Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

o'"I0000rJlWc..?c.::o'""'rJlWf-;ozGH Bonczar alld Beck, "lifetime' Likelihood," 7. A diffe rcnt report orkrs slighrly lower tigu res:"Black non-Hispanics were 5 times more likely than white non-Hispanics, over 2 112 times morelikely than Hispallics and II times more likely than persons of other races to have beell in jail."Allen J. Beck ct aI., "Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2001," l!urMu o/JII.,ti{·e Stali.-lics Bullctill(U.S. Department of Justice: April 2002), 9.('9 Michael Stephen Hindus, Prison and Plantation: Crime, Justice, and Authority in MflHflChusl'ttslind SOllt!> (.arolilltl, 1768- 1878 (Chapel Hill: University ,,( North Carolina Press, I'JHO)' 24H.70 Parenti, Lockdown AmcriCtl, 124-125.71 Quoted in Parenti, Lockdown America, 124.72 Parenti (19')9) 12,); and Pt'lt'l B. Kraska and Victor E. Kappeler, "J\1ilitarizing American Policc':The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units," in Police Perspectives: An Anthology, ed. LarryK. Caines and Cary W. Cordner (Los Angeles: Roxhury Puhlishing, 1999), 44(J.75 Randall C. Sheldon "t aI., }JlIlh Ga1lgs ill Amaic,m SociCl), (Belmont, CA: \X/adsworrh, 20(1).24,). At the same time, on the other side of the contineI1l, the Boston Police Department W:1Sconducting its "search on sight" campaign against suspected drug dealers, especially young BlackIllen . [':ut of the effort included taking RIack youths off of' public huses and r'Jl, ing their pantsdown in public view. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. et aI., Beyond the RodlllJ King Story: All hil'i'Sligtltioli 0./Police Misconduct in Minority Co mmunities (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1 ')95), 137.74 Sheldon ct aI., }IJUth Gangs, 244 . Parentheses in original.7') Mike Davis, City iif'QU(lrtz: Fvcr1lJatilig the Futllre ill Los !lngI'll'S (London: Ve rso, 1991) '277-27H.76 Both quoted in Davis, City o/ Quartz, 278.77 Christopher Commission, Report, 59.7H Christopher COlllmi;sion, He!,ort, 74. Notably. the Christopher Commission hoth denouncedand perpetuated the stereotype of Illack criminality. While it disapproved of tlw style of policingin minoriLY co m nlllitics. it also cited the "concentration and visihility of gangs and streetcrilnc" as dl'scrving a larger share of police attention. Tn other words, it takes it fo r granted thatminority neighhorhoods need higher levels of police arremion, jmt a diFfe rent kind of attention.79 Tim Wise, "Racial Profiling and Its Apologists," )'; Jvf(lgazine, March 2002, 44. William Chamblissargues that it is always easier fo r the police to frofites ill Injustice, 106. Parentheses in original.81 Most famously, police hase this perception of deviance on race, but they also use age, economicstatus, and national origin.82 David H. Bayley and Harold Mendelsohn, Minorities and the Police.' Confrollt,1tion in America(New Yo rk: The Free Press, 1 %9), 9.3.83 A story from my own experience: I was driving across New Mexico with Fo ur friends when weencountered a Border Patrol checkpoint. I produced my license, as requested, and when asked,explained that one of my companions was visiting from England, The border guard-a Latino-askedmy English friend if she had her papers, She said she did, hut they were in the trunk.Wo uld he like her to get them? "Nah," he said, "we don't mess with people from England."Here's another: I was traveling through Idaho, this time on a Greyhound bus. The busmade a regular stop on its route and was boarded by two Border Patrol agents. They said thatthey would only keep us a minute, and if everyone would get out their JD it would save a lot oftime. They then moved throllgh the bus, Front to rear, examining ",'eryone's identification andasking a few people questions ahout it. When they reached my seat, I did not have out my 10.They asked lO see it. I replied with a flat, "No," and they moved on to the next person, just likethat. But when they reached the back of the bus, a young Latino man did not respond to theirquestioning. He was escorted off the bus and placed in a van. I don't know what happened tohim, My fellow passengers were, to their credit, quite angry. But it's hard to say whether theywere outraged by the obviously racist natute of the arrest, or by the fact that the authoritieshad stopped them on their travels and-like the secret police in some old movie-demanded"papers, please."258