Thread by @veruka2

So here's a fun* story. 3 yrs ago I helped lead a massive survey of >2k police officers in 20 states (pub forthcoming). In that study we could NOT ask people about their racial or ethnic background. At least not really. Why you ask?

*not actually fun
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Because the vast majority of PDs are SO OVERWHELMINGLY white that someone IDing themselves as Black or South Asian or even Hispanic would often be de facto identifying. Saying "I work in X department and I am Black" meant you could only be 1 or 2 people.
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Think about that for a minute. PDs across the US was so overwhelmingly white that we could not ask people what race they were without possibly putting them at risk of having all their answers identified. THAT IS BANANAS.
(We were simply able to ask 'Are you white?' y/n)
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Now, not all PDs are like this. in LAPD is majority Hispanic. ATL PD is majority Black. But this is incredibly rare.

Most PDs are overwhelmingly white and MUCH whiter than the places they police. White departments policing Black and brown bodies. 4/

washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06…

Why does this matter?

It matters because police forces are the mechanism by which the state exerts its authority. In other words, when those in power in our society want efforts to maintain the status quo, the police are the point end of the stick that gets used for that. 5/

The system will do what it was designed to do. It will act as it was designed to act. We have majority white PDs violently policing majority Black and brown communities *because maintaining white supremacy IS the what the system was designed to do. 6/
lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/sla…

White supremacy is not called out in the formal missions and charters of U.S. law enforcement today, but it is palpably present in everything that law enforcement is and does.
Loïc Wacquant probably put it best. 7/

Source: newleftreview.org/issues/II13/ar…

This critique is not about individual officers. It doesn't have to be.
Consider: We have a health care system that is FILLED with amazing, loving, talented genuinely humanist health care providers, yet we still have a health care system that consistently fails Black patients. 8/

That's not about individual HCPs. It's about a healthcare system that is steeped in the culture and structure of white supremacy.
This is not about individual officers. It's about a police force that operates in a system steeped in the culture and structure of white supremacy. 9/

If we lived in a world where police officers were overwhelmingly the kindest, most honest, noble, anti-racist individuals in our society, policing would STILL look like it does today....BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THE SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED TO DO. And that's the whole point. 10/

Talking about bad apples and good apples misses the point. It is a red herring.

ALL the apples are people working within the structures of a *massive system* that was EXPLICITLY designed to enable racist violent garbage. 11/

Do you know how PDs paid for all of the militarized equipment they are deploying on civilians now? Federal aid. Fed aid PDs really took off when Nixon started the War on Drugs in the for the purpose of violently oppressing Black people. 12/

Why do I say that that the War on Drugs was deliberately designed and orchestrated to violently oppress Black people?? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT NIXON'S TOP ADVISORS SAID.

Source: businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-…
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This paved the way for lots more federal aid to law enforcement, including the 1033 Program, that lets PDs buy military surplus equipment for pennies. The program was started by Pres Clinton. But SURPRISE it went gangbusters after Ferguson in 2014. 14/
bit.ly/3cGlvzl

The police have been given extraordinary powers to police Black citizens. The police have dramatically enhanced militarization in response to Black uprisings. The police regularly murder unarmed Black people with impunity.
THE SYSTEM IS DOING WHAT IT WAS DESIGNED TO DO.
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The problem's not the apples y'all. It's the tree. It's the soil in which the tree is planted. It's everything about how we conceive of police forces and have allowed them to operate throughout the entire history of this nation.

The system must be pulled up from the roots. 16/

What alternatives exist? If you are genuinely asking this question for the first time, that's ok. But SEEK ANSWERS.

Read about prison abolition from Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
Read about alternatives to policing from Alex Vitale.
Join BLM or ally groups locally, listen, and LEARN. 17/

I have worked with law enforcement. There are many, many law enforcement professionals whom I respect and admire. BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT.

The system is broken. The system is the problem. We must #DefundThePolice system that currently exists.
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