Name: The Police Don’t Change
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The Police Don’t Change

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AdvertisementAdvertisementThe day after George Floyd was pronounced dead at a Minneapolis hospital, Tucson, Arizona,&nbsp;Police Chief Chris Magnus had seen and heard enough to weigh in on a growing national scandal.“Indefensible use of force that good officers everywhere are appalled by,” Magnus late Tuesday night. “This is contrary to how PROFESSIONAL police officers train &amp; conduct themselves. Conduct like this anywhere makes it more difficult for police everywhere to build community trust.”Magnus was one of the nation’s first major law enforcement officials to weigh in on the now-viral video of the arrest of Floyd, who died on Monday after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by an officer’s knee. That Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, and three others were fired Tuesday, and Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder Friday.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt wasn’t a surprise that Magnus was out front of his contemporaries, given his reputation as a progressive police reformer. But the day after Magnus’ tweet, many more top cops from across the country joined him in denouncing the actions of Chauvin.“I don’t know how you defend what you saw. I can’t defend it,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo . “It is very evident that what occurred there was wrong. …There is a lack of humanity that is exhibited there,” Miami Chief Jorge Colina. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore the Washington Post, “The lack of compassion, use of excessive force, or going beyond the scope of the law, doesn’t just tarnish our badge—it tears at the very fabric of race relations in this country.”AdvertisementAdvertisementThese chiefs were joined by the heads of major law enforcement organizations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and even —the nation’s largest police union, which rarely does anything but take the offending officer’s side.The chorus of condemnation caught the attention of Phillip Atiba Goff, a researcher and expert in racial bias and discrimination in policing. Goff has been working with law enforcement for more than a decade through his organization, the Center for Policing Equity. Usually, police—from the chiefs to their patrol officers to retired cops who move into jobs as experts on TV—ask for the public to reserve judgment until all the facts are in. But last week represented a noticeable shift in the tone from previous police responses to the killings of unarmed black men.AdvertisementAdvertisement“They believe the health of officers is best served by establishing to the public the difference between what they saw [in the video of Floyd] and who they are,” Goff told me. “And law enforcement is a culture, nationwide, of imitation.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAnd this is why, rather than the words of the chiefs, it’s been much more instructive to follow what’s been going on with their rank-and-file officers since the death of Floyd.In Chicago, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara the local NPR station, “I don’t think there’s a single policeman in this country that would say that that was sound police tactics in any way, shape or form.” But by the time Catanzara’s quotes were published, police officers—the ones who make the traffic stops and enforce the public disturbance complaints—were lining up to face off against protesters in cities all around the country. They brought billy clubs, riot gear, and even tanks. They shot rubber bullets at TV reporters, turned pepper spray on large groups of protesters—especially dangerous in the midst of a pandemic—and of a motorist who recklessly drove through a crowd of demonstrators.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt was hard to miss the duplicity. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea strongly and publicly rebuked the four Minneapolis officers involved in Floyd’s death. “What we saw in Minnesota was deeply disturbing. It was wrong,” he . “This is not acceptable ANYWHERE.” But on Friday in Brooklyn, his officers with protesters in the streets, and on Saturday they were into them.In Seattle, Police Chief Carmen Best Wednesday that “no one is above the law,” referring to Chauvin. By the weekend, two of her officers were a protester on the ground.And in Minneapolis, where the national uprising got its fiery start, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo earned praise for his decisive action in firing the four officers involved in Floyd’s killing. “I know that there is currently a deficit of hope in our city,” Arradondo in a news conference Thursday. “I know that this department has contributed to that deficit of hope, but I will not allow to continue to increase that deficit.” By Saturday, journalists Minnesota state troopers firing tear gas at media members at point blank range.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe initial response of police leaders may have felt like progress, but video footage of police and protesters clashing in the streets reveals the truth: Officers are much closer to what we see in viral videos than in the well-intentioned words of their leaders. Despite the shift in public statements, police haven’t changed since the protests of 2014 and 2015. As my colleague Julia Craven wrote on Saturday, .*AdvertisementLittle of this is a surprise to Jin Hee Lee, senior deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who was part of the team that won class action lawsuits challenging the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy.AdvertisementOver the past few days, Lee has been watching the dichotomy between the flowery formal statements on social media and the countless videos of cops bullying protesters in the streets.“So many of the problems with policing is what we’re seeing [this week]” Lee told me.While police chiefs were busy lamenting the grisly video of Floyd’s arrest, Lee and her legal team were asking a court-appointed monitor to conduct an investigation into the NYPD’s social distancing enforcement practices. This came after data 81 percent of&nbsp;summonses for social distancing violations in New York were issued to black and Latino residents.“Racial discrimination in departments that go unchecked can have terrible consequences,” Lee told me. “I do think it’s important to make these connections. It counters the narrative that there are a few bad apples.“AdvertisementOver the weekend, another video of the police interacting with protesters made the rounds on social media. , where Police Chief Erika Shields turned her attention to a woman who tearfully explained her fear that cops might someday harm her family members. Shields placed her hands on the woman’s shoulders.“We agree with you,” Shields told the woman. “It’s fucked up and nothing changes.”By the end of the night, Atlanta police officers in riot gear smoke bombs.Correction, May 31, 2020: This piece originally stated that Julia Craven’s piece was published on Sunday. It was published on Saturday.AdvertisementAdvertisement

AdvertisementAdvertisementThe day after George Floyd was pronounced dead at a Minneapolis hospital, Tucson, Arizona,&nbsp;Police Chief Chris Magnus had seen and heard enough to weigh in on a growing national scandal.“Indefensible use of force that good officers everywhere are appalled by,” Magnus late Tuesday night. “This is contrary to how PROFESSIONAL police officers train &amp; conduct themselves. Conduct like this anywhere makes it more difficult for police everywhere to build community trust.”Magnus was one of the nation’s first major law enforcement officials to weigh in on the...

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Joel Anderson is a business and finance writer with over a decade of experience writing about the wide world of finance. Based in Los Angeles, he specializes in writing about the financial markets, stocks, macroeconomic concepts and focuses on helping make complex financial concepts digestible for the retail investor.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/author/janderson/

Joel Anderson

A daily magazine on the web. Listen to Slow Burn: Roe v. Wade, @ApplePodcasts  Show of the Year 2022.

The Police Don’t Change

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