<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<h2 property="dc:title"><a
href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/191929/system-failed-eric-garner-and-michael-brown-cannot-be-reformed"
title="The System That Failed Eric Garner and Michael Brown
Cannot Be Reformed">The System That Failed Eric Garner and
Michael Brown Cannot Be Reformed</a></h2>
<div class="byline"><a
href="http://www.thenation.com/authors/mychal-denzel-smith">Mychal
Denzel Smith</a> <span class="timestamp"><abbr
class="published" title="2014-12-03T17:50:45-18000">on
December 3, 2014 - 5:50 PM ET<br>
<b><small><small><small>http://www.thenation.com/blog/191929/system-failed-eric-garner-and-michael-brown-cannot-be-reformed</small></small></small></b><br>
</abbr></span></div>
<p>That a grand jury decided not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel
Pantaleo for killing 43-year-old Eric Garner the same week that <a
href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-announce-75-million-body-cameras"
target="_blank">President Obama proposed</a> spending $75
million in federal money to outfit 50,000 police officers across
the country with body cameras would seem to be hack Hollywood
writing with neatly applied plot points. Garner’s death was caught
on video—video that the police were aware was being taken—and it
still was not enough to indict anyone, least of all the man
responsible for choking Garner to death, for any type of
wrongdoing. It’s as if this decision was handed to us at this time
in order to get us to say, “Now what?”</p>
<p>So… now what? We can move forward with this notion that police
officers wearing body cameras will make them more judicious in
their use of force, but it seems pretty clear that they just don’t
give a fuck, and the court system is content to allow them to keep
on not giving a fuck. And we’ll be right back here when they don’t
indict the officer who <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/02/cleveland-cop-said-he-had-no-choice-but-to-shoot-12-year-old-tamir-rice-father-says/"
target="_blank">killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice</a> in Cleveland.</p>
<p>So… now what? Not much, so long as the reverence paid to police
officers lends itself to deference. They are not regarded as
citizens also beholden to the law. They are an armed force charged
with maintenance of a status quo steeped in white supremacy and
anti-blackness. Key to the reign is the suspension of a belief in
the rule of law. Whatever tools they require for to carry out
their actual purpose, the public and the courts are eagerly ready
to provide.</p>
<p>So… now what? Body cameras seem like a good idea when we think
the issue is there isn’t enough evidence with which to hold police
accountable. They’re a good idea if we think the issue is
accountability. Other things get tossed around, like diversifying
police forces (the NYPD is among the most diverse in the country).
That sounds like a good idea if we think the problem is
sensitivity or cultural miscommunication. We are thinking wrong.</p>
<p>We keep applying the language and framework of accountability,
diversity and sensitivity to an issue of oppression. We are
attempting to fly an airplane with the keys to a motorcycle. Our
tools are woefully inadequate, and until we are ready to admit to
ourselves that the police are an inherently oppressive force, and
then use the language of anti-oppression and anti-racism in our
analysis and solutions, it will not end today, as Eric Garner had
hoped. The dead bodies of black folks will continue to line our
streets and sidewalks, and they will be treated no better than the
roadkill with whom they occupy those spaces.</p>
<p>Last night, at an event addressing racial profiling on <a
href="http://miscellanynews.org/2014/12/02/news/vassar-community-outraged-at-margolis-healy-report-demand-answers-from-administration/">the
campus of Vassar College</a>, a student told their
administration that putting body cameras on security guards was
like “Band-Aids to a bullet hole.” I was in attendance and was
struck by just how literal that phrasing was. We are being choked
and shot with impunity, and yet all that is being offered to us in
response is a means to relive the experience over and over again.
But we already do.</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>