Does Excessive Force Exist?

When any amount of force against black and brown bodies is justified

By now most of us have realized that fatal police shootings of black people far exceed fatal police shootings of white people (Belli, 2020). Moreover, police use higher levels of lethal force against unarmed black people than unarmed white people (Degue et al., 2016). Those who have just woken up to this fact are living in Never Never Land. So with this point in mind, how can the movement of police reform address this issue, and equally important, what is the cause of this disproportionate deadly force against black people?

When the black body is seen as a weapon

Let’s trace the racial disparity of lethal force to its basic and erroneous premise: the black body itself is a weapon. It seems as though when police respond to black and brown bodies, the concept of excessive force is like Ariel from The Little Mermaid — it doesn’t exist.

In other words, when it comes to black and brown people, no amount of police force is viewed as excessive because the black and brown body is seen as a weapon. Police officer Darren Wilson recounted the incident where he fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown,

“When I grabbed him [Brown], the only way I can describe it is I felt like a five-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan….He looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked (Sanburn, 2014).”

Wilson fired multiple rounds of shots against Brown and killed him. Wilson described this moment,

“And then when it [the bullets] went into him, the demeanor on his face went blank, the aggression was gone, it was gone, I mean, I knew he stopped, the threat was stopped (Sanburn, 2014).”

Wilson´s testimony struck the racially fertile ground wherein resides the narrative of the black weaponized body. This mythical depiction bore fruit and Wilson was not charged with any crime.

Any force is permissible

The flip-side of seeing the black body as a weapon is that any use of force to combat this ‘weapon’ is justified.

It doesn’t matter if the victim held Skittles in their hand or held nothing at all, was asleep or dead, brandished a gun or a knife. The weapon is the black body, a threat to be matched with violence. Consequently, we hear arguments that start with, “The victim shouldn’t have [fill in your blank],” and end with blank apologies. What is left unsaid, but hangs heavy in the air is the admonishment that we know deep down is the rationale, “The victim shouldn’t have been being-while-black.”

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people

I can’t believe I am quoting the NRA. We all know guns don’t shoot by themselves, and that people with guns kill people. However, the NRA slogan raises a good point. The shooter of the gun is responsible. This means, even without guns, the police will find another way. In many cases, the police are killing black and brown people using a run-of-the-mill, household tool that each of us has at our disposal— bodyweight.

Police kill with non-lethal weapons — their bodies and anything else

George Floyd was smothered to death. Eric Garner was choked to death. Daniel Prude and Angelo Quinto were suffocated to death. Elijah McClain was tackled, restrained, and then killed by medicine.

Did the police use deadly weapons? Not unless we consider that a police officer's body is a weapon. So here is the question. When the police body is the weapon, how do we remove the threat?

More training, more POC cops, but does that work?

Black officers scale lower than their white counterparts on anti-black racist beliefs (Wilner, 2021). However, attitudes don’t necessarily curb violent behavior towards black people. The study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Kaste, 2019) found that black officers are just as likely to shoot people of color as white officers.

Derek Chauvin and Kim Potters were field training officers. So, what does that tell you about police training efficacy when the best-trained staff uses air fresheners and alleged counterfeit bills as justification for murder?

Reduce police contact with communities of color

Even when police are highly trained, hold low levels of bias, use non-lethal weapons, identify as POC, they still can commit homicide with no justification. What do we do now? For abolitionists, the solution is to reduce contact points between police and POC — in other words, remove the weaponized police body and remove the threat. Beyond defunding the police, abolition seeks regenerative measures to create safety.

“[Defunding the police is] about shifting funding to education, to housing, to recreation. All of these things help to create security and safety. It’s about learning that safety, safeguarded by violence, is not really safety (Davis, 2020).”

So where does the actual threat lie? In the US imagination, where fantasy becomes reality, the black and brown body is cast as the villain. But time and time again we are reminded that the true weaponized body is the police.

References

Belli, B. (2020, October 20). Racial disparity in police shootings unchanged over 5 years. YaleNews.https://news.yale.edu/2020/10/27/racial-disparity-police-shootings-unchanged-over-5-years

Davis, A. (2020, September 2). Freedom Struggle: Angela Davis on Calls to Defund Police, Racism & Capitalism, and the 2020 Election. Democracy Now. https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/7/freedom_struggle_angela_davis_on_calls

DeGue, S., Fowler, K., & Calkins, C. (2016). Deaths Due to Use of Lethal Force by Law Enforcement: Findings From the National Violent Death Reporting System, 17 U.S. States, 2009–2012. Am J Prev Med. 51(5 Suppl 3): S173–S187. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.08.027

Kaste, M. (2019, July 26). New Study Says White Police Officers Are Not More Likely To Shoot Minority Suspects. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/26/745731839/new-study-says-white-police-officers-are-not-more-likely-to-shoot-minority-suspe

Milner, A. (2021, March 2). International perspectives on policing and race: the US, the UK, and South Africa. [Presentation]. Fulbright Scholars Social Impact Series: International Perspectives on Policing and Race: the US, the UK, and South Africa. Virtual presentation.

Sanburn, J. (2014, November 25). All the ways Darren Wilson described being afraid of Michael Brown. Times. https://time.com/3605346/darren-wilson-michael-brown-demon/