Editor’s Note: David A. Love is a faculty member in journalism and media studies at the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information, and a writer based in Philadelphia. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidALove. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. View more opinion on CNN.
The need for police reform in the US is as great as ever, but the country lacks the political resolve to get things done – at least on the federal level.
More than a year after the murder of George Floyd, negotiations over police reform legislation have broken down in Congress and talks between Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Democratic Rep. Karen Bass of California and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina have stalled. President Joe Biden was uncharacteristically blunt when he blamed Senate Republicans for rejecting even modest reforms and refusing to move on measures that law enforcement were willing to address.
Recalcitrant lawmakers should look at the case of Rickia Young, a 29-year-old Black woman who recently received a $2 million settlement from the city of Philadelphia. Young was heading home in her car last October when she unknowingly came upon a protest over the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer last October, an attorney for Young said that Young was trying to make a three-point turn to leave the scene when the incident occurred. Police smashed her windows, dragged her and her 16-year-old nephew from her SUV, beat her in front of her 2-year-old son even after she complied, grabbed her toddler and carried him away. And police handcuffed Young at the hospital. The incident was captured on video and shared on social media.
According to local reports, someone posted a photo to the Facebook page of the National Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the country, showing a female officer holding Young’s toddler on the organization’s Facebook page. The FOP also claimed the child was “lost” and “wandering around barefoot” and declared the police are “the only thing standing between order and anarchy. The FOP later deleted the post and said in a statement that there were “conflicting accounts of the circumstances under which the child came to be assisted by officers.”
The city of Philadelphia’s settlement with Young is not enough. Nor is the fact that a couple of the officers were fired. Young – who wants the more than dozen officers involved fired and prosecuted – is suing the police union, as she should.
Her experience is important because it demonstrates what so many in Black communities have said for years: the police have too much power to operate as an occupying force and treat Black people as enemy combatants in their own neighborhoods.
The Philadelphia police commissioner said that what happened to Young “violated the mission of the Philadelphia Police Department.”
That’s true, and the city has taken steps to be accountable. But as so many tragic examples have shown, there is an urgent need for the kind of systemic reform Congress has failed to pass. Young’s experience isn’t a one-off occurrence. Far too often, unlike in predominantly White neighborhoods, officers do not “protect and serve” communities of color, but rather suppress and contain them. And when officers brutally assault or kill innocent, unarmed, defenseless Black victims, more often than not the police face little-to-no accountability. This past February, United Nations human rights experts cited Philadelphia specifically when they urged the US to address its problems with policing and racism.
While police reform legislation died in the halls of Congress, states and localities are trying to step up by implementing their own reforms.
For example, in March, New York City eliminated qualified immunity for police officers, which has shielded officers from lawsuits accusing them of misconduct. In response, the Police Benevolent Association shared a letter offering legal guidance from attorneys who represent officers in civil suits. “(T)he unavailability of the defense of qualified immunity under its provisions, we advise that you proceed with caution when taking any police action … you are strongly cautioned against engaging in any stop & frisk (unless doing so for your own or others’ safety), search of a car, residence, or person unless you are certain that you are clearly and unequivocally within the bounds of the law, notwithstanding that your actions may be taken in good faith,” the letter said.
In other words, since you are no longer protected under qualified immunity, please don’t behave recklessly. But here’s the obvious question: Why wouldn’t these steps already be required of officers?
In Colorado, the ban on qualified immunity went into effect a year ago. Local law enforcement leaders there claim the new measure has caused Colorado officers to quit, but in June, the state legislature expanded the ban on qualified immunity to include Highway Patrol troopers and Colorado Bureau of Investigation officers.
After George Floyd’s murder, New Jersey banned police use of force against civilians except as a last resort and allows the online public viewing of all incidents where force is used. A similar Connecticut law also limits qualified immunity and the withholding of police disciplinary records, creates a statewide police misconduct watchdog and requires police body and dashboard cams.
Earlier this year, Maryland passed a sweeping police reform bill providing for up to 10 years in prison for police use of excessive force, immediate termination and law enforcement decertification for certain crimes, new standards on the use of force and a higher bar for no-knock search warrants.
This November, voters in Minneapolis will decide whether to replace their police department with a new public safety agency that employs specialists who would, for example, be used to address situations concerning mental health.
These state and local measures are commendable. But if police reform continues to be a piecemeal approach in the absence of federal action, Black and brown communities around the country are more likely to be disproportionately victimized by unchecked police misconduct.
In Philadelphia and elsewhere, police continue to face little accountability. Even the city’s recent police contract, which included revisions to address and investigate police misconduct and involve civilian oversight, falls short. Despite the failures called out by UN experts and others, the contract included a $133 million spending increase over three years, and raises for the more than 6,000 police officers in the department. Think about what message that sends to the community: bad behavior gets rewarded.
Cities such as Philadelphia must do things like reduce the central role of the police, including eliminating a permanent law enforcement presence in the schools. Past attempts to rebrand police officers in schools as “safety officers” with new uniform were not well received. Critics noted these safety officers were still law enforcement, and do not create an environment that makes students feel like their well-being is important.
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As the need for police reform has seemingly taken a back seat in America’s list of policy priorities, we should remember the fervor and honesty with which Americans began to reckon with racism in this country last year. We can’t afford to let that momentum fade away.
More than 50 years ago, the Kerner Commission report sounded the alarm on institutional racism, police violence and poor news coverage following the 1967 urban rebellions. That report called for reform, concluding that among the Black community, “police have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression.
And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among (Black people) in the existence of police brutality and in a ‘double standard’ of justice and protection – one for (Black people) and one for whites.”
Little has changed, including the need to reform the police.
