Let’s talk about the Jarod Dotson
case in Knoxville, Tennessee that took place in April of this year. Let’s
talk about this 21-year-old man who attended a rowdy University of Tennessee
college party — along with about 800 other students — that got busted by the
Knoxville Police Department. Let’s talk about how, according to police reports,
he resisted arrest. Let’s talk about how Officer Frank Phillips used this
allegation to justify a chokehold that resulted in Dotson passing out. Less
than 24 hours later, Sheriff Jimmy “JJ” Jones fired Frank Phillips on account
of misconduct and unnecessary force and harm.
Fast forward to July of this year. Officer
Daniel Pantaleo accused Eric Garner of peddling cigarettes and, deeming it
necessary, Pantaleo proceeded in the process of the arrest to hold Garner in a
banned chokehold. Garner repeatedly claimed that he could not breathe. Pantaleo
failed to release him. Garner died. During the investigation into the
happenings of this event, Pantaleo was taken off of the streets, but as soon as
he was not indicted he was back on the force in modified duty and will continue
to work on modified duty until the higher law is able to put him in jail.
After reading about these two
cases, an obvious question came to my mind: Why is it that Phillips was
automatically fired from his job after putting a man in an approved chokehold
that seemed too harmful but did not result in death and Pantaleo was not fired after putting a man in a
banned chokehold that resulted in death? The Dotson case proves that the Garner
case (not to mention the Brown case) was a manifestation of our racist society.
In connecting these two events and their results, we see that there is an
inconsistency with the system. If you didn’t believe that before, believe it
now. Two men died within the past few months at the hands of police officers.
Two Grand Juries decided against indicting them. One man was choked, albeit
unnecessarily, at the hands of a police officer and lived. This police officer
was stripped of his title and publicly denounced. What does it mean that some
people have to be shaken into recognition by comparing the Brown and Garner
cases to a white man’s case? What kind of person really lives in our society?
Burke, Kerry. "NYPD Cop in Eric
Garner Chokehold Death Not Indicted." NY Daily News.
NYDailyNews.com, 4 Dec. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
Greig, Alex, and Helen Pow.
"Tennessee Sheriff's Deputy Is FIRED after He Was Caught on Camera Choking
an Unresisting College Student until He Passed out." Mail Online.
Associated Newspapers, 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
Kirkpatrick, Nick. "Knox County
Cop Fired Immediately after Photos Show Brutal Choking of Student." Washington
Post. The Washington Post, 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
This reminds me of recent social media trends, #CrimingWhileWhite and #AliveWhileBlack. Although I don't have a twitter, I've read a few articles about these trends and some of the posts associated with them are astonishing. They perfectly illustrate the enormous difference between police interactions with white people and police interactions with black people. A few examples are:
ReplyDelete"My terrorist group, the Weather Underground, robbed banks and killed people. Now I'm a college professor. #CrimingWhileWhite"
"At 13 I stole a car with my friends & drove it 2wks before we got busted. Only one charged was black. #CrimingWhileWhite"
"Got cut in line at restaurant by cops in Orlando, FL. Said, 'What?' and was told asking questions is how you get arrested. #AliveWhileBlack"
"Was biking home after work in DC. Pulled over by four cops. Cuffed, questioned, & was told 'I fit the description.' #AliveWhileBlack"
The recent media coverage of police interactions with people of different races has really opened my eyes to an issue that this country needs to solve. I had never really paid much attention to issues of police brutality before, but all of a sudden it feels like these issues are the only things that I see when I open up the internet. It is apparent that police interactions with white Americans and black Americans are two completely different things. How can we as a country and a society change the way police interact with citizens regardless of race? I can honestly say I do not have the answer to this question, but we as the American people need to figure out the answer.
ReplyDeleteOur nation was faced with a troubling story that we were all too familiar with in the Michael Brown case. When the decision to not indict came down at least then there was the presence of conflicting witness accounts and the notion that perhaps Officer Wilson was defending himself in some form albeit excessively. With the Staten Island case the brutality of the police officers is made all to clear and not through eyewitnesses but through a video. I think you're absolutely right that these cases really are a powerful manifestation of how racism still affects our society. While law enforcement shoulders much of the attention, we also have to look to the grand jury who somehow failed to indict this officer. This piece does a good job of attempting to explain why a Staten Island jury was much less likely to indict an officer than a jury elsewhere in New York. http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/eric-garner-chokehold-staten-island-grand-jury-indict/ We must remember the Staten Island tragedy wasn't simply the result of law enforcement but the racism that still permeates all of our society.
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