Rodney King Redux?
Once again we have a familiar scene: black man getting a police beating. Once again, the image was captured on tape so the world could see. The incident that took place recently in New Orleans evokes the Rodney King episode of many years ago. While details are still unfolding, I want to begin a conversation about some of the possible similarities and differences in the two situations. Perhaps some Americans consoled themselves back then in the early 90s that such incidents were aberrations. Perhaps even some black people thought that such things would only happen to young criminal types, not law abiding respectable people like themselves. After all, Rodney King was a relatively young black man with a checkered past who allegedly led the police on a high speed car chase. Well, Robert Davis was a 64 year old retired school teacher who had just eaten dinner at his hotel. He owned two properties in New Orleans, and had just politely questioned officers in the French quarter about the curfew. In commenting on the Rodney King incident, I have often pointed out that the police did not ask Rodney King his occupation before attacking him. Nor did they ask Robert Davis. Either man could have been any successful black professional or even Thurgood Marshall himself. The lesson to me has always been that middle or upper class status as a black person does not make you immune from police violence!! Would the police have attacked a similarly situated white 64 year old? Perhaps someone has statistics.
Rodney King was beaten 50 some odd times by a huge group of cops on the side of the road. Robert Davis was beaten to a pulp by three white cops right in the heart of the main tourist district. After a trial court found King’s attackers not guilty, the federal level stepped in to bring civil rights charges. The feds have already announced that they are investigating the New Orleans situation. The acquittal of King’s attackers led to a massive riot in Los Angeles. Would the acquittal of Davis’ attackers result in a riot? Well, most of the black population can not return back to the Big Easy since the housing stock has been ruined, especially in areas where they were concentrated. Is the court system even up and running there? In light of the riots, Rodney King asked can’t we all just get along. Robert Davis has appeared on TV praising the actions of the African American police chief Warren Riley for questioning his officers’ behavior immediately. An interesting twist in New Orleans is that one officer who attacked a white news reporter watching the events unfold said that he had been working for six weeks trying to keep himself alive in the aftermath of Katrina. If hurricane related stress is considered a defense, will more officers get Las Vegas vacations as happened shortly after the hurricane? Will any of the billions go to serious psychological counseling for not only the police, but other residents of the Big Easy?
Meanwhile, is there another city today where black man breathing will result in black man beating? Will the cameras be there!!
Comments
I wasn't suprised at all. Everyone forgets that this is still the country whose Founding Father were a bunch of lying, hypocritical bastards
Posted by: Lamont Debro | October 11, 2005 01:49 PM
I predict that if we were to discover the roles social/moral disincentives and economic disincentives played with respect to the behaviors exhibited by these officers we would find even more similarities than Professor Wing describes. I bet there were few social/moral disincentives for this behavior imposed by the fellow officers with whom the arresting officers worked on a daily basis in both cases. I bet the arresting officers did not fear the economic punishments that would be levied against them if they were caught beating a citizen for no good reason in both cases. I realize I don’t have access to as much evidence as one would like when evaluating these types of events; however, I saw the Davis tape, and I trust my hunches until all the available evidence is put before me. My hunch was right with King.
I think all people, even police officers, could be encouraged to act in ways that our communities think are appropriate if our community taxpayers and the leaders they elect would install systems of rewards and penalties that would give them meaningful incentives or disincentives to consider. I would like our officers to think thoughts like, “I can beat this guy to a pulp for no good reason as if no one were looking, but if I were to get caught, I would be disgraced by my fellow officers, and I would lose my job and my pension.” I don’t think it would be too difficult to install such systems in municipal police departments if our leaders had the courage to fight for them while negotiating and trading favors with political and economic power players. I want my leaders to be inflexible on some things. Standing against the beating of a good citizen for no good reason is certainly one of those things. And, I would like this stand to be more than rhetorical.
The punishments for such behavior should be severe, and they should be handed out without remorse or consideration for the professional record of the officer who used excessive force. As long as officers are not required to seriously calculate the impacts of significant punishments while they deliberate over whether to beat someone for no good reason, we should keep our popcorn ready for the next televised recording of a group of white police officers dishing out an apparently undeserved beating to a black man. Maybe we will get really upset and demand a system of more severe punishments after we will have watched a group of white officers beating up a black woman. Sure it has happened -- we just haven’t caught it on tape and televised one of these beatings nationally yet. Or have we?
Posted by: MAXAMBIT | October 11, 2005 05:08 PM
I predict that if we were to discover the roles social/moral disincentives and economic disincentives played with respect to the behaviors exhibited by these officers we would find even more similarities than Professor Wing describes. I bet there were few social/moral disincentives for this behavior imposed by the fellow officers with whom the arresting officers worked on a daily basis in both cases. I bet the arresting officers did not fear the economic punishments that would be levied against them if they were caught beating a citizen for no good reason in both cases. I realize I don’t have access to as much evidence as one would like when evaluating these types of events; however, I saw the Davis tape, and I trust my hunches until all the available evidence is put before me. My hunch was right with King.
I think all people, even police officers, could be encouraged to act in ways that our communities think are appropriate if our community taxpayers and the leaders they elect would install systems of rewards and penalties that would give them meaningful incentives or disincentives to consider. I would like our officers to think thoughts like, “I can beat this guy to a pulp for no good reason as if no one were looking, but if I were to get caught, I would be disgraced by my fellow officers, and I would lose my job and my pension.” I don’t think it would be too difficult to install such systems in municipal police departments if our leaders had the courage to fight for them while negotiating and trading favors with political and economic power players. I want my leaders to be inflexible on some things. Standing against the beating of a good citizen for no good reason is certainly one of those things. And, I would like this stand to be more than rhetorical.
The punishments for such behavior should be severe, and they should be handed out without remorse or consideration for the professional record of the officer who used excessive force. As long as officers are not required to seriously calculate the impacts of significant punishments while they deliberate over whether to beat someone for no good reason, we should keep our popcorn ready for the next televised recording of a group of white police officers dishing out an apparently undeserved beating to a black man. Maybe we will get really upset and demand a system of more severe punishments after we will have watched a group of white officers beating up a black woman. Sure it has happened -- we just haven’t caught it on tape and televised one of these beatings nationally yet. Or have we?
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