It’s a historic moment
What’s his name? —George Floyd
George Floyd
Protests that have quickly grown into a global outcry for an end to racism
The frustration and the rage...
...it’s a past-due notice...
...on the debts owed to black communities for the last 400 years
Who’s holding the weapons?
That demand for change has found immediate form...
...in the cause that sparked the fire
More than 1,000 people are killed by police in America every year
It is now the sixth-leading cause of death for young black men
No other organisation in America is allowed to act so ruthlessly...
...with such impunity
But given this unprecedented opportunity for change...
...how can the police be forced to truly protect and serve?
I’m sick and tired of it
Every single day
Ladies and gentlemen you have to back up
America’s police are heavily armed
Almost every officer is entitled to carry a semi-automatic pistol
What’s more, the Department of Defence...
...transfers surplus weapons to local police forces
The police force in charge of providing security in Los Angeles’ schools...
...was given three grenade launchers
Eventually they returned it
But they did keep 61 automatic rifles and a mine-resistant vehicle
This has ensured that the police are not just heavily armed...
...but they increasingly have come to look more like a military force...
...than like peace officers
You will be arrested or subject to other police action
Little wonder that police in America have become a deadly force
Almost 8,000 people were killed by police between 2013 and 2019
Black people, who make up 13% of America’s population...
...account for 25% of those deaths
They are almost three times more likely than white people...
...to be killed by police
Dr Phillip Atiba Goff is head of the Centre for Policing Equity...
...which analyses data to try to understand these racial disparities
What all that research clearly says is that crime and poverty...
...are not sufficient explanations for racial disparities...
...in stops and in use of force
So, the real question is, what’s the rest?
Some of that are the policies and the culture...
...and the behaviour of law enforcement
The call for reform is one that has become deafening in recent weeks
But it’s not an easy task
For a start, there are about 18,000 different law-enforcement agencies
From federal agencies, to state, city...
...county and even school police
Almost half of them employ fewer than ten officers
And so, when you talk about police reform...
...what you’re talking about is trying to get 18,000 different entities...
...to change their behaviour. That’s incredibly complex and difficult to do
Law-enforcement agencies, for the most part, regulate themselves
Take, for example, rules around their use of force
Federal law states this must be “objectively reasonable”
But there’s no single rule establishing clearly...
...what this means in practice
Hands behind your back, sir
Some states and cities have passed their own laws on the subject...
...but not many
So, in most cases it’s left to each police agency...
...to create and enforce its own...
...use-of-force policies
If they choose to address it at all
The police are also protected by strong unions...
...which tend to oppose reforms
So, police unions can be incredibly powerful
Their job is essentially to protect the rank and file from litigation, from injury
But sometimes what is in the best interests of individual officers...
...isn’t what’s in the best interests of public safety
Police unions are very good at negotiating favourable contracts...
...for their members. But those contracts often include...
...protections from discipline, which can make it really, really difficult...
...for police chiefs to get rid of people who they know are bad apples
This is how many people were killed by a police officer...
...between 2013 and 2019
And these are how many officers were charged...
...and convicted
The disparity is in part because prosecutors are reluctant...
...to bring charges against police officers
Prosecutors need to win convictions to advance their careers
To convict people, they need police to testify
And police won’t help prosecutors who go after cops
All of which might help to explain...
...the sense of impunity sometimes displayed by officers...
...not least the one responsible for the death of George Floyd
One of the people I talked to over the course of my reporting...
...was a sociologist named Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve
She works on prosecutorial police relationships
And she made an observation that I found very hard to shake
And that was that during that video, you see Officer Chauvin...
...looking directly into the camera...
...as he presses his knee into Mr Floyd’s neck
He knows he’s being filmed, yet he stares directly into one of the cameras
He’s not even resisting arrest right now, bro
Professor Gonzalez Van Cleve observed that that would not happen...
...if he thought he would be prosecuted. To her mind and to mine too
That was just evidence that he knew that...
...nothing was going to happen from what he was doing
Officers are also protected from civil prosecution
Under the principle of “qualified immunity”...
...lawsuits against them can only proceed...
...if there is clear legal precedent...
...that what the officer was doing was wrong
It’s a preposterous bar to hold somebody to account...
...only when someone has done that specific thing before
And so, what you’ll hear is most reformers say qualified immunity has to go...
...because even the egregiously bad incidents often get off the hook...
...because no one ever thought to be that egregious previously
With the obstacles to change seemingly so entrenched...
...perhaps it’s little wonder there’s been a rallying cry for more extreme action
There’s a new call for deep structural reform of policing across the country
Asking city leaders to defund police departments
One of the most important things right now...
...is to understand what people mean when they say defund the police
There are some people who, by saying defund the police...
...literally mean abolish law enforcement
The community can take care of violence
That’s not the thing that I hear most commonly...
...particularly from black neighbourhoods
What I hear from them is that the purpose of defunding...
...is to shift resources from punishment to empowerment...
...so that they have the ability to live lives...
...where you don’t have to call the police
Don’t shoot
You would never send a nurse to break up a drug narcotics ring
Why on earth are you sending law enforcement...
...to go deal with someone who’s overdosing?
It’s a seductive yet politically divisive idea
But for some forces defunding isn’t enough
The only solution: to start again from scratch
For years Camden, New Jersey, was among America’s most violent cities
In 2012 it had the fifth-highest murder rate in the country
That same year it disbanded its police
They shut down the police force. They hired people back
They ended up expanding the force
But when they reconstituted their force...
...they really paid a lot of attention to best practices...
...to improving community relations
They wrote a use-of-force policy that’s 18 pages long, extremely detailed...
...one of the best, most detailed use-of-force policies in America
It seems to have worked
Camden says the number of complaints about excessive force...
...has declined every year
In 2014 there were 65...
...last year there were three
Only political will can determine whether Camden’s example...
...is enough to help overcome resistance to reform elsewhere
There are cities, from New York to Los Angeles...
...that are already contemplating similarly bold action
In the city where George Floyd was killed...
...the Minneapolis city council promised last night...
...to dismantle the police department
The Democrats in Congress have proposed a bill of sweeping reforms...
...which would make it easier to punish police misconduct...
...and restrict the use of deadly force
As Americans from across the country peacefully protest...
...to demand an end to injustice
But the White House is sending a very different message
Donald Trump’s approach to policing has always been...
...the police should do whatever they want...
...and they should be as tough as they can because they’re the good guys
So, my concern with Donald Trump’s behaviour is that...
...he has essentially taken the federal government...
...out of the conversation about policing
And he is for states and localities to take the mantle on themselves
Those calling for change today...
...can demand action through the ballot box in November
I really do believe that we collectively are going to make a choice
A series of choices and we’re going to get to decide
The future that’s in front of us on reforms in public safety and the future...
...that’s in front of us in terms of how we’re going to treat some of our...
...most-oppressed and most-abused citizens
It’s not something that’s going to happen to us
It’s something we’re going to choose
Who they choose—from city council all the way to the White House...
...could prove decisive in the challenge...
...of turning indignation into legislation...
...and enduring social change
I’m Jon Fasman, The Economist’s Washington correspondent
To see more of our coverage of racial injustice in America...
...and across the world, click the link opposite
Thank you for watching