You can be forgiven the impression that America is experiencing an epidemic of violent confrontations between Black kids and White cops.
Their latest confrontation, which went viral on Sunday, had White cops hurling profanities, and one of them even drawing his gun, just to disperse Black kids at an unruly pool party near Dallas, Texas.
That one trigger-happy cop was clearly wrong in this case. He has already been suspended and will be duly punished.
But it only adds fuel to these racial flare-ups for those of us watching on TV or online to cast aspersions on the kids or blame upon the police. For, as mindful as I am about how racial dynamics play out in these confrontations, an incident during last month’s riots in Baltimore chastened even me.
It stemmed from the very emotional eyewitness account a Black girl gave of seeing a White cop shoot a Black man in the back in the middle of the street. I believed her. More significant, though, no less a person than a White reporter for FOX News gave a similar eyewitness account.
Except that, as facts soon made clear, the Black man they saw was fleeing from the cop; he dropped the gun he had in his possession, illegally; it misfired; he fell to the ground – out of fright, nothing else; he was so traumatized by his own reckless attempt to resist arrest, he had to be taken to hospital.
Here, in part, is how FOX News anchor Shepard Smith apologized on air (on May 4, 2015) for presenting the Black girl’s account as fact:
Sounds like what happened is we screwed up… [Reporter] Mike Tobin thought he saw somebody get shot… And on behalf of Mike Tobin and the rest of our crew there and the rest of us at FOX News, I am very sorry for the error and glad we were able to correct it quickly.
On the other hand, I saw with my own eyes the viral video of a White cop in South Carolina not only shooting a Black man in the back, but then planting evidence next to that dying man to cover up his egregious misconduct.
A grand jury indicted former North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer Michael Slager on a murder charge in connection to the April shooting death.
Scott was shot by Slager in the back as he was running away. His death was recorded by a bystander, and the graphic footage sparked outrage and reignited a national conversation around race and policing.
(CNN, June 8, 2015)
Unfortunately, the fallout from this epidemic of violent confrontations is a spike in all manner of crimes, in predominantly Black cities, across the country. It’s called the Ferguson effect.
Now we’re being treated to this chicken-or-the-egg spectacle: Black activists saying White cops are deliberately boycotting Black neighborhoods; and White cops saying they’ve had it with Black activists accusing them of racism and police brutality for trying to police Black neighborhoods. Whatever the case, I cannot overstate the fact that Black people compose over ninety percent of those being affected by this untenable state of affairs.
Meanwhile, the legacy of racism in America is such that confrontations between Black kids and White Cops are never black and white. What is so, however, is that these confrontations would not be epidemic if disregarding police commands and resisting arrest had not somehow become normalized among so many Black kids.
Ever since this latest epidemic – of America’s original sin coming home to roost – began last summer, I’ve been pleading with Black kids to follow the few simple rules I delineated in “Killing of Michael Brown: as much about Resisting Arrest as Police Brutality,” August 12, 2014.
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You’d be hard-pressed to cite a case that resulted in fatality, where the victim followed the few general rules we should all follow when dealing with the police. Those rules, which form the acronym “Dodge” (as in bullets), are:
- Do not run.
- Obey commands. (Wait for the police to explain why you’re being stopped before politely posing any objections, concerns, or questions you may have.)
- Do not resist being frisked or handcuffed.
- Get the encounter on video. (Wait for the police to approach and make clear that you’d like to reach for your phone; i.e., avoid any sudden move that might make some trigger-happy cop’s day.)
- End the encounter civilly. (Not only might this spare another black man a racial-profiling stop (e.g., for DWB), it might make that cop less trigger happy during his next encounter with the next black man.)
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I’ve also been like John the Baptist, preaching the only unassailable, even if politically incorrect, message Black kids need to hear:
It cannot be overstated that, instead of doublespeak that would make him a saint, those eulogizing Michael would honor his death far more by admonishing young Black men against the deadly hazards of resisting arrest and defying authority as a misguided badge of honor or rite of passage.
(“Why Chastise the ‘Times’ for Describing Michael Brown as ‘No Angel?!” The iPINIONS Journal, August 26, 2014)
Alas, I suspect it will take a Black savior like President Obama to deliver this message effectively. I urge him to do so – before more Black kids end up like Michael Brown.
If there were ever a time to deploy My Brother’s Keeper, his highly touted initiative to help minority kids stay on track, it’s now! Because the way these confrontations are trending does not bode well….
That said, let me hasten to clarify that nothing in this commentary is intended to convey any belief that Black kids are the only ones defying police commands and resisting arrest these days. After all, not only are White kids provoking similar confrontations (as their mindless rioting following last year’s NCAA hockey championship in Dinkytown, Minnesota, attests), but White cops are shooting many more of them to boot.
We rarely read or hear about these incidents because the media determined long ago that they do not provide the same kind of boon for ratings that stoking racial tensions between Black kids and White cops does.
Which, incidentally, is why there has been so much coverage of the all too familiar violence that erupted among concertgoers even before a hip-hop and R&B concert got underway in New Jersey on Sunday. True to form, White cops became the racist villains for using universally accepted methods to maintain/restore order, after many concertgoers became unruly.
State police said crowds of people tried to ‘illegally’ force their way into the sold-out concert Sunday night, climbing over fences and pushing their way through stadium security personnel and cops clad in riot gear. The gates to the stadium were shut and troopers were called in to help maintain order; they had trash and bottles thrown at them, and 10 troopers suffered minor injuries, authorities said.
(NBC News, June 8, 2015)
I wonder how the hip-hop artists – who make a living vilifying cops – will feel when fans stop attending their concerts. After all, it would be reasonable for fans to fear getting caught up in such wanton violence, especially knowing that cops might be reluctant to intervene … out of reasonable fear of being accused of racism and police brutality….
All the same, let me also hasten to clarify that increasing incidents of deadly confrontations between White kids and White cops do not mean that issues of race are not involved in increasing incidents of deadly confrontations between Black kids and White cops. Like I said, it’s complicated.
Related commentaries:
Killing of Michael Brown…
Why chastise the Times…