Modern day lynchings: Videos of black men being beaten by police

Anti-Blackness as a spectacle is nothing new. White people have long intentionally and joyfully consumed Black misery. Lynchings were common in 19th and 20th century America and were explicitly public occurrences—even family entertainment, with parents and children attending and bringing food and drink, reports The Appeal. Local newspapers would detail the murders, including graphic photos of the victims. Perpetrators and onlookers often took souvenirs from the victims. Prominent white lynchers were lauded by local newspapers and posed with their children near the deceased for photos.

One of the most well-known civilian attacks on a Black person in American history began on August 20, 1955, when 14-year-old Emmett Till, a Black boy, was accused of flirting with a white woman while visiting family in Mississippi. Four days later, the woman’s husband and his brother brutally beat, shot, and dismembered Till, then threw his body into a river.

His mother, Mamie Till Mobley, rejected a mortician’s offer to “touch up” Till’s body. Instead, she chose to have an open casket funeral exposing her son’s grotesquely mangled form to illuminate the horrors of Jim Crow segregation and anti-Black racism in America. An estimated 50,000 people saw Till’s body during his funeral in Chicago. The national magazine Jet subsequently published photos of his corpse.

While Till’s death was at the hands of civilians rather than police, Till’s killers felt empowered to murder the boy because of state-sanctioned segregation and anti-Blackness. But simply publicizing images of Till’s body was not enough to spark meaningful societal change on its own—it took nearly a decade of concerted, direct political organizing to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. To this day, despite Till’s story and photos being taught in school, memorials for Till are routinely defaced and vandalized. The gruesomeness of his murder is mirrored by the callousness with which society objectified Till’s corpse and memory.

Civilian footage started proliferating almost 40 years later. On March 3, 1991, a bystander named George Holliday filmed from his apartment balcony with a home video camera while a Black man named Rodney King was beaten by police during his arrest. Officer Lawrence Powell swung his baton, hitting King in the head and causing him to fall to the ground. Officers Powell and Timothy Wind continued to viciously beat King. Holliday sold the video to a local TV station, which then sold it to CNN. The video became international news and provided explicit, recorded evidence of anti-Black police brutality. The public wondered once again whether this footage would be enough to change law enforcement permanently. But in the decades since, the cycle has only repeated itself. Footage of police officers killing Eric Garner and George Floyd within the last decade sparked international protests but little, if any, structural changes to law enforcement.

Earlier this year, on January 7, 2023, Nichols was pulled over by Memphis police during a traffic stop. Officers dragged Nichols from his car, attempted to tase him, and then chased him on foot. When the police reached Nichols, five officers pummeled him in the head and body. The officers left Nichols on the ground for 20 minutes before emergency responders began treating him. He died three days later. Shortly before the Memphis Police Department released the footage, Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said the officers showed a “disregard of basic human rights.” But in the weeks since, the department has done next to nothing to structurally change the way it polices Memphis, aside from abolishing the small strike-force-style unit that killed Nichols. While that one team in one locality may be gone, many similar units still exist around the country.

These incidents, spanning more than 70 years, each feature the public supposedly coming face to face with the horrors of anti-Black violence. In theory, the visualization of violence against Black people should force viewers to reckon with racism, spurring awareness and change. But these examples instead make clear that no amount of visual reckoning with trauma porn can create change on its own. The nation must dispose of the idea that “activism” means simply sharing videos of police brutality online, as opposed to actual involvement in political organizing or community aid.

The consistent portrayal of anti-Black violence not only solidifies Black people as victims in the minds of white Americans, but also exposes Black Americans to repeated depictions of their own dehumanization. In 2016, clinical psychologist Monnica Williams told PBS that police brutality videos can trigger PTSD-like symptoms in Black Americans. In 2018, a Harvard University-led study found that, when police kill an unarmed Black person, it negatively impacts the mental health of nearby Black residents for months afterward. Combined with the fact that this footage has so far done little, if anything, to change American policing, trauma porn is ineffective at best and immoral at worst.

The only thing that will stop anti-Black violence is rooting out the anti-Blackness present throughout American culture. In the words of abolitionist Angela Y. Davis, “in a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” We must intentionally uplift Black experiences and address Black people’s needs. There is no need to subject ourselves to the assault or murder of Black Americans in the interim.

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GateHouse: Who's watching you?

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

October 28, 2017

Opponents of the use of drones for surveillance often invoke George Orwell’s “1984.” In Orwell’s 1949 classic novel, citizens have no privacy. Many of their homes are equipped with two-way “telescreens” so that they can be watched or listened to at any time. Telescreens are at work and in public places to keep track of a citizen’s every move.

The police, in Orwell’s book, use undercover agents, who pose as normal citizens and report any suspicious thoughts or conduct. Children are encouraged to report suspicious persons to the government, and some denounce their parents. The same sort of conduct attributed to the Nazis by Winston Churchill in a speech to the House of Commons at the onset of World War II.

Government drone deployment began more than a decade ago when it was just an emerging technology with extremely limited use. Today, drones have come into their own. Last year, more public agencies acquired drones than in all previous years combined, with at least 167 departments using drones in 2016, according to a study released this spring by Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drone, reported Bloomberg.

In Los Angeles, police commissioners said they believe that their policy offers strict limitations and enough oversight. Under the rules established in Los Angeles, only SWAT officers will be permitted to fly drones during a handful of specific, high-risk situations. According to the Times, a drone can also be used during search and rescue operations, or when looking for armed suspects who have “superior firepower,” an “extraordinary tactical advantage” or are suspected of shooting at an officer.

Each flight must be approved by a high-ranking officer. Any request to fly a drone—whether approved or not—will be documented and reviewed. The Police Commission will also receive quarterly reports that will be made public, reported the Times.

Whatever one thinks of this technology, the public debate about the issue and the vote by the Los Angeles’s civilian oversight board was, according to the New York Times, refreshing—but rare. Americans deserve transparency and detailed information about the surveillance tools the police are considering—or using.

“Mission creep is of course the concern,” Jim Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles told Bloomberg. “The history of this [LA police] department is of starting off with supposedly good intentions about the new toys that it gets ... only to then get too tempted by what they can do with those toys.”

One concern with “mission creep” is facial recognition. According to the New York Times, half of American adults are already in a law enforcement facial recognition network. Drone surveillance merged with police body camera technology and facial recognition could facilitate increased surveillance and the erosion of the anonymity people assume when they go about their daily business.

For instance, the New York Police Department’s body camera policy, which was adopted after consulting with the public, does not prohibit the use of facial recognition.

The proliferation of facial recognition could stifle activity protected by the First Amendment. People may be reluctant to express their views in public if they believe their participation at rallies or protests will be identified through technology and their actions maintained in a database.

Orwellian or not, drones have a function in law enforcement and public safety—but this extraordinary tool lends itself to “mission creep” or even worse intentional misuse and abuse.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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GateHouse: Police body cameras 'Ready! Set! Action!'

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

January 20, 2017

The Chicago Police Department announced this week that by the end of the year every city police officer will wear a body camera.

Chicago is coming off of a horrendous year. The city’s homicide rate increased by 63 percent. The Laquan McDonald video sparked national outrage — Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times, five of his colleagues claimed that McDonald lunged at Van Dyke with a knife, but the video showed McDonald walking away.

The Department of Justice released a scathing report this week about the Chicago Police Department finding the department engages in a pattern or practice of using force, “including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The pattern or practice results from systemic deficiencies in training and accountability … and the failure to conduct meaningful investigations of uses of force.”

Police body cameras are part of a comprehensive plan for law enforcement reform in Chicago.

Yet, on inauguration day and the Women’s rally the following day, the Washington D.C. Police will be required to turn off their body cameras. There is an ordinance in the national’s capital, supported by the ACLU, that the police may not record a protest or rally. The law was intended to protect First Amendment rights by eliminating the possibility that police may review video and use it for other intelligence purposes or to suppress “anti-government” protests.

Twenty-one states have passed laws outlining guidelines for the use of police body cameras. Those states have struggled with issues of privacy, public access and costs. The other 29 states have no framework for handling police video technology.

Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, a senior United States district judge for the Southern District of New York, wrote in “Americas Quarterly,” police departments experimenting with the use of body cameras “have produced encouraging data.”

Scheindlin, who wrote the controversial opinion that struck down New York City’s “stop and frisk” policy, cited a study out of Rialto, California. After the police in Rialto used body cameras for a year, citizen complaints dropped by 60 percent. In addition, the number of incidents that resulted in the use of force by police dropped by 88 percent. In Mesa, Arizona, use-of-force complaints decreased by 75 percent for officers using cameras in a pilot program. In Nampa, Idaho, they dropped by 24 percent, wrote Scheindlin.

Some commentators have argued that police dash cams, body cameras and cameras wielded by private citizens have exposed a pattern of misrepresentations by the police.

There are no comprehensive statistical studies of police being less than candid about arrests. As a result, it is impossible to know how often officers get away with falsehoods, wrote Albert Samaha for Buzzfeed News.

Samaha cited one rigorous study published by the University of Chicago Law Review in 1992 by Myron Orfield, now a law professor at the University of Minnesota. He surveyed dozens of prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges in Chicago. Fifty-two percent of them responded that prosecutors “know or have reason to know” that an officer fabricated evidence “at least half of the time.” Nearly 90 percent of prosecutors responded that they were aware of police perjury in cases “at least some of the time.”

Most importantly, body cameras have reduced the use of excessive force by the police. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Experimental Criminology found that police officers were more cautious and risk averse when wearing body cameras. The authors, Justin Ready and Jacob Young, suggested that the reason that camera-wearing officers made fewer arrests and conducted fewer stop-and-frisks was because they thought more carefully about criminal policy and procedures.

— Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him atwww.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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White House policing task force issues report to President Obama

A White House Task Force charged with probing the deteriorated relationship between police and the communities they protect issued a report to President Obama on Monday that calls for independent investigations into all police shootings and to abolish all policing practices that rely on racial profiling.
"The moment is now for us to make these changes," Obama said during a meeting with task force members at the White House on Monday, according to the Washington Post.
"We have a great opportunity coming out of some great conflict and tragedy to really transform how we think about community law enforcement relations so that everybody feels safer and our law enforcement officers feel — rather than being embattled — feel fully supported. We need to seize that opportunity."
The committee is also recommending expanded use of police body cameras.
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States look to increase police accountability

More than a dozen states are considering new legislation aimed at increasing police accountability in the wake of incidents in Ferguson, Mo.; Staten Island, N.Y.; and Cleveland that left unarmed black men dead at the hands of officers.
Dozens of bills addressing body cameras for police have been filed in at least 13 states. Other proposed measures would change the way police departments report officer-involved shootings, racial profiling and the way courts deal with low-level offenders.
“There is a concrete coherent legislative agenda that we are pushing for,” said Cornell Brooks, president and chief executive of the NAACP. “We’ve been doing this from state capital to state capital, as well as here in Washington, D.C.”
Some of the proposed responses have bipartisan support. In other cases, familiar partisan divides between Republicans and Democrats, and civil rights groups and police organizations, are emerging and slowing down legislative action.
According to William Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, lawmakers in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia have already filed or pre-filed measures that would require at least some law enforcement officials to wear body cameras.
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Baltimore unveils plan to combat police misconduct

A report about police misconduct, "Preventing Harm" recommends that Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts increase staff in the internal affairs division, which handles allegations of misconduct, and study the body camera issue. Batts also wants to negotiate with the police union to get wider authority to quickly punish rogue cops, reported the Baltimore Sun.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the 41-page report outlines their plans. The report was released as the U.S. Department of Justice prepares for a months-long review of brutality allegations.
Batts and other police leaders have been "reforming the internal discipline process so that bad actors are punished and bad cops are fired," the report says. "The best way to prevent abuse is to train on its use, circumscribe it with rules, and enforce the rules. When bad actors have impunity, the good cops become demoralized and the bad ones are emboldened."
The report cites a six-month Sun investigation showing that residents have suffered battered faces and broken bones during arrests. The city has paid $5.7 million in court judgments and settlements in 102 civil suits since 2011, The Sun found, and nearly all of the people involved in the incidents leading to those lawsuits were cleared of criminal charges.
The investigation also showed that some officers have been sued multiple times over allegations of brutality, and that the city did not track those lawsuits in a comprehensive way until this year.
Batts said public trust is vital to keep the city safe and that the department is moving in the right direction. Many agency policies were outdated or needed major changes, he said.
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More and more police departments move to body cameras

More and more  police agencies, especially after the unrest following an unarmed teenager’s shooting in Ferguson, Mo., are recording events with small body-mounted cameras, reported the New York Times.

In just the last few weeks, law enforcement agencies in at least a dozen cities, including Ferguson; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Minneapolis; Norfolk, Va.; and Washington, have said they are equipping officers with video cameras. Miami Beach approved the purchase of $3 million worth of cameras for police officers, parking enforcement workers, and building and fire inspectors.

The New York Police Department, the nation’s largest urban force, has studied how Los Angeles is incorporating body cameras and is planning its own pilot project. A law in New Jersey, signed this month, requires all municipal police departments to buy car-mounted or body cameras, and creates a new fine on drunken drivers to help pay for it. And the United States Border Patrol, with more than 21,000 agents, recently said it would start testing cameras this year.

The shift to supporting body cameras has been sudden and seismic, primarily because various interests, often opposed, have lined up in support of the idea. Liability-conscious city attorneys say the cameras could help in lawsuits; rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say police accountability will be bolstered by another layer of public documentation; and the Justice Department, surveying 63 police departments that were using body cameras and many others that were not, concluded in a report this month that the technology had the potential to “promote the perceived legitimacy and sense of procedural justice” in interactions between the public and law enforcement.

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