Yo, is this Racist
Something I enjoy doing in my free time is watching YouTube videos and a series I have recently started watching is a spinoff of cops/Live PD. However, this show is local to Columbus and shows a police officers bodycam and his normal interactions day-to-day. Typically, it is a simple traffic stop however there is one video that appears to be a normal traffic stop but if you pay attention to it, you can notice something different. I would recommend starting at 1:25 to skip the introduction and pay attention to how the officer reacts to this woman he pulls over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBPlyjBzL88
To quickly summarize the video, an officer notices a woman texting while driving so he proceeds to walk up to her car and ask her to pull over. She is reluctant at first but eventually pulls into a gas station. The officer proceeds to make a routine traffic stop with this woman however she has a very snarky attitude with the officer. Throughout the entire video, the woman is arguing with the officer and trying to resist receiving a ticket. As the officer walks up to the vehicle, pay attention to what the woman is doing and how she is reaching all around her car for her license and registration. At 2:29 she goes digging through her glove box while the officer is standing there. After the officer writes her ticket up, she continues to argue and tries to use legal reasoning to get out of the ticket. The woman continues to be very rude and “heats” up the conversation by telling the officer she pays his salary and all around be disrespectful.
My first reaction to this is the high level of emotional intelligence the officer shows in this video. He did not get upset or abuse his force even when the woman was being very disrespectful. This video shows how all traffic stops should be and how officers should treat everyone with respect.
However, this is simply not the case. With the trials of Derek Chauvin still looming around, it is unfortunate at how traffic stops can go very differently. I want to compare two different traffic stops and discuss how any why each one ended the way they did. Philando Castile was a 32-year-old African American man who had his life taken by the hands of a police brutality murder. Philando was driving in his car with his girlfriend when he was pulled over. He hands over his registration and license as well as notifying the officer that he had a firearm on him. The officer proceeds to tell him to not reach for it and Philando complies. However, the officer thinks he is reaching for his firearm and shoots Philando numerous times in the body. Philando passes away later in the hospital and the officer is eventually charged with second-degree manslaughter. Dash cam video that was aired on CNN shows the entire outcome and I would recommend watching it. The video is incredibly disturbing and sickening but I think it is important to watch incidents like this to fuel the drive for police training reform as well as to learn and try to improve the current system.
GRAPHIC WARNING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Y_yOm9IhA
Two traffic stops, two very different outcomes. One video portrays a white woman who had the freedom to disrespect the officer and even threaten him with pepper spray and go searching in her glove box while a black man with a legal firearm who complies with orders is brutally murdered in front of his girlfriend and kid. A young child had to watch a person get murdered right in front of them and that will leave emotional damage beyond repair for the rest of their life. One traffic stop shows the innate privilege of having a certain skin color when it comes to dealing with police officers. It amazes and disgusts me how the officer who murdered Mr. Castile could justify shooting him because he was “scared” he had his hand on his gun. During the stop there were officers on both sides of the car and Philando likely knew of this so it would have been stupid to try and reach for his gun or make any wrong moves. Especially since Philando likely had to grow up with parents telling him to be extra careful around police officers since police brutality has been a problem for generations. My question for the police officer involved as well at police officers as whole is “what else could Philando do”. He listened to the officer’s orders and was murdered because of a bias in too many police officers’ heads against black men.
This bias of African American people has been around for hundreds of years and especially in the Americas. Even since slavery was abolished in the United States, a sense of “othering” can still be felt. Slavery was abolished in 1865 and segregation occurred legally until the 60s and still occurs throughout the dynamic of modern institutions. Redlining has occurred which has created a generational segregation and that has made it much more difficult for African American populations in the U.S. to create generational wealth. Redlining as a single policy has been destructive enough to cripple future generations of humans simply because of racist individuals making racist decisions. The major issues with redlining are that not as much financial investment was made in these “red” communities which meant lower paying jobs, less access to good education, less access to grocery stores, and numerous other fundamental issues. All of these outcomes combined would cripple any population and the product of redlining and other racist policies have hurt the African American population immensely.
The perception of African Americans has also been dictated through numerous racist policies as well as media outlets. This populations name has been “drug through the dirt” and the bad cases of individuals making wrong decisions have been highlighted much more than the good ones. For example, when you look at whatever news source, typically a crime is much more likely to be discussed than a positive topic. Typically, this is done for viewership and bad issues such as crime leave a viewer much more likely to tune in as well as form unjustified opinions on a population. Personally, I grew up in a town of about 4,500 people. The amount of African American families living in the town can be counted on one hand. Time and time again throughout my life a narrative of “black people are bad” or crime is caused because of “black people” has been heard. Obviously, anyone in that situation might have a bias against a population. However, since I was able to move away and meet more people, I have been able to understand how toxic growing up in a “one race town”. The point of me bringing this up is to emphasize how easy it is for bias to be engrained in us, especially when every system and the people you grow up with share the same narrative on a population. Clearly, this does not justify racism but allows us to better understand it. In the second video where Mr. Castille was brutally murdered, it is evident that the officer who opened fire did not have much exposure to the black population and had a strong bias against them. Someone like that is not fit to serve people in a public safety role. Whether his ignorance was due to his upbringing or other reasons, nothing can justify shooting a man who is complying with your orders and not posing a threat.
In conclusion, othering and bias have been major issues in the past and continue to be issues because of the long-lasting effects of policies, media outlets, and the environment that people grow up in. At the individual level, I would suggest actively combating bias by meeting people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and beliefs. To be a more informed individual you must be able to hear all sides of a story, regardless of if it matches with your beliefs. At a macro level, legislation and police reform must occur at some level. Clearly, police officers are not trained enough in emotional intelligence to be able to understand situations and act accordingly. The first video shows an officer who does a good job at handling a difficult individual but how would the officer have handled the situation if the person were a black male? What will it take for society to learn from the tragedies that occur far too often? Racism still exists today but what can we do as an individual to combat and alter the course of history?