"Cunningham’s statement today noting the role that police have played and continue to play in functioning as both the face and tool of racial oppression in this country is important, especially given that we have not heard such a clear statement from a senior-level police officer until today.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-police-chiefs-apology-20161017-snap-story.html

Head of nation's largest police chief group issues formal apology for 'historical mistreatment' of racial minorities 

The president of the country’s largest police chief organization formally apologized Monday for the “historical mistreatment” of racial minorities — one of the strongest statements a national police figure has made to date on race.
Law enforcement officers have been the “face of oppression for far too many of our fellow citizens,” Terrence Cunningham, president of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, told thousands of police chiefs from across the country at the group’s annual conference in San Diego. He said that police have had “darker periods” in their history, and that mistrust between police and minorities is the “fundamental issue” facing police today.
It was a watershed moment for the organization, which counts chiefs and high-ranking officers from nearly every U.S. police department among its 27,000 members, sets priorities and trends across American policing, and acts as a national liaison between local police and the federal government.As national outrage over police shootings of black Americans has grown, the association frequently called for greater building of trust between police and communities, but did not formally apologize for past racism among police.
Cunningham, who is white and serves as the chief of police in Wellesley, Mass., spoke for just over four minutes between longer speeches from the general secretary of Interpol and Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch.
Police and activists alike praised Cunningham’s remarks, though some said they fell short of fully addressing the reasons there is sometimes a gulf between police and the communities they serve.
“Cunningham’s statement today noting the role that police have played and continue to play in functioning as both the face and tool of racial oppression in this country is important, especially given that we have not heard such a clear statement from a senior-level police officer until today,” said DeRay Mckesson, a Baltimore-based activist who has advised President Obama on policing issues and co-founded the police reform organization Campaign Zero.
“I look forward to seeing this statement supported with tangible commitments to enact deep structural and systemic changes within policing and the criminal justice system that specifically undo the damage that police have done to communities of color,” Mckesson said.
The president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement, Perry Tarrant, was among officers in the room who gave Cunningham a standing ovation after his speech at the San Diego Convention Center. He described Cunningham’s words as a “big deal” that “could make a real difference.”
“It’s hard to get groups to the table who feel affronted by police until you go out there and apologize,” said Tarrant, who is assistant chief of Seattle police.

Terrence Cunningham's speech at the conference in San Diego.

Protests over deadly police shootings of black men have gripped cities across the country in recent months — in El Cajon, Calif. south of San Diego; Charlotte, N.C.; Milwaukee; Falcon Heights, Minn.; and Baton Rouge, La. — but Cunningham avoided mentioning those by name. He also didn’t talk about targeted killings of police officers over the summer in Dallas and Baton Rouge, incidents that raised fear among police officers across the U.S. about their safety while on the job.
The Black Lives Matter movement, which has gained traction nationwide with its criticisms of modern-day officer tactics and police shootings, did not make an appearance in the speech, either.
Instead, Cunningham focused on apologizing for the past, when police carried out “many unpalatable tasks, such as ensuring legalized discrimination or even denying the basic rights of citizenship to many of our fellow Americans.” But while that history, including the role of police in enforcing Jim Crow laws, has led to mistrust today, Cunningham said today’s officers are not to blame for the past.
“While we obviously cannot change the past, it is clear that we must change the future,” he said. “We must move forward together to build a shared understanding. We must forge a path that allows us to move beyond our history and identify common solutions to better protect our communities.”
For Delores Jones-Brown, a professor at the John Jay College Center on Race, Crime and Justice, the apology amounted to too little, too late.
“I am unimpressed and underwhelmed,” she said. “He fails to acknowledge the deplorable behavior of some modern-day police officers who are allowed to go from police agency to police agency after having been cited for misconduct within one or more departments. [He] fails to acknowledge the warrior mentality of many police agencies and police officers and commanders. There are bigoted cops today as there were when it was legal to be a bigoted cop.”
Police union officials, many of whom have said activism over police shootings has fueled anti-police views, also criticized Cunningham.
Brian Moriguchi, president of the union that represents supervisors in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, acknowledged that police officers had mistreated minorities in the past but said Cunningham was “pandering to political pressures” by apologizing for those historical sins in an attempt to address present-day problems.
“He’s using the past to legitimize the argument that there’s something wrong in police work today, and that is wrong,” said Moriguchi, who has said police are “far more ethical” today than they were decades ago. “His statements fuel the rhetoric about racist cops, certainly. Instead of fueling the anger and bias, he should be trying to find solutions to the problem.”
Dustin DeRollo, a spokesman for the union that represents rank-and-file officers in the Los Angeles Police Department, said Cunningham’s comments support the “false narrative” that police officers are deliberately targeting black men. Instead, the focus should be on officers who are killed because of their uniforms, he said, citing a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and two Palm Springs officers who were fatally shot in recent weeks. “There’s no rational conversation, no outrage about that,” DeRollo said.

A contentious debate has developed over both the deaths of officers and killings by police, with politicians and activists frequently sparring over statistics and studies. A summer report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found that although numbers of police dying while on the job have fluctuated in recent years, shootings of police have drastically decreased overall since the 1970s.
Some statistics show a similar overall decline in the number of police shootings of civilians. But there are no reliable nationwide records, senior law enforcement officials say.
Speaking at the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police conference Sunday, FBI Director James Comey said that despite protests over police shootings of black people, “Americans actually have no idea" about police use of force across the country because the data are lacking. Currently, the most comprehensive data come from media organizations, such as a national database of police shootings compiled by the Washington Post. That database has found that police this year have shot black people at 2.5 times the rate of white Americans, which is similar to the rate last year.
The Justice Department said last week that it would launch a pilot program next year to gather national data on police shootings and nonlethal use of force, an initiative Lynch spoke of Monday after Cunningham’s apology.
Lynch also challenged police to build community partnerships to ease tension.
“From doctors to religious leaders, from employers to housing developers, and from schools to civil rights organizations, the opportunity for cooperation — and the potential for progress — is enormous,” she said. “Mutual agreement may not be the first thing that occurs. Mutual trust will have to be earned. But we can only find the right approach — we can only build trust — by working together.”
Times staff writer Cindy Chang contributed to this report.

“We’re still operating on some system that we used to enforce Jim Crow laws, that were used to oppress people. These are operational systems and policies and practices that exist today.”

http://www.blackenterprise.com/news/politics/criminal-justice-system-racist-design/

The Criminal Justice System Is Racist by Design

An op-ed by Jared Brown explores if modest reforms to the criminal justice system can fix a system that is racist by design

by Jared Brown    Posted: October 3, 2016

(Image: iStock.com/Avid Creative, Inc.)

Hillary Clinton has a robust strategy to eradicate disparities in law enforcement. She plans to invest $1 billion in anti-bias police training, implement national guidelines for police conduct, and double funding for the Department of Justice’s Collaborative Reform Program. “People are crying out for criminal justice reform. Families are being torn apart by excessive incarceration. Young people are being threatened and humiliated by racial profiling. Children are growing up in homes shattered by prison and poverty. They’re trying to tell us. We need to listen,” Clinton remarked.
And yet, an honest examination of the history of policing in the United States makes it difficult to believe that, if implemented, her plans would achieve the desired outcome. One could even question how modest reforms to the criminal justice system can fix a system that is racist by design.

Slave Patrolling and the Racist Origin of Policing in America

 Among the earliest documented roles of police, or patrollers, was to punish slaves traveling without a permit, capture runaways, and/or discipline rebellious or defiant slaves. “Slave patrols, which later became modern police departments, were designed to control the behaviors of minorities,” according to Dr. Victor Kappeler, professor of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. “Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property,” he added.
In 1704, the colony of South Carolina ordered the militia to organize an armed band of white men to actively stop, question and punish slaves. Virginia introduced a similar patrol system in 1726 and in 1753, the North Carolina General Assembly passed laws empowering any white citizen to apprehend slaves who ran away or otherwise violated the laws of the colony.

Vigilantes and the Preservation of Minority Patrolling

 Although the slave patrol system was no longer needed to recover and punish slaves after emancipation in 1865, a new form of minority control was adopted. The slave patrol system more or less evolved into an informal system of vigilantism designed to preserve white supremacy, discourage social and economic progress, and weaken the black political establishment.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), for example, was founded in 1866 and extended into almost every southern state by 1870. The group became “a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks,” according to historians at history.com. “Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black republican leaders.”

Ku Klux Klan and Ties to Police Organizations

 The underground campaign was later normalized throughout the South, following the withdrawal of Union soldiers at the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Collaborations between white vigilantes and law enforcement were once again institutionalized during the Jim Crow Era.
“In the 1940s and 50s, county sheriff’s openly joined the Klan,” wrote Gilbert King in Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. “Law enforcement officers boldly attended Klan meetings armed and in uniform,” he added.

Present Day Implications

 In some localities, the Jim Crow legacy of collaboration between police and law enforcement has persisted into the present. In Fruitland Park, F.L., for example, a recent FBI investigation revealed that two police officers were active members of the white terrorist organization.  
Furthermore, in 2006, the FBI released a report citing growing concerns about law enforcement infiltration from white supremacist groups. “White supremacist presence among law enforcement personnel is a concern due to the access they may possess to restricted areas vulnerable to sabotage and to elected officials or protected  persons, whom they could see as potential targets for violence,” the report concludes.
This growing concern, coupled with outdated, racist policing tactics, signals the enduring legacy of white supremacy in the criminal justice system. “We’re still operating on some system that we used to enforce Jim Crow laws, that were used to oppress people,” according to Ronald Davis, Community Oriented Policing Services director at the Department of Justice. “These are operational systems and policies and practices that exist today.”

Jared Brown currently coordinates a $25 million initiative at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) designed to cultivate the next generation of African American innovators and entrepreneurs. He awards scholarships and administers an online entrepreneurship curriculum to more than 150 undergraduate scholars representing more than 40 colleges and universities. He also serves as operations director at Black upStart, an early stage social enterprise that supports entrepreneurs through the ideation and customer validation processes. He is a leading voice in the field of black entrepreneurship with publications appearing in Black Enterprise, Generation Progress at the Center for American Progress, and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Brilliant! “I’m a taxpayer in this community,” Chapman added. “I’m a citizen in this community. My rights should be across the board just like anybody else has and anybody else wants and anybody else needs. It’s my rights as a citizen in Duval County and the state of Florida.”

https://www.queerty.com/this-gay-mans-excuse-for-getting-out-of-jury-duty-is-brilliant-20150218

This Gay Man’s Excuse For Getting Out Of Jury Duty Is Brilliant

Few things can ruin a person’s day faster than receiving a summons for jury duty in the mail. Seriously, it’s the worst. But one Florida man refused to let it get the best of him.

When Chuck Chapman reported for jury duty at the Duval County courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday, he had one goal: to protest Duval County Clerk of Courts Ronnie Fussell’s stance on same-sex marriage.
Even though same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Florida for over a month, Duval County Clerk of Courts Ronnie Fussell has ordered his office to stop performing all marriages in an act of protest.
Chapman says he “regrets” that Clerk’s office isn’t “comfortable marrying same-sex individuals or anyone in the courthouse,” adding that “if they feel uncomfortable marrying same-sex people then I feel uncomfortable going in the courthouse.”
“Ronnie Fussell is an elected official in this town,” he told FCN News. “It’s government for the people, by the people. I’m a citizen, a vote. I pay my taxes. Just because it’s across the board, his decision not to do it any longer, has me willing to make this statement.”
“I’m a taxpayer in this community,” Chapman added. “I’m a citizen in this community. My rights should be across the board just like anybody else has and anybody else wants and anybody else needs. It’s my rights as a citizen in Duval County and the state of Florida.”
When Chapmen presented his argument to a judge, he was released from jury duty.
“The clerk of the court said they would not perform anyone’s wedding, heterosexual, homosexual, anyone,” he said shortly after leaving the courthouse. “There were 1900 weddings performed in the courthouse in 2013. There’s a chapel in that courthouse for weddings. There’s money being lost on that courthouse because the clerks of the court do not feel comfortable marrying same-sex partners.”
“Until this community gets in a position and embraces diversity, we’ll never move forward,” Chapman concluded.

Love this strategy: "I can't possibly be an impartial judge of a citizen when I am considered a second class one in the eyes of this justice system."

http://www.wnyc.org/story/118019-gays-protest-jury-duty-over-lack-equality/ 

Gays Protest Jury Duty Over Lack of Equality

Mar 11, 2011 · by Beth Fertig

It appears that gays protesting for equal rights have a new message: that they can't serve as impartial jurors when called to serve.
I was called to jury duty in Manhattan State Supreme Court on Thursday. On two separate occasions, I heard gay men tell a judge during the voir dire process that they didn't think they could fairly serve on a jury.
The first occurred in the morning session. When asked if he could be an impartial juror, the man stated that he wasn't given full civil rights by the legal system. Judge Laura Ward looked stunned. She repeated her question and again the man said he honestly didn't feel he could be impartial because gays are denied certain rights such as marriage. The judge told him everyone is treated equally in her courtroom. When he objected again she excused him from the case but told him he'd be called back on other cases.
In other words, his jury duty wasn't over.
Later that afternoon, while screening jurors for the same criminal case, another man told Ward he couldn't be impartial because he is gay. He mentioned that he's been in a relationship for 18 years with the same man, but that they still can't get legally married. He was excused from the case.
It's not clear if the two protests were related or if they were in response to anything in particular. But last week, a 26-year-old actor named Jonathan Lovitz used very similar language when he told a different Manhattan judge that he didn't think he could be an impartial juror. Lovitz wrote about his experience on Facebook and it's since gone viral over social media.
When contacted by WNYC, Lovitz said he had never been much of a political activist. But he said he was reading about gay marriage on his Blackberry while waiting to be called for a jury on March 1 in a Manhattan civil court. When the judge started asking people if they could be fair and impartial, he said he answered, "I can't possibly be an impartial judge of a citizen when I am considered a second class one in the eyes of this justice system."
He added, "It just struck a chord with me."
Lovitz said he was very nervous and saw some people smile approvingly while others rolled their eyes. He was excused from the case and gave the same answer the next day when called back for a different case. He insists he wasn't just trying to get out of jury duty.
"It's another example of civil disobedience which we're all taught to respect and admire from the day we're in elementary school civics classes," he said, referring to the American Revolution and the Civil Rights marches.
Lovitz said he's received hundreds of messages through Facebook and has been contacted by various web sites and news outlets. He says most people are supportive but a few said he's chosen a "frivolous" form of protest and he's responded by suggesting they pick another way to demonstrate against not being treated equally. But he hopes his form of protest takes off as more gays and lesbians object to jury duty. He wants lawmakers to see they're going to lose a "significant portion of their jury pool" if laws such as those against same-sex marriage don't change.
"States are going to realize that if they don't integrate LGBT citizens into the same laws that apply to everyone else, civil disobedience will only begin with jury duty," he said.
Meanwhile, the movement hasn't caught on too broadly yet. Two gay rights groups contacted by WNYC said they aren't encouraging people to protest jury duty.
A spokesman for the New York State Office of Court Administration, David Bookstaver, said he never heard of anyone objecting to jury duty as a protest for gay marriage.
"Each juror is interviewed independently and as to a juror being excused, that's up to the judge," he said. "No one is exempt from jury duty."