ANTH 23 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Propublica, Lethal Force, Grand Jury
19 Jan Friday
ANTH 23
Institutional Racism:!
Racial Profiling
•African Americans are overrepresented in prisons and tend to receive longer sentences for
the same crimes as whites, even though they are 30% of population, 50% of people in
prison are black.!
•Nationally, Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be searched and arrested during traffic
stops, and Whites are more likely to get off with a warning.!
•Statewide studies show minorities are more likely to be stopped, and that searches of
Whites are just as likely to find contraband.!
Race and Lethal Force !
•Difficult to pin down stats as there is no systematic data collection of lethal police shootings
and race, so stats are based on media reports !
• But studies of media reported shootings by The Washington Post and ProPublica estimate
that unarmed Blacks are 7:21 times more likely to be killed by police than unarmed Whites. !
•This is a result of a disparity of the ethnic makeup of the demographic of the area vs the
demographic of the police force. There is a heightened degree of hostility between the
two, their friends and family may reject them if people join the police force. Racism is often
times motivated by the knowledge that these people are different from me and there is
hostility between them.
• This can partially be explained by the militarization of policing and prevalence of poverty
and crime in minority-dominated neighborhoods, but Whites are overrepresented in most
police forces nationwide.!
Ferguson
• 8/9/14: Michael Brown is shot after an altercation with a police officer.!
•8/10-8/13: Protests escalate into rioting, there are numerous arrests for vandalism and
police are criticized for heavy-handed tactics. !
•8/15: Police release video of Brown stealing cigars, 200 people are arrested during protests. !
•8/16, 8/18: MO mayor declares state of emergency, then dispatches the National Guard. !
•11/24: Grand jury declines to press charges against police officer, riots ensue. !
•3/2015: Justice Dep investigation recommends restructuring of Ferguson Police Dept.!
Many attempts to vilify the person who was shot by release of the video, protesters
glorify him by saying he was a good student, he had dreams etc.
The governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency for the protesters.
Policing Ferguson
•Black people made up 67% of the population, but only 4 out of 53 police officers !
•Arrests, vehicle stops, and use of force are all disproportionately applied to Blacks !
•Police and court employees openly expressed racist views in emails !
•The City budgeted for steadily increasing revenue from fines and asset seizures, pressuring
police to produce these funds!
So you have a small group of white police officers policing a majority black population.
Black drivers twice as likely to be arrested when searched, emails searched revealed
police departments calling them derogatory terms and comparing them to primates etc.
Money extracted from the population who are generally not economically strengthened,
the police Dep was pressured to extract more and more from the population.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Whites are just as likely to nd contraband. Race and lethal force: di cult to pin down stats as there is no systematic data collection of lethal police shootings and race, so stats are based on media reports. There is a heightened degree of hostility between the two, their friends and family may reject them if people join the police force. Racism is often times motivated by the knowledge that these people are di erent from me and there is hostility between them. This can partially be explained by the militarization of policing and prevalence of poverty and crime in minority-dominated neighborhoods, but whites are overrepresented in most police forces nationwide. Many attempts to vilify the person who was shot by release of the video, protesters glorify him by saying he was a good student, he had dreams etc. The governor of missouri declared a state of emergency for the protesters.
