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Title: Brutality Canada Author: Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin Language: en Topics: racism, police brutality, Canada Source: https://libcom.org/library/brutality-canada-racial-profiling-michigan-state-police-report-ervin
A couple of weekends ago, the Southwest Michigan Coalition Against
Racism and Police Brutality conducted a community workshop in Kalamazoo
on racial profiling. From the questions that followed after my
presentation, one thing that stood out is that although we hear about
all these terms in the media like "driving while Black", "police
brutality","racial profiling", most of us don't really know what all
this means.
Racial profiling, the systematic use of police detention and traffic
stops of a racial or cultural group, without probable cause or at least
some reasonable suspicion of the actual commission of a crime, is a form
of racism and police brutality, not just "bad policing by rogue cops".
It is social control of the Black community by police agents of the
government, not by some individual with a badge who just doesn't like
Blacks.
This is important because the Michigan State police recently issued its
first report on traffic stops for the first quarter of the year 2000.
The report included almost 135,000 drivers, and included most state
police posts all over Michigan. Although the report itself clearly
showed that disproportionate numbers of Black males and Latinos were
subjected to traffic stops and ticketing, the cops claim otherwise. "At
this point, we do not believe we have any problems of profiling". Of
course, they do, they are just in denial. We, on the other hand, cannot
afford such escapism. Every time they stop us, our lives are in danger.
When they stop Blacks or Latinos, it's not just "your license and
registration please", but rather the belief that they have stopped drug
dealers, bank robbers, or other criminals. To the cops, we are "born
criminals" or a menace to society anyway, so we are subjected to "close
policing".
Black people, engaged in no other "crime" than going to and from work,
have been subjected to life threatening gestures like drawn guns, to
race baiting comments, and to illegal searches of their cars and their
person. They have been beaten, shot and even killed all over the country
in many of these chance encounters. So, to hear the state cops dismiss
it all in such a blase' fashion, and say that "we don't have a profiling
problem" is sick delusion and a political coverup.
What caused the curent rise in cases of racial profiling? The rise of
racism in American society since the 1970's is one factor. Clearly with
the defeat of the civil rights and Black power agenda after the 1960's
and the rise of social conservatives in the government, and especially
the Reagan Administration, which outright attacked civil rights gains,
it laid a climate for racial antagonism among the white population.
Reagan's right-wing public attacks on Affirmative Action policies, among
civil rights issues generally, encouraged the police establishment to
criminalize the entire Black population, but especially the youth.
Another factor is the rise of the war on drugs, and the new drug laws
giving cops new powers of stop, search and arrest. These powers have
been used by the government to virtually suspend the 4th amendment to
the Constitution, which was enacted to prohibit illegal search and
seizure. In most American cities since the 1970's, paramilitary police
forces roam the streets of inner city Black and latino communities,
kicing in the doors of alleged or suspected drug dealers, and
intimidating the Black population in the process. But because there was
no major outcry, the police resorted to phase two, and that was to
create a racial profile of drug dealers as Black and Hispanic males.
This allowed them to stop the suspected criminals on highways and city
streets before they could "ply their trade". If most people in such
sweeps were innocent, that's too bad, because the cops are just doing
their jobs. So everyone should understand.
Finally there is the rise of a police state to consider. How a
government use its police is a real determinant as to whether it is
really a democratic regime. No one can deny that the rise of police
brutality and police murder in the USA, where upwards of five hundred to
a thousand persons are killed each year by the national police forces,
is a dangerous development. The fact that the government refuses to use
existing civil rights laws to put down police brutality, or punish its
perpetrators should tell us that a new game plan is being played out.
The government is using or allowing brutal and killer cops as a social
policy measure. "Blacks get killed, the cops go free; that to the rich
is demo-cracy".
One thing the Michigan State police report shows us is that we cannot
allow the government or the police to decide how or if they will deal
with DWB/racial profiling issues. The Black community and anti-racists
must get themselves organized and press the issue. We must not just be
satisfed with new laws that call for "studies" of whether or to what
extent the cops are stopping Black or non-white motorists, we must
demand it stop now! We have to demand community control of the police,
and call on community groups to monitor police operations at the
neighborhood level, where most precints are located. But most
importantly, we call on black communities and others victimized by
racial profiling by the cops to protest all police crimes and to fight
for human rights. This is one of the most important civil rights issue
of our times.