America's Reckoning with Police Violence
Demonstrators outside of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. protesting against police violence and systemic racism in America. The nation’s capitol has witnessed some of the most intense protests among the dozens of cities where citizens have taken to the streets every night since late May. Image: USA Today
The United States of America has been ablaze over the past two and a half weeks with scenes of citizens reasserting their sovereignty. From New York City to Los Angeles, from Minneapolis to Raleigh, there is a very simple truth fuelling widespread and diverse civil unrest: police brutality and white nationalist violence is killing Black Americans, and the powerful will not take action to stop it so the people are taking it upon themselves.
Black Americans have known and experienced the reality of wanton police violence for centuries. But our moment in time has added a new element to the story: irrefutable, grotesque, and ample video evidence. In late May, millions of people around the world watched a white Minneapolis police officer snuff the life out of a Black man named George Floyd by kneeling on his neck as he laid on the pavement. This came to us within days of two other stories: the murder Breonna Taylor, a Black EMT in Louisville, KY when police raided her home in the middle of the night without a warrant, and the murder of Ahmaud Arbery by white vigilantes with connection to law enforcement, which was also caught on camera.
These videos and stories, and perhaps as well the permanent nervousness throughout the nation amid the COVID-19 lockdown, have led thousands of Americans in every single state onto the streets in shared anger and solidarity with the first protests which erupted in Minneapolis on May 25th, the day Mr. Floyd was killed. Similar to many instances of public action throughout American history, law enforcement around the nation have responded to protests, peaceful and disruptive alike, with extreme violence which has been caught on video for the world to see. The international community has taken notice of these demonstrations, especially in Europe, which has witnessed several marches in solidarity with American protestors, as well as several human rights groups calling on the United Nations to investigate police violence against Black Americans and protestors.
Activists and organizers have been sounding the alarm about state-sanctioned white violence for decades. There have been large demonstrations in the past, such as those which originated in Ferguson, MO in 2014 following the murder of Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson Police. But the continuing onslaught of stories, videos, and acquittals of violent police since 2014 has left many pessimistic about the vitality of citizen's causes and modern Black liberation movements in the United States.
The last three years of the American experiment have taught us, among other things, that change is fickle. We have lived through a once-in-a-lifetime viral pandemic, a historic resurgence of right wing extremism, and the third ever impeachment of a sitting United States President. At the same time, those tuned into the evening news or social media platforms have witnessed countless images and videos of Black Americans being mutilated and murdered at the hands of white Americans and law enforcement. Yet most, I believe as well, would concede that despite the preceding sentences there does not seem to be much changing around us.
If you are attuned to these events, you have probably also noticed that the current moment seems different. There is a reason for this: the demonstrations are gaining results. Public opinion about police brutality is shifting in favour of the protestors grievances. Sixteen major cities across the country have proposed or pledged to reduce police resources. But the protests are not slowing. Today, thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets to demand justice for the countless Black trans Americans brutalized by the police and the prison system. Downtown Seattle is quite literally occupied by hundreds of Americans in a self-declared ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.’ Atlantans shut down local highways over the weekend in protest of a police murder which occured last Friday. Although media coverage has waned, the resolution and solidarity of demonstrators has not. Twenty-one days after the murder of Mr. Floyd, these are the signs of a movement which is here to stay.
Many protests have been peaceful, and some have resulted in property damage. It is, however, no place for the Carolina Political Review to pass judgement on the means by which Black Americans express grievance or how citizens call for change in the face of wholly unresponsive governments.
Rare for such a spontaneous burst of action, there is also an abundantly clear demand from organizers. Municipalities are being called upon to significantly defund or abolish their police departments. Citizens are no longer petitioning to their elected representatives, but rather telling them, and threatening them with electoral defeat if they do not cooperate. Excuses are quickly running out for legislators who once hid behind “unclear demands” from the public or “political feasibility” of change. There are several options for police reform and abolition on the table which enjoy varying support among the American public. The one thing which now appears completely unacceptable is inaction.
Perhaps these demonstrations are heightened by a sense of urgency for this year’s Presidential election. The flames have likely been fanned by the fact that the state has done little to alleviate citizen’s hardship during the pandemic but provide a one-time $1200 check. Americans of many races are, evidently, tired of the militarized police who occupy their streets while other public service budgets are slashed year after year. Millennials and Generation Z have long been denigrated as cowardly and entitled by older Americans. Black Americans have been stereotyped for centuries as lazy and uncaring for their own communities. This summer seems a grand refutation to both these tropes and the American state of affairs. One thing is clear: there is a new political agenda emanating from the streets and boroughs of America, defined by the pain and hope of Black Americans, which refuses to be silenced. As the nation comes to a boil, no less in the heat of the summer, thousands have resolved not to ask for change, but to make the change.