The death of George Floyd continues to alter daily reality in the United States. Calls for change in the police force have reemerged and are omnipresent. While some cities are already acting, a significant change in policing cannot be expected any time soon.

Police Reform Now!

Two weeks after Floyd’s death, demands for police reform are intensifying. On Monday, the Democrats presented a legislative initiative in the House of Representatives in an attempt to strengthen nationwide police control.

The party is calling for greater supervision of the police, better training and adjustments in the way police apply the use of force, such as choke holds. Moreover, a simplification for the prosecution of police who used lethal force unlawfully is also part of the Democrats’ approach. However, the bill is unlikely to come into effect. In reality it is merely a symbolic gesture by House Democrats, who are cognizant that their efforts have almost no chance of passing in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Reform Elsewhere

Nonetheless, changes outside the federal level are currently being conducted in several cities. In Minneapolis, where Mr Floyd was killed, the city council plans to dissolve the local police department. Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City also presented proposals for reforming the police force in his city.

As noble as these gestures seem, they do not address the issues but instead depict America’s police apparatus as tremendously inept and unprepared for the challenges of the present time.

America’s police are imperfect. However, they operate in a system that leaves inadequate room for change. Non-Americans too often forget that the situation for police officers is not comparable to European countries. Hundreds of millions of weapons are in circulation throughout the country, often landing in the wrong hands. Simple traffic control can be transformed into a matter of life and death within seconds.

The latter is by now means an excuse for excessive use of force by the police the public has been witnessing. However, these circumstances need to be considered when contemplating the idea of how likely changes can be made.

Militarization of American Police Should Not Come as a Surprise

It is not the first time that the public and politicians have demanded changes to the police force. Nevertheless, no one has been able to make a lasting impact to this point. Instead, the police in many American cities have been upgraded to an extent reminiscent of an army, including, but not limited to armored vehicles, heavy weapons and sophisticated surveillance technology.

However, the latter is not merely a tribute to America’s proclivity to exhibit strength but levitates back to the aforementioned crucial point: Being a policeman in the United States is a highly dangerous profession. The calls for a scale-down of the police are thus not only inapt but irresponsible. The people who are the fine line between the public and anarchy deserve to be protected with the best equipment money can buy. To make it more candid: for as long as the Second Amendment remains alive and well, the police will continued to be as heavily equipped as they are today.

Confronting Real Problems in the US Police Force

Nonetheless, there are actual serious issues with the police. Training police officers in the United States is perhaps the most challenging aspect for those who want to reform the force. What many people do not seem to realize is that training for police officers varies from state to state. The training duration, for example, ranges from a few weeks to six months. Due to the differences, two officials who work in neighboring precincts may have received very different training and are thus not equally equipped for their job. Besides, not every precinct can afford further education. In such cases, in order for officers to receive or keep their licenses, they must take part in free lessons, which typically lack commitment and quality.

Moreover, training is primarily about the security of the officer, not, as in Western Europe, the role of friend and helper. For example, trainees spend an average of almost 60 hours on target practice and just 10 hours or even less training social interaction and psychological skills.

The Racial Divide

The fact that the majority of police officers in urban areas are white and have little or no experience in dealing with the population groups in their area of ​​responsibility adds another layer to the situation. This gap in relatability is compounded by the fact that one in five police officers is a former member of the armed forces and thus often trained to function in combat situations. This setup is inevitable to produce some policemen who will be rather inept in their skills.

However, even if states were inclined to adjust the conditions — and the majority of Republican states are not — another essential internal factor cannot be underestimated either: police unions.

Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, is a fitting and yet appalling example. The union leader of the Minneapolis Police Department Bob Kroll has been a vehement opponent of all attempts to reform even in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. Moreover, Kroll called the deceased a “violent criminal” in an attempt to justify the actions (i.e. kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes) by by Derek Chauvin. This kind of union protection is not a novelty in the US. Police unions can often almost completely shield their members from legal and financial consequences in the event of severe offences, and those who released from their duties for wrongdoing can easily find a job in another precinct thanks to the union.

L'articolo American Police are Flawed, but Dramatic Change is Unlikely proviene da InsideOver.

“There were three of them. I was on a corner waiting for clients… and they abused me,” she said. “They pulled me onto the (police) van… They saw that the area was empty… They started to grope me, take off my clothes. They ripped my blouse…. One after the other.”

“’I am first’ [one said] and the other waited his turn…. From then on, they mistreated me. They forced me to do something I didn’t want to.”

“I was afraid. I was alone. I couldn’t defend myself. I had to let them do what they wanted with me… They threatened me, that if I wasn’t with them they would kill me. They [said] that I was a whore, and so why not with them?”

Words like this are echoed in a recent report by Amnesty International chronicling the cases of female sex workers in the Dominican Republic – including both those who were born female and transgender females.

The exposé detailed the shoddy behaviour of the country’s police – who routinely rape, beat, and abuse prostitutes as means of wielding control and grandiose machismo – with complete impunity.

Elina Castillo-Jiménez, Caribbean Campaigner at Amnesty International told InsideOver that Amnesty International collected multiple testimonies from women who described having been gang-raped by armed and uniformed police officers in similar circumstances – late at night, on dark street corners, often in the back of police vehicles.

Some of the women reported being raped by police officers at gunpoint. Transgender women said the police subjected them to discriminatory and violent actions, such as having their wigs burnt and verbal abuse thrown at them.

“It is important to step beyond the violence/abuse terminology and call this for what it is: gender-based torture,” Castillo-Jiménez said. “International and regional law clearly establishes rape by a state official as a form of torture. The testimonies collected show that the acts committed by the police against women sex workers cause severe suffering in them, and they answer to discriminatory causes, such as their gender identity. Acknowledging the gravity of these acts as torture – a crime under international law – ­is the first step to adopt proper measures to prevent them.”

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, gender-based violence is a growing epidemic. In this context, female sex workers are at heightened risk for violence from state officials and other individuals. Authorities are often ingrained with a sense of chauvinism, coupled with societal stigma and conservative religious values. This can act as a driving force for officials to unlawfully abuse their powers and punish women who engage in sex work.

“Dominican legislation sanctions torture as a crime and has aggravated penalties if committed by a state officer, like the police. Yet, in practice, this is poorly implemented, and our research shows one of the reasons is due to the stigma against women sex workers. Although the sale and purchase of sex between consenting adults is not a criminal offence in the Dominican Republic, aspects of the organization of sex work are. Even criminalizing aspects of sex work has a punitive effect on sex workers by imposing a criminalised status on them,” Castillo-Jiménez explained.

Since complaints from sex workers are rarely taken seriously, the acts of violence are seldom reported. Furthermore, the fear of repercussions or social humiliation also prohibits women from speaking out.

“We are urging the Dominican government to develop a national protocol for the investigation of potential cases of torture and other ill-treatment with a gender-based focus and consistent with international law standards, as the Istanbul Protocol,” Castillo-Jiménez added. “The Dominican Republic has the opportunity to become one of the first states in the Caribbean, if not the first one, to have specific legislation for the guarantee of equality and non-discrimination for all.”

Amnesty International has started a #FreeFromViolence petition in an attempt to better protect these women from gender-based abuse and mistreatment, which includes the approval of an anti-discrimination bill.

L'articolo The Police Routinely Raping And Abusing Sex Workers proviene da InsideOver.