Without systemic change, police killings will continue | Editorial
Political leaders and police departments should be able to balance the need to combat crime with the need to address racial inequality.
The sickening video of Tyre Nichols being beaten to death by five Memphis, Tenn., police officers is yet another reminder of how departments across the country have failed to address systemic police brutality.
From George Floyd to Freddie Gray to Michael Brown to Eric Garner, and every harrowing death in between, we have been here before. We have heard the cries for help, from “I can’t breathe” to “I’m just trying to go home,” and we have watched the videos of cold-blooded murder by cops, often over minor incidents.
Each time, there is a call for police reform. Each time, nothing seems to change.
Perhaps even more horrifying is that for every recorded spectacle of a senseless killing, hundreds of other murders at the hands of police go unnoticed. Police officers shot and killed a record 1,096 people in 2022, according to a database maintained by the Washington Post.
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To solve a problem, it’s critical to first define it, but the FBI database can’t even keep an accurate count of the police killings. Absurdly, federal records show a decline compared with the accounting by the Post. This is because most local departments fail to report, or underreport, killings by police.
How many more murders at the hands of police officers sworn to protect the public will it take before there is real change?
There is some cautious optimism in seeing the five Memphis police officers fired and charged with second-degree murder and other crimes. But would the justice have been as swift if the officers were white?
There is no denying the racially biased culture that is embedded in policing. It goes without saying that the disproportionate number of people killed by police are Black.
It is incomprehensible to many white parents that they would have to give their teenage son or daughter “the talk” about how to handle the almost inevitable police encounters that so many Black teens endure.
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on the neck of George Floyd in 2020 prompted a reckoning of sorts as protests reverberated around the country. But the efforts were short-lived.
While the calls to “defund the police” may have been ill-phrased, the need to reevaluate and possibly redirect law enforcement funding hasn’t gone away. However, a pandemic-driven rise in shootings and crimes — along with Republican attacks — led to pushback. As public opinion shifted, so did the political will to address systemic racial inequality.
In the end, funding actually increased in most police departments, including in Philadelphia. In fact, with shootings and murders near records, none of the candidates in the upcoming mayoral primary has proposed to reduce police funding.
» READ MORE: How Philly police spend their money is just as important as how much they get | Editorial
Yet, Philadelphia has a long history of police brutality with little accountability, including the 2014 shooting of Philippe Holland, a pizza deliveryman who was wrongly suspected of being involved in a crime. The incident resulted in the largest civil payment in police history, yet none of the officers was charged.
More change is needed in departments here and across the country before the next video surfaces showing another heinous police killing. Political leaders and police departments should be able to balance the need to combat crime with the need for reform.
Many states approved various measures after Floyd’s killing, from civilian oversight to more anti-bias training, and stricter use-of-force limits. But more departments need to increase de-escalation training and require fellow officers to intervene to stop abuse and report excess force.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act failed to pass the last Congress and is unlikely to go anywhere now that Republicans control the House. That measure would prohibit racial profiling and ban choke holds and no-knock warrants while making it easier to bring charges against officers.
But new laws and mandates are not the only solution.
For example, increased use of police body-worn cameras has not reduced police killings. But the videos are needed for the public to see and to hold officers accountable.
Until public and political pressure forces systemic change, police departments will continue to follow the path of least resistance. And the killings will continue.