Hysteria over Ferguson Grand Jury an Indictment of America
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Until the nation frets more about actual police killings than it does speculating on potential black violence, questions like Mallory’s will continue to be asked. In 1968, the literary critic Hoyt Fuller wrote, “Black people are being called ‘violent’ these days, as if violence is a new invention out of the ghetto. But violence against the black minority is in-built in the established American society.”
As if to prove that Fuller continues to be right, USA Today two weeks ago reported that the number of fatal police shootings around the country last year was nearly nine a week, the highest in two decades. Earlier this year, the newspaper reported that nearly two black people a week were killed by police in a seven-year span ending in 2012. While one in five black people killed by police are under 21, only one in 11 white people killed by police are so young.
And many criminologists say we hardly know the full truth as USA Today found that only 750 of 17,000 police departments around the nation file killings by police with the FBI. The Obama administration, led by Holder, has demonstrated a vigilance not seen in many years, issuing findings of patterns of unconstitutional police misconduct, racially discriminatory enforcement or excessive force in several police departments, including those in Albuquerque, Miami, and New Orleans.
But there are obviously thousands more departments to be examined. Psychologists have proven that black people are perceived as more dangerous, yet relatively few police departments are known to train officers against such stereotypes. “We would find out which departments are the worst, which ones do better than others and begin to have an idea of what departments need in training, policy and supervision,” Samuel Walker, professor emeritus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, told me in an interview. “Information empowers the public and public officials to say, ‘Let’s figure out what to do.’ ”
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http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/11/25/hysteria-over-ferguson-grand-jury-indictment-america
