("Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Et
al: Public Perceptions of Justice and
the Dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr," a paper presented by
Victor Oguejiofor Okafor, Ph.D.
Professor and Head
Department of Africology and African American Studies
Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilanti, Michigan
48197
At the January 19,
2015 Eastern Michigan University’s celebration of the legacy of Martin Luther
King, Jr. in Ypsilanti)
What is Justice?
We gathered here today to celebrate the
legacy of the Great Martin Luther King, Jr. Let me make it clear from the onset
that it’s not a day for a self-righteous vilification of any particular
community or group, nor a day for praise-singing any community or group.
Rather, it’s a day for somber stock-taking—a day for us, as a community that
shares one national space, to self-critically ask ourselves how far we have
gone in our various collective, institutional and even individual efforts to
narrow the gap between where we are in our race relations and where we would
like to be.
The late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is
pleasantly remembered not just for his moral vision and advocacy for social
justice but also for his spectacular oratorical elegance and philosophical
profundity. One of his most erudite declarations is that “injustice anywhere is
a threat to justice everywhere” (1963, p. 1). In his April, 1963 famous “Letter
from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King also instructed us on why injustice anywhere
must be of concern to all of us. In his words: “I am cognizant of the
interrelatedness of all communities and states… We are caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one
directly affects all indirectly” (p. 1).
From time immemorial, legal practitioners,
scholars, philosophers, public officials, religious leaders, national,
international and global institutions have written and talked at length about
the concept of justice. Ancient Egyptian philosophy posited justice as one of
seven cardinal virtues, including truth, propriety, harmony, balance,
reciprocity and order (Karenga, 2010, p. 203). Justice is a
universally-applicable concept though it does not seem to hold the same meaning
for everyone or for every community.
Dictionary’s
Definition of Justice
But what is justice? Well, as I prepared
this essay, I decided to take a look at how Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary
defines justice. I found that the dictionary conveys several notions of
justice.
·
The
first notion is justice as “the maintenance or administration of what is just
especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment
of merited rewards or punishments.”
·
The
second is a definition of justice as “the administration of law; especially:
the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or
equity.”
·
Third,
there is a notion of justice as “the quality of being just, impartial, or fair.”
·
Fourth,
the dictionary defines justice as “the principle or ideal of just dealing or
right action,” “conformity to this
principle or ideal,” or “the quality of conforming to law.”
·
Finally,
justice is cast as “conformity to truth, fact, or reason” (“Full Definition of
Justice,” 2014).
However, my further search for the meaning
of justice led me to a more concrete insight credited to William Penn,
described as “an early champion of democracy and a prominent Quaker” who lived
between the year 1644 and 1718. As William Penn put it poignantly, “Right is
right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is
for it.”
“Justice” and Recent Cases of
Extra-Judicial Killings
In recent times, the word “justice” has re-occupied
center stage in US national news and analyses as the nation grapples with
emerging reports of extra-judicial killings of unarmed black men at various
locations, along with the apparent failure of the system of justice to rise to
the occasion. Wikipedia defines extra-judicial killing as “… the killing of a
person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial
proceeding or legal process. Extrajudicial punishments are by their nature
unlawful, since they bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction in which
they occur“ (“Extrajudicial Killing,” 2014). The Constitution of the United
States itself says that no “person shall be deprived of life … without due
process of law” (“Fifth Amendment”).
While extra-judicial killings have sadly been a long-standing
part of the human experience across nations of the world, it would appear that
due to modern technologies of instantaneous mass communication, including ubiquitous
social media and pocket-size instant video recording devices, news of such
killings now tend to spread like wild fire across the globe almost within hours
of their occurrence. Not surprisingly, public awareness and public reactions to
such outrageous events have escalated.
Three High-Profile Examples
In this presentation, I am going to cite and discuss
three major examples that occurred in recent times. The first was a 2013
vigilante’s killing of an unarmed Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin although,
strictly-speaking, that example does not conform with the preceding definition
of extra-judicial killing because the culprit was not necessarily a
governmental authority. Nonetheless, you will recall that the killer of Trayvon
Martin was subjected to a trial only after a lengthy public protest and demand
for his arrest. Much to the chagrin of a cross-section of national opinion, a
Florida jury subsequently acquitted the perpetrator—an action that provoked
even a greater public outrage across US cities. The second but a more appropriate
example was the shooting to death in summer, 2014 of another black teenager,
Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri by a white police officer. This time
around, there was neither an arrest nor a trial of the killer, for a grand jury
decided that there was “no probable cause” for prosecuting the killer. Then in
late December, 2014, a New York City grand jury also reached another
controversial decision that an apparent choke hold-induced death of Eric Garner
of Staten Island did not amount to a crime, and so the affected police officer
had no case to answer. This grand jury decision was made despite a city of New
York’s medical examiner’s pronouncement that the death of 43-year old Eric
Garner was a homicide caused by a chokehold (“Medical Examiner Rules,” 2014).
Although these preceding and highly publicized
examples of extra-judicial killings in the United States are not the only ones
that occurred in recent times, they triggered a wave of wide-spread public protests
almost unprecedented in their size and persistence. In addition to this wave of
public protests that took place across cities of the United States, notably, on
December 14, a crowd of about 25, 000, including family members of a set of
extra judicially-executed unarmed young black men, held a march on Washington
for “Justice for All” (Barakat, December 14, 2014). Spearheaded by Civil Rights
activist, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the march attracted an estimated crowd of 25,
000 although the organizers had reportedly expected a lower turnout of about
five thousand. This huge turnout of 25,000 marchers speaks to the intensity of both
the passion and anger triggered by the contemporary spate of extra-judicial killings
of unarmed black men in the United States. Earlier on that mid-week of
December, 2014, Congressional staffers walked out of Congress to make a silent
statement with their hands up. Similarly, students at some of the nation’s top
medical schools called for change as they organized and staged a “die-in” at
such institutions as Columbia, Brown and Yale (Canani, 2014). A prominent placard-slogan
that cut across these public protests was one that proclaimed that “black lives
matter.”
Role of the United Nations
The United Nations documents and tracks occurrences
of extrajudicial killings in various countries. In November, 2014, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein issued a
statement in which he “expressed deep concern about the `disproportionate
number of young African-Americans who die in encounters with police officers,
as well as the disproportionate number of African Americans in US prisons and
the disproportionate number of African-Americans on Death Row’” (“Eric Garner,
Michael Brown cases,” 2014). The UN statement noted that “It is clear that, at
least among some sectors of the population, there is a deep and festering lack
of confidence in the fairness of the justice and law enforcement systems”
(“Eric Garner, Michael Brown cases,” 2014).
In addition, the United Nations Special Rapporteur
on Racism, Mutuma Ruteere, issued a statement, asserting that “there are
numerous complaints stating that African-Americans are disproportionally
affected by … practices of racial profiling and the use of disproportionate and
often lethal force” (“Eric Garner, Michael Brown cases”), and pointed out that
“African-Americans are 10 times more likely to be pulled over by police
officers for minor traffic offences than white persons” (“Eric Garner, Michael
Brown cases,” 2014).
Mireille Fanon Mendes France, Head of the “UN
Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent,” said that “the Michael
Brown and Eric Garner’s cases have added to our existing concerns over the
longstanding prevalence of racial discrimination faced by African-Americans,
particularly in relation to access to justice and discriminatory police
practices,” and called for “a comprehensive examination of all laws that could
have discriminatory impact on African-Americans to ensure that such laws are in
full compliance with the country’s international legal obligations and relevant
international standards” (“Eric Garner, Michael Brown cases,” 2014).
Indeed, when in November, 2014, the grieving parents
of the late Michael Brown took an extra-ordinary step of flying abroad to the
Geneva, Switzerland-based United Nations Committee Against Torture in order to
appeal to that global institution for justice for their slain son, their
action, in effect, came across as a reflection of what the preceding UN
statement characterized as “a deep and festering lack of confidence,” on the
part of certain communities of the United States, in the fairness of our
justice system (“Michael Brown’s parents,” 2014). The last time that this
degree of citizenry cynicism in the ability of our domestic justice system to
act fairly towards all was publicly displayed in a high-profile manner was in the
pre-Civil Rights era, precisely in July 1964, when the late African American
Human Rights Warrior, Malcolm X, appeared before and addressed the General
Assembly of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the
African Union, in order to call attention to systemic and institutional denials
and violations of black civil, human and constitutional rights within the
United States (Okafor, 2013, p. 219).
Student Reflections
As I observed earlier, recent cases of extrajudicial
killings of unarmed black men in the United States provoked grassroots
protests. Across-the-country, university students registered their protests and
dismay even on the pages of essays specifically written for course credit.
Below is a sample of sentiments expressed by students of my Fall, 2014 AFC 101
Introduction to African American Studies in their closing course assignment--a
writing project in which they reflected on three of the major themes of the
course, including race relations, the high incarceration of African American
men, and the social policy of Affirmative Action. Not surprisingly, the burning
issue of extrajudicial killings of unarmed black men loomed large in their
reflections on contemporary race relations in the United States.
Student
Eden Zimak reflected as follows:
As a result of the material presented in this course, I have
gained a better understanding of the scope of Africology and African American
studies. This course has better helped me to understand the historical and
philosophical roots of Black studies, become familiar with land-mark events in
African American history, and has engaged me in learning about African
Americans in the fight for human and civil rights, each of which [is] stated in
the course objectives. Because I have taken this course, I have also obtained
skills necessary [to] think critically about race related issues in today’s
society. Consequently, I feel better prepared to write and reflect on issues
like contemporary race relations in the United States, the strengths and weaknesses
of Affirmative Action, and the disproportionate incarceration rates of young
black males and the impact it is likely to have on the African American family
unit.
Since the
landmark 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama, many Americans believe
that we now live in a “post-racial” society, where the social construct of race
no longer affects Black Americans in the same discriminatory ways it had in the
past. It takes only a simple scratching of the surface to discover that this
assumption is far from true. Despite the election of President Obama, racism is
still alive and well in America and one can find evidence of it in contemporary
race relations in American culture today.
The claim that racism no longer exists in this country is
incredibly harmful because it discredits the issues at hand, leading Americans,
particularly White Americans, to believe that there is no longer any reason to
question or challenge the dominant White framework. Claiming color-blindness,
in effect, renders race “invisible,” and encourages ignorance when it comes to
the very real consequences of racism that Black Americans face today. Assuming
that racism is no longer an issue in our society actually perpetuates racism
because it denies that there is an issue to begin with. How is a society going
to solve a problem it doesn’t believe it has? (Zimak, Fall 2014).
In
her own comments, student Jenny Tith commented as follows:
As a college student, and young citizen, I have seen racism
in many forms from many different people. Sometimes, people are racist without
even knowing it. There are people who believe that everyone is equal and treat
people as such, but there are not nearly enough people with that mindset. I
find that much of the youth today have a way of behaving with their peers, a
way of speaking and interacting, that can come off as racism, but then when it
comes down to the bare bones of it, they are not actually racist. … Racism
never completely went away, even though slavery was abolished, and there are
anti-discriminatory laws. It is just hidden, and expressed in a different way.
Because racism is still being expressed, even if it is behind closed doors,
there can be and is hostility towards different people. People are treated
differently subconsciously because of the hidden racist feelings (Tith, Fall
2014).
Kristopher
Strange then went on to state that …
The events that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri and in Staten
Island, New York are telling of how race relations, within the country, are
becoming an increasing problem. These two deaths in a matter of a few months
have caused widespread awareness of a bigger issue than people want to talk
about and that is the issue of interracial violence. … People in our history such as Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers all took the
initiative to go against what they knew was the norm of society and change
it. The generations of black people
living in the country today do not have the same desires that those of our past
once had nor do they care as much for that matter. Many of those people are content with where
they are in life and believe that if they do try to do something to change
those issues they will lose all that they have in the process. In other words [,] people of today’s America
are selfish (Strange, Fall 2014).
Jennifer
Serrano, went on to write that…
Within the past sixty to seventy years alone [,] so much has
occurred that has reshaped the way Blacks are viewed and the way that they are
currently viewed. With that being stated
[,] there is still a great deal of changes and implementations that need to be
considered in order to break all of the barriers and stigma that comes with the
Black race. The contemporary views of race in America [have] made this evident
along with societal factors that have influenced transformative changes coming
into effect like affirmative action and social welfare.
There is no question as to the origin of racism from whites
to African Americans and it being a systemic problem since the slave
trade. The start of the problem came
with the abduction of Africans from their homeland and their use as
“merchandise” rather than human beings due to the color of their skin. This
evolved in our country as a systemic problem, creating ideologies and stigmas
with the black population. Through the
Emancipation Proclamation of 1863[,] slavery [was abolished] and created an
uproar and division in our country. This
was not the end of the racial views in America although it was a much needed
step forward. Through over 90 years of discriminatory Jim Crow laws, framing
American history, racism continued to develop and bring prejudice [against]
blacks, along with certain stereotypes. Despite what many believe [we have] overcome,
racism and contemporary racist view exist in America (Serrano, Jennifer, fall
2014).
Echoing
that theme, Ebony Riley commented:
The status of contemporary race relations in the United
States is very strained at this time. Recently, racial tensions have escalated
resulting in more violence and distrust among minority communities especially
when in contact with authorities. Black people are supposed to be living in a
post racial time, which seems to only apply to white people. White America
views current times as post racial because they have not experienced many of
the racial disparities that blacks and other minorities face sometimes on a
daily basis (Ebony, fall, 2014).
Philip
Livingston, Jr. then went on to say that …
With American policies set the way that they currently are
and with the criminal justice system deeply entangled in ages of racial bias
and hatred [,] it does seem unlikely that the heart of people can really change
that much. I think it may be too big of a leap to be made so soon. Time is the
ultimate healer and really the only way change will come. With all the riots
and protests in the news [,] it does seem that people are tired of the current
situation [,] and I do feel that something will need to be done about the
racial situation in America. The policy of not speaking about it has not healed
any wounds and has not deterred the spread of hate. Hate is something that is
taught [,] and it can be untaught under the right circumstances. Knowledge is
the biggest key to accomplishing this goal. If someone is hateful because of a
particular belief, test it and make sure the reason [is] accurate (Livingston,
Jr., Fall, 2014).
The Conscience of the Nation
As we ourselves—as bystanders, as teachers, students
or even as members of the law-enforcement community—sit back and strive to think
deeply about the preceding critical views of contemporary race relations proffered
by a small cross-section of students, we, perhaps, at this juncture, should
recall a pertinent adage that students tend to reflect the conscience of a
nation. In a related sense, students,
generally, are viewed as leaders of tomorrow, and, thus, their take on matters
of the moment may serve as a pointer to how the future of a society may be
shaped or the direction in which a nation is headed.
A Polarized Public Opinion
Though news media and social media commentaries, in
general, suggest that the recent high-profile cases of extra-judicial killings
in the United States appeared to have offended the nation’s collective sense of
justice, it’s worth noting that proportionately more blacks than whites have
tended to publicly express objection to what’s perceived as a failure of the
system of justice in those widely-publicized cases. For example, a July, 2013 Pew
Research Center’s survey of 1,480 adults nationwide revealed that 49% of whites
were satisfied with a Florida jury’s acquittal of George Zimmerman, while only
5% of blacks felt so. On the other hand, while 86% of blacks were dissatisfied
with the verdict, only 30% of whites shared that opinion.
Findings similar to the preceding ones occurred in a
subsequent Pew Research Center’s survey of August, 2014 regarding the late
Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri. According to the Center,
Blacks and whites
reacted significantly differently to both the police shooting of Michael Brown
and to the resulting public protests and violence. The Center’s survey reported
that ‘Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to say that the shooting of
Michael Brown `raises important issues about race that need to be discussed.’
There were also ‘wide racial differences … in opinions of whether local police
went too far in the aftermath of Brown’s death, and in confidence in the investigations
into the shooting’ (“Stark Racial Divisions,” 2014).
The Age Factor
But, there is an age-related dimension to these Pew Research
Center’s surveys that some people may or may not interpret as a potential
harbinger of a brighter tomorrow in the arena of race relations. It’s a finding
that …
Younger Americans
express far more dissatisfaction over the Zimmerman trial verdict than do older
Americans. Among those under 30, 53% say they are dissatisfied with the verdict
and just 29% are satisfied. The balance of opinion is the reverse among those
ages 65 and older: 50% are satisfied and just 33% dissatisfied.
But
when controlled for race, what became of the age factor? The Pew Research
Center reported that …
The survey data
showed the same age-related differences in perceptions of the correctness or
lack thereof of the Zimmerman verdict. Thus, among whites, 39% of survey
respondents who fell within the age bracket of 18-29 were satisfied with the
verdict, whereas 57% of whites, ages 50-64 felt that way.
Eric Garner’s Case Attracts
Across-the-Board Condemnation
As the foregoing analyses and opinion
survey reports have demonstrated, racial polarization was characteristic of
public opinions regarding both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, but it was
less so in the case of Staten Island’s Eric Garner. A USA TODAY
opinion survey of December 9, 2014 reported that …
Americans by nearly
3-1 say the white police officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner, an
unarmed black man being arrested for selling cigarettes, should have faced
charges from a Staten Island grand jury... Nearly nine of 10 also say it would
be a good idea for more police officers to wear body cameras to record their
interactions… In contrast, by 50%-37% they say a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo.,
made the right decision in deciding not to charge officer Darren Wilson in the
death of Michael Brown (Page, 2014).
Strongest
Protests from the Youth of America
Overall,
the youth, particularly college students, were among members of the public who protested
most strongly against these extra-judicial killings. For instance, in the wake
of the Grand Jury decision regarding Eric Garner in December, 2014, the
Columbia Law School was reported to have “agreed to delay final exams for
students who face "trauma" and disillusionment following two recent,
racially-charged cases in which grand juries declined to indict white police
officers in the deaths of unarmed black men” (“Columbia Law students,” 2014).The
news report went on to announce that “students at Harvard and Georgetown want
the same dispensation, also saying they just can't face their tests in the wake
of the grand jury decisions in Missouri and New York” (“Columbia Law students,”
2014). In an attempt to contextualize all this, Robert E. Scott, Columbia Law
School’s Interim Dean was reported as stating that "For some law students,
particularly, though not only, students of color, this chain of events is all
the more profound as it threatens to undermine a sense that the law is a
fundamental pillar of society to protect fairness, due process and equality"
(“Columbia Law students,” 2014).
President Obama’s
Views
Thus
far in this presentation, I have recaptured a synopsis of public opinions on
our subject of discussion. Now, let’s find out how major leaders of the nation
reacted to these controversies. Publicly issued statements have
come from federal, state and local leaders, including none other than President
Barack Obama.
Shortly after news emerged that a New York Grand Jury would not issue an
indictment in the case of Eric Garner, President Obama said as follows to the
nation.
Some of you may have heard there
was a decision that came out today by a grand jury not to indict police
officers who had interacted with an individual named Eric Garner in New York
City, all of which was caught on videotape and speaks to the larger issues that
we’ve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year,
and, sadly, for decades, and that is the concern on the part of too many
minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing
with them in a fair way (“President Obama Delivers,” 2014).
The President then continued by saying:
As I said when I met with folks
both from Ferguson and law enforcement and clergy and civil rights activists, …
this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with for too long and it’s time for us
to make more progress than we’ve made. And I’m not interested in talk; I’m
interested in action. And I am absolutely committed as President of the United
States to making sure that we have a country in which everybody believes in the
core principle that we are equal under the law. And I say that as somebody who
believes that law enforcement has an incredibly difficult job; that every man
or woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us; that they
have the right to come home, just like we do from our jobs; that there’s real
crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in and day out… (“President
Obama Delivers,” 2014).
The Risky Nature of Police Work
Notice that President Obama’s
aforementioned comments appropriately called attention to risks associated with
police work. Police work was ranked #5 among 10 jobs listed recently as the
most stressful occupations in the United States. According to CareerCast.com
“the most stressful jobs of 2015 can be physically dangerous [and] psychologically
taxing … (“The Most Stressful Jobs of 2015,” 2015). (See the table of Most
Stressful Jobs below).
Table of 10 the Most Stressful Jobs of 2015
| Name of Job | Ranking |
| Firefighter | 1 |
| Enlisted Military Personnel | 2 |
| Military General | 3 |
| Airline Pilot | 4 |
| Police Officer | 5 |
| Actor | 6 |
| Broadcaster | 7 |
| Event Coordinator | 8 |
| Photojournalist | 9 |
| Newspaper Reporter | 10 |
Source: The Most Stressful Jobs of 2015. (2015, January 7). CareerCast.com. Retrieved from http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/most-stressful-jobs-2015.
The risky nature of police work received a high-profile concrete expression in late December 2014, when news broke that two police officers of New York City’s Police Department were killed by a lone gunman who reportedly acted to avenge two previous 2014 extrajudicial killings of two black men, Michael Brown of Fugerson, Missouri, and Eric Garner of Staten Island, New York.
This New York Post reported the news with a strikingly emotive headline, “Gunman executes 2 NYPD cops in Garner ‘revenge’”—a headline that implicitly spoke volumes, in and of itself, about the rather volatile status of community-police relations during an especially troubled period in this nation’s history of human relations. As that news report put it,
Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael
Ramos were working overtime as part of an anti-terrorism drill in
Bedford-Stuyvesant just before 3 p.m. when they were shot point-blank in the
head by lone gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who had addresses in Georgia,
Maryland and Brooklyn. Moments after killing the two officers, Brinsley, too,
was dead, having turned his gun on himself on a nearby subway platform as cops
closed in (Celona, Larry, Cohen, Shawn, Schram, Jamie, et al., 2014).
The report added that three hours before killing two police officers, Brinsley had posted an Instagram message about what he allegedly intended to do. The news report recaptured the Instagram message as follows: “I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours . . . Let’s Take 2 of Theirs. This May Be My Final Post” (Celona, Larry, Cohen, Shawn, Schram, Jamie, et al., 2014).
A noticeable change in public protest sloganeering and even on television talk shows following the shooting of the two New York police officers, was a switch from “black lives matter” to “all lives matter.” No doubt, all lives do matter, and all lives deserve equal protection of the law.
Generally-known risks associated with law-enforcement, in particular, and security work, in general in the United States and elsewhere, became compounded recently in early January, 2015, when the news media reported that an organized international terrorist group, known as Islamic State, had posted a video message on the internet in which its spokesperson called for the assassination of “police, security and intelligence members,” in four Western countries, namely the United States, France, Australia and Canada. This information was released to the public just a few days after gunmen broke into and killed 12 employees of a French magazine in Paris, France (“NYPD, FBI issue,” 2015).
At this juncture, it’s apropos to recall that in his address on the issue of public confidence in law enforcement earlier on, President Obama said as follows to the nation:
[Law-enforcement] officers are
only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence
in the system. And right now, unfortunately, we are seeing too many instances
where people just do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly.
And in some cases, those may be misperceptions; but in some cases, that’s a
reality. And it is incumbent upon all of us, as Americans, regardless of race,
region, faith, that we recognize this is an American problem, and not just a
black problem or a brown problem or a Native American problem (“President Obama
Delivers,” 2014).
Bipartisan
Reactions
Having recalled the President’s comments,
at this point, I want to draw attention to a notable fact that, overall, US political leaders’ reactions to the December,
2014 Grand Jury decision regarding Eric Garner, were relatively bi-partisan. For
example, in weighing in on this matter, Speaker John Boehner of the US House of
Representatives, a Republican, said as follows: "Clearly both of these are
serious tragedies that we've seen in our society and I think the American
people want to understand more of what the facts were. There are a lot of
unanswered questions that the Americans have and, frankly, I have” (Siddiqui, Sabrina,
2014).
Other Notable
Reactions
President
Obama’s and Speaker Boehner’s were, of course, a tiny glimpse of numerous
spoken and written high-profile expressions of concern provoked by the death of
Eric Garner. Among academics, one reaction stood out. Dr. Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh, professor of
Political Science and Vice President of Equity and Inclusion at the University
of Oregon offered a historically-layered poetic commentary that touched on
issues that span a period of more than five hundred years. Here is an excerpt
from that poem, aptly entitled, “I Can’t Breathe:”
I can’t breathe…echoes of Eric Garner’s last words
I can’t breathe…panic words seeping out under the
weight of George Zimmerman’s attack
I can’t breathe…reflected in the blood flowing from
Michael Brown’s body
I can’t breathe…confused thoughts in the mind of a
12-year-old playing in the park
I can’t breathe…ignored by police officers, who are
paid to protect lives.
I can’t breathe… utterances of African slaves on the
middle passage.
I can’t breathe...stammered by over 5,000 “strange
fruits”, as they hung from American lynching trees
I can’t breathe…whispered by Goodman, Swerney and
Chaney as they gave their lives for civil rights
I can’t breathe…symbols of communities suffocated by
unjust policies, practices and laws
I can’t breathe… unearthing racial division and
historical amnesia
I can’t breathe…warning sign of a criminal justice
system that is run amuck
I can’t breathe…mandate for legislative change
I can’t breathe...rallying cry that awakens a sleeping
giant?
I can’t breathe…rebirth of democracy? (“Yvette M.
Alex-Assensoh Can't Breathe,” 2014).
But
Dr. Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh was not the only scholar who waxed poetic and
posted a historical spin on these tragedies of our time. Writing from Nigeria,
Professor Bolaji Aluko, a long-standing scholar at Howard University and now
Vice Chancellor of a Nigeria-based Federal University, was rather crisp in his
poetry: “My People: First Ferguson, now
Staten Island.....Enough should be enough.....I can't breathe from all this
American injustice...” (Aluko, 2014).
Notable Remedial
Proposals
In
his presidential comments on these controversies, Barack Obama did more than
just talk. He announced a multifaceted plan for strengthening community
policing in the United States with an overall aim of improving “the relationships
between law enforcement agencies and the communities they are obligated to protect
and serve.” Specifically, the President proposed a three-year, $263 million
investment package that is intended to:
- Increase police officers’ use of body worn cameras
- Expand training for law enforcement agencies (LEAs)
- Add more resources for police department reform
- Multiply the number of cities where the Department of Justice facilitates community and local LEA engagement (“Building Trust Between Communities and Local Police,” 2014).
The
Urban League has advanced its own a 10-point proposal for what it described as
“police reform and accountability.” The League recommended:
- Widespread Use of Body Cameras and Dashboard Cameras
- Broken Windows Reform[1] and Implementation of 21st Century Community Policing Model
- Review and Revision of Police Use of Deadly Force Policies
- Comprehensive Retraining of All Police Officers
- Comprehensive Review and Strengthening of Police Hiring Standards
- Appointment of Special Prosecutors to Investigate Police Misconduct
- Mandatory, Uniform FBI Reporting and Audit of Lethal Force Incidents Involving All Law Enforcement
- Creation and Audit of National Database of Citizen Complaints against Police
- Revision of National Police Accreditation System for Mandatory Use by Law Enforcement To Be Eligible for Federal Funds
- National Comprehensive Anti-Racial Profiling Law (“10-Point Justice Plan,” 2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to say that
President Obama’s remedial plan deserves to be implemented with dispatch, and the
Urban League’s 10-point proposal does carry a lot of weight and ought to be
accorded serious Congressional, rather than state-level consideration, as
ingredients for possible ameliorative legislative measures. But, there is one
suggestion that I wish to add to their list of proposed remedies. In truth,
it’s not solely my own suggestion but an idea that was also echoed by one of my
fall, 2014 students, whose written reflections on contemporary race relations I
shared with you much earlier in this presentation. That idea is that
appropriate education that reflects our racial and cultural diversity, against
the backdrop of a commonly and nationally-shared set of democratic ideals and
values, holds the key that can help enlighten and broaden minds, replace
ignorance and stereotypical assumptions and beliefs with facts and systematic
knowledge about component American communities and, thus, help us continue our
onward journey towards our desired harmonious co-existence based on mutual
respect and justice for all. In the words of the late Martin Luther, Jr.
himself: “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial
injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a
reality for all of God's children” (“Full Text of Martin Luther King Jr.’s,”
1963).
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[1]
According to Wikipedia, “The broken
windows theory is a criminological theory of the norm-setting and signaling
effect of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social
behavior. The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments
to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and toll-jumping
helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more
serious crimes from happening. … The theory has been used as a motivation for
several reforms in criminal policy, including the controversial mass use of
"stop, question, and frisk" by the New York City Police Department”
(“Broken Windows theory,” 2015).
