Essentially, the fragile social order in Ferguson County, Missouri, has collapsed. The police in our democratic society has the power to use legitimate force but when that force is used illegitimately as in the case of the murder of Michael Brown, the social contract between the state and the community is temporarily shattered.
The people of Ferguson County have no faith in Chief Thomas Jackson’s fifty-three man force. Jackson personifies the inastute leadership that is plaguing police departments throughout the United States. From the death of Michael Brown that Saturday afternoon, August 9, 2014, Chief Jackson has presumed that his task is to find measures to justify the actions of Officer Wilson.
The release of the tape that revealed that Michael Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, had strong-armed a storeowner and taken cigarillos was a vain attempt to convey the stereotype that all black males are thugs and their humanity is non-existent.
Initially, the Police Chief of Ferguson County tried to make the case that there was some connection linking the robbery to the shooting. But there was no connection. And nothing can justify the shooting of an unarmed teenager six times. It appears that the first shot was fired from the car and shots were fired as Brown fled in his flip-flops for his life. And when he turned around with his hands in the air, he was shot twice in the head and two other shots penetrated his body.
Any professional law enforcement officer would have been aware that in a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, Tennessee vs Garner in 1985, a police officer cannot use deadly force at a fleeing suspect unless he represents imminent danger to others. What the Supreme Court stated clearly is that the life of the individual was more critical than the apprehension of the fleeing suspect.
The Michael Brown “lynching”, the Eric Garner’s choke-hold that caused his death and other incidents around the country vividly reveal that there is a crisis in the world of law enforcement vis-à-vis the policing of the African American community.
It appears that democratic precepts are adhered in the policing of white communities but totalitarian forms of policing prevail in the black community. Even in a liberal city like New York, the presumption is that a black citizen cannot query or make comments to a police officer. Such an interaction leads to an immediate escalation of the encounter. The black community resident is perceived as powerless and must not speak back to his all powerful master. Such encounters are the norm and they represent the anti-thesis of democratic policing.
The urban riots of the 1960s prompted President Lyndon Johnson to appoint the Kerner Commission and their task was to examine the causes of the urban riots and to make recommendations for improved socio-economic conditions in urban America. One of the recommendations of the Kerner Commission was the professionalization of the police. In New York City, it led to the establishment of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Criminal Justice/Criminology emerged as a discipline, separate and apart from the other social sciences. Out of that intellectual ferment came organizations like Police Executive Research Foundation (PERF). Scholars like James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in a seminal article published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1982 made the case for a new kind of policing that became known as “broken windows”. In 2014, the country is at a juncture where not just the windows are broken but the system is broken.
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, there was talk of a post-racial America. But the country is far from post-racial policing and the stereotyping of young black males is as institutionalized as it has even been. This is an interesting paradox as beginning in the 1990s, violent crime in America began trending down even in a state where gun laws are “lax”, violent crime in Missouri has been trending down although in the mid-west state trending numbers are not as impressive as New York City. In Missouri in 1990, there were 11,783 robberies and 449 murders. In 2012, there were 5,282 robberies and 389 murders.
There are two critical factors in which more research will be needed to further understand this deterioration in African American police/community relations. To what extent is the political polarization impacting on police behavior vis-a-vis the black community? To what extent is the changing demographics of America affecting the behavior of white police officers?
The other critical factor is the pre-occupation with “broken windows” theory or zero tolerance policing exacerbating these delicate community relations? Is zero tolerance clearly defined and to what extent does it make the police officer the unquestioned lord and the citizen the obeisant serf?
President Obama should establish a Kerner-like commission to further advance the professionalization of law enforcement. Law enforcement from police officers, to court officers to correction officers should be professionalized and higher educational standards phased in over a five-year period. The uneducated mind should not be given the right over life and death. Training without education is like throwing water on the backs of a duck. An educated law enforcement force will be able to act less irrationally than the police of Ferguson County.
The investigation into Michael Brown’s death has been too undetermined. The eyewitness reports indicate quite clearly what was seen, and the autopsy provides further evidence that the unarmed Michael Brown was murdered in broad daylight. The police officer should be indicted and awaits his day in court. Then the state apparatus in Ferguson County can begin repairing the social contract.
