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'Acts that defy humanity:' 3 essential reads on police brutality, race and the power of video evidence

The Conversation, The Conversation on

Published in Political News

“Yet judges, attorneys and jurors may see and treat video in varied ways that can lead to inconsistent renderings of justice,” she writes.

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As historian Clare Corbould explains, police violence that disproportionately targets African Americans long predates portable video cameras.

Where Black Africans were once enslaved to provide cheap labor, Corbould writes, they are now policed, charged, indicted and incarcerated at staggering rates.

“As many have noted since [George] Floyd’s murder, the origins of U.S. policing lie in the control of supposedly disorderly populations,” Corbould writes, “whether of enslaved people or, after the end of slavery, an impoverished class of laborers including Black people and immigrants.”

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In their peer-reviewed study of data on 235 U.S. city police departments from 2000 to 2016, Thaddeus L. Johnson and Natasha N. Johnson found that police forces requiring at least a two-year college degree for employment are less likely to employ officers who engage in actions that cause the deaths of Black and unarmed citizens.

As they explain, “Our results demonstrated that college minimums are associated with as much as three times lower rates of police-related fatalities involving Black people than police forces without a college degree requirement.”

 

Their findings further suggest that the impact of a more educated police force may emerge during only the most dangerous encounters that often precede the use of weapons.

More research needs to be done but they conclude that police agencies trying to reduce fatal confrontations should consider ways to recruit college-degreed applicants while at the same time support college attendance among current officers.

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Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Read more:
George Floyd’s death reflects the racist roots of American policing

Derek Chauvin trial: how oppressive police systems defend themselves


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