By Angela J. Davis (confirmed from author bio at bottom of article)
Mistrust and alienation between black men and the police has become so entrenched that we need radical, sweeping change. The criminal justice experience of Black men in the criminal justice system is growing. African Americans are more likely to be arrested than whites, and [UNCLEAR] receives harsher sentences than similarly situated white men, and are more likely to be killed during police encounters than white men — at three times the rate.
As a criminal defense [UNCLEAR], we can attest to the fact that as harshly and as unfairly as black men have been treated in the criminal justice system, the fate of Black boys has been worse.
On both sides of laws, being in the street is not very helpful, but the issues with race are large. Black boys are policed like no other demographic. They are policed on the street, in the mall, in school, in their homes, and on social media. Police stop and target on the regular. Young Black males are involved in a very significant percent in group activities and group [UNCLEAR]. [UNCLEAR] in male in ethnic gear. Young black males are treated as if they are “out of place” not only when they are in ethnic middle class neighborhoods, but also when walking into a public space, or sitting on their own front porches.
Adolescence is a critical time during which young people come to understand and respect or resent the law and legal institutions. Negative attitudes formed during adolescence about the criminal justice system may exacerbate criminal and youth transition to adulthood. The long history of aggression and biased interactions with the police — demonized in real — has established a generational attitude of fear and contempt with the police within Black communities that is, in many cases, sometimes outright confrontational — with police.
Black boys who are stopped for an age or color in relation of the police day or night, from when they “dress nicely” or “drive nice cars,” young black males cannot avoid police surveillance since such signs of wealth among black youth are construed as evidence of something illicit. Black boys describe their neighborhood police officers the way in which officers stay [UNCLEAR] multiple times a day to pat them down and ask questions like “Where are you coming from?” and “Where are you going?”
These stories are significant not only for the debilitating and conditioning impact they have on these youth, but also for the message they send to Black boys.
Stereotyping, cursing, ignoring an officer’s orders and running away provoked even greater hostility, disrespect and often physical force from the police. Not surprisingly, [UNCLEAR] have [UNCLEAR] as a result to experience a use of force from white youth.
Black boys are also most likely to be the victims of crimes when they are stopped, but they also frequently experience it during those stops. They are [UNCLEAR] as belligerent and antagonistic and are especially outraged by the different use of force with their White peers in these stops. Their complaints are often initiated by physical contact such as grabbing, pushing, shoving, pulling or tackling the youth to the ground.
Since the grounds, Black boys are sometimes [UNCLEAR]. Months of police violence include Black boys like Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, and most recently Jordan Edwards. Fear of violence by police on black boys is a two-way feeling.
In a recent study of police perceptions of childhood innocence, [UNCLEAR] police officers a series of photographs of young white, black and Latino children engaged in some purported criminal activity, and were asked to assess the guilt of each child. While the officers overestimated the age of adolescent black felony suspects by 4.54 years, they underestimated the age of adolescent white felony suspects by one year. Because of these disparate police perceptions, Black boys are much more likely to be treated as adults much earlier than other youth, more likely to be arrested, harassed and assaulted for mere recreational behaviors and more likely to be perceived as culpable and deserving of punishment when harmed.
Consider the police encounter with Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Cleveland boy who was killed by police on November 22, 2014, after a witness called 911 reporting “a guy with a pistol” that was “probably fake.” When police officers arrived, they did not first evaluate the situation by engaging in the practice of deescalation — in fact, they gunned him down. Yet the man’s error gains police. The officers were doing what empirical research on implicit racial bias suggests that police do: routinely overestimate the age and the perceived threat of young black boys.
If we expect any meaningful change in the relationship between black men and the police, we have to start early. We have to help police recalibrate their perceptions of Black youth as violent and aggressive and work to develop Black boys’ faith in law enforcement. To aid this reform, we should revise our extensive reliance on police in schools, mandate officer training in adequate deescalation and implicit bias, and require these skills to be assessed periodically. We must open new opportunities for genuine, positive interactions between black youth and the police. Without these reforms, the further policing and terrorizing of Black boys will continue.
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AUTHOR BIO (as it appears in article): Angela J. Davis is a Professor of Law at American University and the Editor of Policing the Black Man: Prosecution and Punishment. [UNCLEAR — additional bio text]. Follow her [UNCLEAR].
Original article published May 23, 2017 [UNCLEAR]
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