Minneapolis Police Department

• The latest reminder that police officers around the country routinely deny Black people their constitutional rights comes from the Justice Department.
• This time, it’s about Minneapolis, the site of a police officer’s video-recorded murder of resident George Floyd.
• And that led me to the enduring question: Why is racial discrimination by police so common in the United States?

Policing in black and white

• Countless studies have shown that Black people are routinely stopped by police and live in racially segregated communities that police heavily monitor.
• These conditions have led to Black people being overrepresented in arrests for violent crime that doesn’t involve a fatality.
• Police body camera footage shows officers speak disrespectfully to Black people during traffic stops; about four of every 10 Black people say police have unfairly stopped them; and Black people are more than three times as likely to be killed by police during interactions.
• These experiences explain why white Americans are more likely to give police high marks – 75% – for job performance.

Experiences shape people’s views

• The fact that Black and white Americans have different views on the police are not accidents.
• Indeed, policing in the United States was established on the practice of controlling specific populations.
• In the 19th century, for example, policing in the South was designed to monitor the movement of enslaved Black people.

Policing the way it was intended

• And it will be part of the mountain of studies, complaints and federal reports that show widespread racial discrimination.
• It’s no wonder, then, that so many people believe racial discrimination is endemic to policing and is simply part of the way it works.
• And while this most recent Justice Department report shows that, it also makes the case that Minneapolis police are working the way they were intended.