Reader Responses to Justice Impeded

Lawrence Proulx’s letter in response to “Justice Impeded” misses the point by a mile. For the record, he cites the acquittals of police in the cases of Michael Brown, Philando Castile, and Breonna Taylor. Those acquittals ARE the point of the story. The legal system is broken and protects cops. For illustration, allow me to cite the case of Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a Black veteran. In 2011, White Plains (N.Y.) police, responding to an accidentally triggered “life alert” pager, physically broke into his apartment and shot him dead. At no time were their lives in danger. They killed him after already having incapacitated him with “bean bag” rounds. Racial epithets are heard on recordings. Not one of the cops has ever been held accountable by the law. Bless Joanna Schwartz ’94 for fighting for reforms!

In a long career in journalism I have seldom read a sentence more irresponsible and indifferent to the facts than the one that starts “Justice Impeded” in the June-August 2023 issue: “In the past decade, Americans have been horrified and outraged by the high-profile police murders of unarmed Americans (almost always Black) including Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.” For the record:  Michael Brown’s death was investigated by a grand jury, which declined to bring charges. The U.S. Department of Justice, under Eric Holder, also examined the case and concluded that the police officer who shot Brown acted justifiably in self-defense. The police officer who shot Philando Castile was charged with second-degree manslaughter, not murder, and acquitted. One detective was charged with wanton endangerment in the Breonna Taylor case and found not guilty. No one was charged with murder, much less convicted. Only in the death of George Floyd was anyone convicted of murder, in this case both second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter, under Minnesota’s peculiar laws. Aside from blocking the reckless use of the term “murders,” the editor should have questioned the parenthesis “almost always Black.” If it means that Americans killed by police officers are mostly Black, that is simply wrong. If it means that most of the “high-profile” killings were of Black people, then ask what it is that makes some killings “high-profile.” Persevering with that question might reveal why the media’s reputation today is so low.

Do we need yet another iteration of the rogue-cop meme, this one thanks to an alumna of two bastions of Ivy privilege who teaches at a third bastion of privilege in the safety of privileged Westwood? In my forty-four years of teaching at Brown, I don’t remember having had a student whose ambition was to be a cop and hang out in neighborhoods where looting, violence, rape, and murder are daily experiences. Most Brown students and their professors prefer to live in safe, affluent neighborhoods, leading well-compensated lives while cops who risk their lives every day—the vast majority honest and courageous—protect them. To my knowledge, BAM has not published a story about a rogue professor or student, though I have known many. The rogue-cop meme that led to the Defund the Police movement has helped turn the streets of San Francisco and Portland (Oregon) into open sewers While others deal with rogue cops, it’s time to sing a new tune.