{"id":2512,"date":"2014-12-05T03:34:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T03:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=2512"},"modified":"2016-08-15T21:36:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T21:36:07","slug":"eric-garner-the-american-problem-and-a-chance-to-unite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/eric-garner-the-american-problem-and-a-chance-to-unite\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Garner, the \u2018American problem\u2019 and a chance to unite"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Peter Bloom<\/a>, The Open University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Police violence has dominated American headlines over the past year. The seemingly unaccounted-for police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson brought renewed attention and public protests to this issue; now, the decision not to charge<\/a> officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner, even after he was caught on video illegally restraining him with a chokehold, has only added to these rising concerns over apparently unaccountable use of force by police officers across the country, particularly against African-Americans.<\/p>\n

In the months since Garner\u2019s death, authorities had feared unrest on the same scale as in Ferguson, or even worse. These worries were especially acute in light of video footage<\/a> showing the officer putting the victim in an illicit chokehold while he repeatedly gasped: \u201cI can\u2019t breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

This evidence was even more damning given the coroner\u2019s report<\/a> that the death was a homicide caused \u201cby the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police\u201d.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, this violence has been largely linked to the persistence of racism in the US. The American news cycle has been tightly focused on the country\u2019s racial divisions, the threat of race riots and the stark disparity in the way the white majority and the African-American minority are treated.<\/p>\n

But tragic and racially charged though these incidents have been, they are also a golden opportunity to unite Americans behind the cause of fundamental social change \u2013 a cause that encompasses racism, but goes further too. And while no such movement is yet in the offing, the seeds of one are already starting to sprout.<\/p>\n

Black lives matter<\/h2>\n

The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, quickly responded to Pantaleo\u2019s non-indictment with appeals for non-violent protests<\/a>, declaring: \u201cNew York City owns a proud and powerful tradition of expressing ourselves through non-violent protest. We trust that those unhappy with today\u2019s grand jury decision will make their views known in the same peaceful, constructive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the moderating impulse is understandable, sentiments such as these do little more than focus attention on the \u201cthreat\u201d of \u201cviolent\u201d blacks rather than the actual aggression and violence of the white police officers responsible for Garner\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

But de Blasio also managed to advance things a little, bluntly and honestly acknowledging<\/a> that \u201ccenturies of racism that have brought us to this day\u201d. That spoke to the deeper anger driving these protests, reflected in the protesters’ rallying cry: \u201cBlack lives matter\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the heart of these words and the protests they addressed was a desire to unite the country in condemning the status quo. The emphasis was on \u201chealing\u201d a divided nation, while also recognising the serious need for reform at all levels of the state. As the US president, Barack Obama, said in response<\/a>: \u201cWe are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust and a strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

But crucial to the success of those efforts will be realising that this is not just a racial problem \u2013 it is a problem with authority in the US in general.<\/p>\n

Fight the system<\/h2>\n

Undeniably, African Americans are disproportionately affected<\/a> by police violence \u2013 but it also affects people of all races. Within months of Michael Brown\u2019s death at the hands of the Ferguson police, there were two less publicised cases of excessive police violence against white suspects in the surrounding area: Joseph Jennings, who was shot 16 times<\/a> outside a Kansas hardware store, and 17-year-old Bryce Masters, who ended up in a coma<\/a> after a police officer tasered him when he refused to roll down his window after being stopped.<\/p>\n

Obama echoed this need to both recognise the racial dynamic driving much of this violence while also the importance of treating it as a national not just \u201cblack\u201d or \u201cminority\u201d crisis. He maintained<\/a>: \u201cThe problem is not just a Ferguson problem. It\u2019s an American problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to address the problem, we have to confront its deeper causes, ones that certainly involve but are by no means limited to the country\u2019s ongoing structural racism. Rising inequality and poverty, especially in the wake of the financial crisis, have done much to contribute to police brutality<\/a>. These economic factors have been exacerbated by the growing domination of US politics by elites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Framing police violence as principally a \u201cblack problem\u201d reinforces the underlying notion that African-Americans are somehow separate from other Americans and that authoritarian crackdowns on them are reactive, not active. This plays into an established tactic of strategically highlighting racial divisions<\/a> within the country to distract attention from other issues such as class polarisation and oligarchy.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, this is a way to freeze out solidarity across race, geography and even class, leaving Americans with an identity politics of distrust and conflict.<\/p>\n

This strategy is part of the culture of fear that has driven much of the US government\u2019s policy for decades. From the War on Drugs to the War on Terror, chronic and growing issues of unemployment, economic insecurity and declining social welfare are channelled into anger and action against existential \u201cenemies\u201d \u2013 most of whom are non-white, or in some way portrayed as less than \u201cAmerican\u201d.<\/p>\n

These policy \u201cwars\u201d have been mounted in the service of a growing authoritarianism in contemporary America. The militarisation of the police force, for instance, reflects the government\u2019s need to neutralise urban areas marked by often extreme poverty and violence. Instead of an attack on the economic and social causes of ghettoisation and urban blight<\/a>, we\u2019ve seen a move away from \u201ccommunity policing<\/a>\u201d toward what has been called: \u201cThe United Police States of America<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

To overcome this strategy, then, it must be tackled as more than just a programme of racism. What must be emphasised is the authoritarianism and deeper shared disenfranchisement that motivates the state violence we see today \u2013 a tendency that certainly includes structural racism, but which is by no means limited to it.<\/p>\n

In the words Obama used when responding to the Eric Garner case, it must be framed as an \u201cAmerican problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unite against authoritarianism<\/h2>\n

The foundations for such a movement are well established and span the political spectrum. On the right, anti-authoritarian feelings have spurred the Tea Party movement to unprecedented, if chaotic, success. While Tea Partiers are primarily up in arms about public intervention in the private sector, their politics speak to an underlying fear of unaccountable state power and mass political marginalisation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the left, the Occupy movement has been railing against the growing influence of corporations and their political handmaidens since 2011; an anti-elite politics<\/a> that appeals to many of the same Americans outraged at the surveillance policies of the NSA. The authoritarianism of the police response to the Occupy protests drew unforgiving attention to just how defensive US police forces can become when power is confronted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unpunished incidents of police violence should be a catalyst for uniting Americans in a common cause against authoritarianism. In the US, the odds are stacked against most of the general public in favour of a privileged minority \u2013 and police forces are seen to ultimately serve to protect this unfair system more than they safeguard citizens.<\/p>\n

What is needed is a vision of constructive change, one focused not simply on individual justice but on collective national progress. That means going beyond simply blaming law enforcement officials and instead indicting the system as a whole.<\/p>\n

The fight against police violence should unite Americans, not divide them. Before the country can heal, it first needs to come together to cure itself.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Peter Bloom, The Open University Police violence has dominated American headlines over the past year. The seemingly unaccounted-for police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson brought renewed attention and public protests to this issue; now, the decision not to charge officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner, even after he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":6327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6328,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2512\/revisions\/6328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}