Peace, officers. Photo: Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds while the handcuffed black man begged the police officer to let him breathe. In response, tens of thousands of Americans took the streets in protest. The fundamental premise of these demonstrations was that George Floyd’s killing wasn’t an aberration — but officer Derek Chauvin’s indictment for that killing was.
But all of these barriers between criminal cops and justice rest on the same foundation: The immense political power of police officers in the United States. 1) The police are one of the only popular, widely trusted institutions in the United States. There are only three institutions that perennially command a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence from Americans in Gallup’s polling: The military, small business, and the police. Cops command more than twice as much trust in these surveys as newspapers do and about five times more than Congress.
2) Police boast a monopoly on a form of labor that municipalities are profoundly reliant on. To cow elected officials, cops need not rely solely on their claim to the public’s esteem. Although police do not have the legal right to strike, in practice, they have the power to execute work slowdowns that undermine public safety — and thus the standing of democratically accountable politicians. It is true that these quasi–work stoppages don’t always work.
Thus, exploiting the ubiquity of cellphone cameras and the reach of social media to raise awareness of police misconduct is a vital endeavor. Political-science research indicates that few things did more to rally the public behind the Civil Rights Act than witnessing the brutalization of nonviolent protesters by southern law enforcement.
“Qualified immunity” deserves unqualified opposition. In 1871, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act that empowered Americans to file civil lawsuits against any state official who caused a “deprivation of any rights” guaranteed by the Constitution.
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EricLevitz Police departments CAN NEVER BE 'reformed' or 'fixed' as long as society refuses to acknowledge what the greatest cause of current-day racism is. When people are taught all the wrong things about our nation's history from childhood, they'll never grasp what needs to be done now.
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