Roughly an hour or so after the news broke that charges were dropped against the remaining Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of the late Mr. Freddie Gray, who last April died from injuries sustained while in police custody, an impressive panel of national black thought-leaders – who had been organized during the Democratic National Convention at a chic restaurant in North Philadelphia by The Root, the premier national news, opinion and culture website for African-American influencers, and 900am-WURD, Pennsylvania’s only black talk radio station, to shape a black policy agenda for the Post-Obama era – had begun weighing in on the story, focusing their cognitive surplus on, instead of sulking and lamenting the current event, searching for a leverage of sorts to alter this repetitive reality wherein a black body is disregarded and discarded by law enforcement with no justice to be had for the victim or their family.
“We continue to show up in these moments and demand justice,” said Mr. Rashad Robinson, who offered a number of recommendations to change the outcomes of cases involving police officers accused of misconduct.
The Executive Director of ColorofChange.org, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, Mr. Robinson this morning spoke of an emerging and promising venture: the Prosecutors Accountability Project, which, in essence, is a Super PAC to support candidates who aim to unseat unproductive District/State Attorneys.
“70 percent of DAs run unopposed… and 90 percent of them are white,” said Mr. Robinson, who, while on stage at the private event, repeatedly stressed the importance of African-Americans contending in this space.
But even with more Black DAs, Mr. Robinson, who appears monthly on 900am-WURD, knows that only but so much progress will be made, as in this country exist a “shadow justice system for cops” that rarely requires accountability or seeks punishment for their malfeasance.
Mr. Benjamin Crump, the attorney who represented the families of Mr. Trayvon Martin and Mr. Michael Brown, Jr., said the only case in modern history he remembers, wherein an officer was sentenced to jail for his dastardly handling of a black body, is that of Mr. Daniel Holtzclaw of Oklahoma, who was convicted of multiple counts of rape, sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy, et al.
And even with the overwhelming evidence presented at his trial, Mr. Crump said it took an all-white jury four days to convict Mr. Holtzclaw, age 29, guilty.
Mr. Holtzclaw’s case aside, police officers rarely go to jail because of, according to Mr. Crump, their “symbiotic relationship” with prosecutors, who need their testimonies to garner convictions, or, at the very least, reduce case loads via plea bargains.
“The pattern is, no matter what, police don’t go to jail for acts of brutality against people of color,” said Mr. Crump, who emphasized the fact that only elected prosecutors, not private sector attorneys like him, have the power to jail a law enforcement officer.
The pattern, said Mr. Crump, will continue for “as long as community members allow it to happen.”
To disrupt said pattern, Dr. Jason Johnson, Politics Editor for The Root, said activists can make the argument to the business community, who’s often indifferent on this subject, that bad officers are an unnecessary expense paid out by cities every year in the form of settlements.
Mr. Robinson – who last week was in Cleveland for the RNC and claims that the police department there, which is under a consent decree with the Department of Justice, was awarded $50 million to police the convention and spent $20 million on high-grade military equipment – suggested that communities aim, through the use of their political capital, to link law enforcement’s federal funding to performance outcomes. The fact that low performing schools lose federal funding but not reckless police departments is proof that, according to Mr. Robinson, our political power as African-Americans is being spent the wrong way.
The only way that sort of disinvestment could be made possible is through a legislative action, which requires elected officials to be bold and uncompromising in the face of guaranteed opposition from police unions, who, according to Mr. Crump, care nothing about the lives of African-Americans.
An easy answer is to mobilize and vote, which is what Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell of Alabama suggested: “The only way to get actionable items on the floor is to vote for people who have our best interest at heart.”
But voting, unfortunately, isn’t enough, said Mrs. Danielle Moodie-Mills, the CEO of Politini Media who’s regularly published by The Atlantic and The Huffington Post.
Mrs. Moodie-Mills – who when discussing what happened today in Baltimore said “Freddie Gray must’ve accidently bumped his head” since no one is being held accountable – believes voting without civic education is counter-intuitive. Said another way: what good is it for people to vote if they don’t know who they’re voting for or the functions of the office that candidates are seeking?
Though the conversation did briefly drift into education and healthcare, the reoccurring theme was, as a result of the social unrest around the country and today’s breaking news, policing, police reform, accountability and systems. And a black policy agenda was loosely formed, with integration of civic education into K-12 curriculum and police funding tied to performance outcomes resting at the top.
The growing agenda will, I assume, move forward regardless of the candidate elected President in November, though Dr. Johnson – who when talking about the Freddie Gray case today questioned why the system doesn’t treat cops like other government employees: for example, if a troubled student died while being transported by his/her teacher from the classroom to the principal’s office, the instructor would surely be held accountable – said the black agenda under Mr. Donald Trump would simply be “survival.”
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™