Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Death in Minneapolis
Lately, I've been using Wednesdays for profiling my law school classmates, but I need to take a break from that this week. Something sad and deeply troubling has happened, not that far from where I sit as I write this. And it is an indictment of my generation of lawyers-- the privileged and powerful group I graduated with from Yale Law-- that this is still happening. We have not addressed the problems of race in our society in a way that conscience demands.
Yesterday, a man named George Floyd--pictured above-- was arrested outside a Minneapolis grocery store. He was accused of using a counterfeit bill at the store, which is forgery under state law (it has its own counterfeiting statute in federal law). At any rate, it is not a very serious crime in the larger picture.
When Mr. Floyd was taken into custody, a Minneapolis police officer punished him until he died, by pressing a knee to his neck as he gasped for breath on the pavement.
Often with these incidents I wait to opine or write about them-- I am very cautious about having a position until all the evidence is out. On this one, though, based on the video available, it is hard to imagine any justification for the killing. The officers involved have been fired, and I expect at least one of them to be charged with murder.
This is troubling on many levels. The racial injustice is clear-- this is yet another incident with a white police officer and a dead black man. And where does that degree of malice come from in one empowered to act in the public interest?
Something is very much wrong in our culture of law enforcement. Part of what a new administration at the federal level must do is take that seriously. If Joe Biden wants to be a president who is distinct from his predecessor, he must commit not just to study, but to action.
We do not treat black and white in the same way.
We incarcerate too many people.
We have made too many things illegal.
We have chosen retribution over freedom and even safety, and this has harmed our culture.
Those in law enforcement can no longer be the only ones given a legitimized voice in evaluating our criminal justice structure and practice.
Comments:
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Mostly agree with your five concluding assertions. Huge problems that pose an existential threat to the American project of self government. I am not sure we will agree on the solutions (or the process by which we pursue solutions or even the proper authority for enacting solutions). On the other hand, our problems are dire. Let us begin.
Farmer--
It is going to be interesting: For the first time, we are going to have two people running for president as criminal justice reformers. In a surprise, only one (Trump) has an actual net-positive record on actually doing that while in office. Biden has a lot of work to do, and it is going to be a very good time to discuss these issues.
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It is going to be interesting: For the first time, we are going to have two people running for president as criminal justice reformers. In a surprise, only one (Trump) has an actual net-positive record on actually doing that while in office. Biden has a lot of work to do, and it is going to be a very good time to discuss these issues.
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