police officer Chauvin with a knee to the neck for 9 minutes 29 seconds. Over a suspected counterfeit $20.

[ThatOwlWoman]

This trial is significant because whole nation can watch police officer Chauvin with a knee to the neck for 9 minutes 29 seconds. Over a suspected counterfeit $20.

It makes you wonder how many times this shit has to happen before we finally wake up and DO something about it.

[BidenPresident]

It makes you wonder how many times this shit has to happen before we finally wake up and DO something about it.

I hope Chauvin is convicted of something. We don't need to conclude a policeman can decide whether to kill someone.

[ThatOwlWoman]

Agreed, because they didn’t have to distract the jury with what we all know is true. My point is in accordance with the OP, stop pretending that race wasn’t a factor, even if the prosecution avoids it.

As a white person I probably shouldn't comment but that's never stopped me before. lol

IMO the prosecution is wise to keep race out of this for now and focus solely on the facts. The jurors are six white ppl, four black, and two multiracial ppl. They want absolutely no chance of an appeal on the basis of a claim that the defendant didn't get a fair trial because of a taint of race/racism by the prosecution.

[TTQ64]

It makes you wonder how many times this shit has to happen before we finally wake up and DO something about it.

BLACKS HAVE BEEN TELLING "MOST WHITE" AMERICANS ABOUT THIS FOR DECADES.

BUT OUR PLEAS HAVE GONE IGNORED.

[TTQ64]

As a white person I probably shouldn't comment but that's never stopped me before. lol

IMO the prosecution is wise to keep race out of this for now and focus solely on the facts. The jurors are six white ppl, four black, and two multiracial ppl. They want absolutely no chance of an appeal on the basis of a claim that the defendant didn't get a fair trial because of a taint of race/racism by the prosecution.

racism IS A FACT................white people need to accept the fact that their racism is a problem in this country and it needs to be addressed not swepted under the rug again.

[blackascoal]

I think 27 million dollars is excessive but some form of compensation should be met.

I don't think I've ever seen a trial where the defendant's own cop dept. personnel turned against him. Convicting him will help in healing, and send a strong message to police depts. everywhere to clean house and return to "protect and serve."

They all know that America is on trial and the whole world is watching. It’s obvious that Floyd was murdered by a snickering racist who cannot be allowed to walk free.
They know the backdrop to Floyd’s murder is the Hillbilly Insurection where cops were killed and elected politicians were threatened, yet not a single one of them had a boot on their neck and few were even handcuffed. Qualified immunity is on trial.