{"id":25067,"date":"2023-02-05T20:18:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T04:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25067"},"modified":"2023-02-05T20:19:46","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T04:19:46","slug":"tyre-nichols-death-shows-that-diversity-alone-wont-save-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/02\/05\/tyre-nichols-death-shows-that-diversity-alone-wont-save-policing\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyre Nichols\u2019 death shows that diversity alone won\u2019t save policing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Justin Phillips<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb. 5, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San
San Francisco police Chief Bill Scott speaks outside of City Hall last week to honoring the memory of Tyre Nichols. Scott\u2019s department has robust policies around increasing diversity within its ranks, yet the department still struggles to address its biased policing.Yalonda M. James, Staff \/ The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Even in this digital age where law enforcement killings of Black people seem to go viral on a sickeningly regular basis, the video of Black Memphis police officers punching, kicking and pepper-spraying Tyre Nichols, a Black man, was unfathomably disturbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a columnist who frequently writes about police violence<\/a> and its disparate effects on communities of color.<\/a> It took me three days to get through all of the body camera and street surveillance footage of the Jan. 7 traffic stop<\/a> that resulted in Nichols\u2019 brutal death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve come to realize in the days since: Nichols\u2019 death exposes the error of thinking diversity in policing<\/a> is a panacea for injustice in policing. Law enforcement unions and lobbyists, trying to stave off deeper reforms, have been feeding us this misleading narrative for decades, only to rebrand and sell it anew<\/a> after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The myth that racial diversity alone fixes policing may be traced back to 1967, when President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s Kerner Commission<\/a> examined the causes of racial unrest in several U.S. cities. In addition to white supremacy and systemic racism, the commission blamed police brutality for fueling tensions. The report, among other things, called for more representative hiring and promotion in law enforcement, which started significantly improving in the 1970s, according to a 2006 study<\/a> by the Northwestern University School of Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2013 to 2020, the percentage of Black police officers stayed relatively constant, at around 12%, almost matching Black people\u2019s share of the U.S. population at 13%, U.S. Department of Justice <\/a>data shows. Hispanic representation among officers rose from 11.6% in 2013 to 14% in 2020. Hispanic people account for about 19% of the U.S. population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increased presence of Black and brown officers has not made interacting with the police safer over the past decade. According to Mapping Police Violence,<\/a> a nonprofit research organization that tracks law enforcement killings, 2022 was the deadliest year since it began collecting statistics in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a diversity challenge that police departments have; it\u2019s a culture challenge,\u201d said Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. \u201cA part of policing\u2019s toxic culture is how there is a quick resort to violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More for you<\/p>\n\n\n\n