There is one criminal justice system for citizens – especially black and brown ones – and another for police in the United State.  As a former cop, when I watch the video of Eric Garner being choked out, of him having his face smashed into the concrete as he told the officers that were on top of him he couldn’t breathe, there is no mistaking the truth: the only person whose life was at risk during that encounter was Eric Garner’s.  I’ve been shot at while enforcing the law in my state, and I have friends that remain with the department I worked for that have risked their lives as well; we all have tremendous respect for the job. But we all know – either from personal experience or the experience of someone close to us – that there are officers that will violate citizens’ human rights and civil liberties with impunity and who are comfortable in the knowledge that the system will protect and cover for their actions. And while the race of the officer abusing his or her authority may vary, the race of those whose rights and bodies are abused almost never does.  These inequities have led, inexorably, to the current national crisis in police-community relations – and the best way forward is to make sure we severely punish officers that violate the rights of the citizens they serve. They must be held accountable for their actions.  Challenging police wrongdoing is hard for some: many officers cover themselves in a narrative of heroism, sacrifice and risk whenever their actions are questioned. But, just because a person signed on to do a dangerous job does not give him or her the right to maliciously injure or recklessly take the lives of the people that police officers are sworn to serve and protect. And when an officer stops serving and protecting, he or she should be severely punished both for the violation of that person’s rights and the violation of the public’s trust.  In the longer term, the way to build relationships between police officers and black and brown communities is for both sides to come to the table ready to fully acknowledge what they themselves have contributed to the breakdown in the relationship. I’ve seen exactly that willingness in black communities, like here in St Louis, where community members take responsibility for addressing violence in black communities. Many of these efforts have been led by people I know personally.  But I have never seen or heard of a law enforcement agency anywhere making a genuine effort to first acknowledge the pattern of abuse that exists across the country – unless they are forced to under federal investigation – nor take any substantive action to address that problem. Training for officers can help, but officers have had plenty of training. Policy can be useful, but if it isn’t followed and there’s no consequences for failing to do so, it won’t help. Holding police officers and police departments accountable for their actions is the only solution. Insisting on accountability does not make you anti-law enforcement or pro criminal: it means demanding responsible law enforcement that is serving, not defending against, the community.  Our criminal justice system has been perverted (if not simply defined) by the institutional racism that supports it and is supported by it – and it will take time to change that. But it’s not up for legitimate debate that inequities produced both by the writing and enforcement of our criminal laws are clearly established, or that those inequities have injured black people and black communities.  Describing the racism that undergirds our criminal justice system should not be taken as an indictment of every white person in the United States: the racism that is under attack now pre-existed you, certainly, but it did not end before you and you are likely benefiting from it. Your (and our) responsibility now is to fully acknowledge the truth of continuing, systemic racial inequities and then do the work we need to do to build a society where we are all equally valued.  When prominent people like Rudy Giuliano and New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch go on cable news and on the radio to berate others who openly acknowledged black and brown people’s lived experiences with police abuse, they are being either wilfully ignorant or deliberately uncaring – and neither is worthy of the platform they are repeatedly given.  They are more interested in scoring political points than saving lives or fixing a broken system. But for the rest of us, there’s work to be done. It’s time to stop making excuses for those who won’t do it.
Redditt Hudson: I was a cop, and I know that the police are subject to a different quality of justice than they sometimes mete out to black and brown people