FAMU law dean explains roots of tension between police and black communities

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LeRoy Pernell, dean of the FAMU College of Law, recently discussed the roots of the tension between local law enforcement agencies and African American communities in a Q&A with the Orlando Sentinel.

Q: What accounts for the strained relations between police and the black community?

A: The tension between police and African-American communities has deep roots. Although dismissed by some as being a "semi-socialist," Frantz Fanon's works on neo-colonialism makes a strong case for the perception by communities of color that police serve more as an occupying army than a community-based source of protection. That perception is exacerbated when considering that early police forces in America often had as a specific role the control and capture of slaves escaping or rebelling. Violence, summary punishment, and death were often administered as object lessons for community control.

Q: How have relations changed in recent years?

A: The tension has in many instances gotten worse. That deterioration has largely resulted from two failures.

First, the elimination of the more obvious trappings of invidious discrimination, thought to be remedied by socially and politically responsible legal abolishment of de jure racism/segregation, has not resulted in a legal system that is perceived as fair and protective of individual dignity in the face of race. Rather than being a continuing source of positive social and political change the legal system has become the enemy in which the basic tenets of due process — "fair notice, the right to be heard and the right to be heard before a neutral and detached tribunal" — are believed, based on known experience, to not exist in the black community.

Second, the acceptance of racial profiling — a concept that grows out of poor social science — is a pestilence of oppression of everyday life. Driving (walking, and apparently selling loose cigarettes) while black is a harsh reality that impacts all levels of the African-American community — regardless of economic status.

Q: Are there any statistics that indicate police should be wary of the black community?

A: Interestingly, there are little data to support the notion that the personal safety of police is at a higher risk because police are in a black community. While there may be some support for police safety risk increasing the higher the crime rate for some offenses, the risk defies racial identification. It is commonly believed that police encounters in response to domestic disturbances pose one of the highest if not the highest risk to officer safety. Given the Department of Justice statistics that 69 percent of all crimes are committed by whites, the racial fear for police safety may be unfounded.

Q: How about statistics that indicate the black community should be wary of the police?

A: Documentation of racial profiling, including litigation and congressional investigation, has compiled a grim portfolio of that risk for the black community. Unfortunately, only now are we nationally compiling data on the relative use of force, including deadly force controlled for race. Some states, such as New York, have begun to look at this question and the data so far suggest that harm from encounters with the police is significantly more likely if you are black or brown.

Read the full article here.

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