51吃瓜

Baltimore has become the latest focus of African American anger over policing and deeper race relations.

It was only a matter of time before Baltimore erupted into racial violence. The city epitomizes urban deprivation and underdevelopment. In decline since World War II, when its population peaked at just under a million people, the city now has 600,000 residents 鈥� and two-thirds are African Americans.

Unemployment is around 9%, but it is聽 that in Baltimore鈥檚 black community.聽The city has a history of troubled race relations聽going more than 100 years聽to the development of segregated housing developments, which effectively 鈥済hettoized鈥� Baltimore鈥檚 African American communities in poorly serviced and cramped communities.

Now, Baltimore is the focus of violence with聽protests over the 鈥� in police custody 鈥� of聽Freddie Gray, a young African American male,聽who died on April 19 of spinal injuries after being arrested and found in possession of a knife.

Gray鈥檚 death is just the latest in a recent spate of high-profile incidents involving white police officers and young black men. While Gray鈥檚 death is not quite so clear-cut as that of Walter Scott, whose death was captured on video after he was聽 in the back聽by Officer Michael Slager, it continues to raise questions about policing of black-majority communities in the United States.

Gray鈥檚 arrest was videoed, and he was evidently alive and well when put in the police van, but within a short time he had suffered such severe injuries that he died in hospital. He was arrested by white police officers.

Baltimore is far from the only American city to have a problem with racialized policing. Indeed most American cities have exactly this problem, where black neighborhoods, usually the most economically depressed and disadvantaged, are perceived to be more closely and severely policed than affluent white areas. In many locations police forces are disproportionately white, even when the wider community is majority black or Hispanic. This reinforces the impression that police forces are there to control and contain the non-white communities.

In reality, Baltimore鈥檚 police force has more black officers than many comparable cities 鈥� though still a minority 鈥� and both the聽city鈥檚 police commissioner聽and聽the mayor聽are also black. One might imagine that the African American community would look on these figures of black authority with pride and that it would help to reduce tension between the police and the black community. In reality, for some at least, black officers are seen to be collaborators in the system of racial oppression 鈥� modern-day 鈥淯ncle Toms鈥� who, by repeating the mantra of calm, peaceful protest, are only perpetuating a social system that marginalizes the most oppressed.

Violent Resistance and Guns

One question I always pose to students learning about the American Revolution is: 鈥淲hen is violent resistance justified?鈥� Americans used a variety of tactics to resist British authority in the years before revolutionary war broke out, including economic boycotts and intimidation, but eventually they determined that armed resistance was the only way to achieve their goals. The same thought processes are going through the minds of rioters in Baltimore.

The deaths of young black men at the hands of the police are聽so 聽that it seems to some that nothing is being done to prevent them. How many peaceful marches have there been? What has happened as a result? There are laws in place to prevent excessive force being used by the police, but the chances of an officer being charged with any crime without overwhelming evidence are slim.

The pervasiveness of guns in American culture, staunchly defended by many politicians, does not help matters. Police do face armed criminals who are prepared to shoot at them, so they carry their own weapons and use them. The standard defense to any accusation of officers using inappropriate lethal force is that they 鈥渇elt in fear of their life.鈥� This argument is difficult to counter 鈥� officers should be able to do their job without risking their lives.

But the聽 of police forces聽has also proceeded apace with ex-army surplus equipment now routinely being deployed on the streets of US cities. This militarization ramps up the stakes with criminals. Instead of being armed with handguns or shotguns, criminals use assault weapons or sub-machine guns, and they face-off against police using armored vehicles recently seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American police may be trigger-happy 鈥� they killed more than 600 people in 2014 鈥� but they also have a deeper racial problem that will not be solved overnight. There is a deep-seated fear of what is perceived as the armed and violent black man, something that goes back to slavery times, and the white response has always been equally violent.

Slave men were horribly abused in order to show others that resistance was not to be tolerated. Once slavery ended, lynching became the main method of exerting white control over black men. The guilt or innocence of each victim was not as important as the wider message sent to the black community.

The killing of unarmed young black men by white police officers continues this assertion of racial control in America.

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.

Photo Credit:聽听/听

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