Column: Racist recordings marked a new low for City Hall. Can it be the start of a better L.A.?
The most recent example came this week when a video of a police officer repeatedly punching a black teenager in the face went viral. The incident is just the latest in a string of incidents of officers allegedly targeting minority suspects, including people of color, in the name of fighting crime.
A few weeks ago, a white woman accused a law enforcement officer of rape in a story that received national coverage. Less than a month ago, four officers were accused of using excessive force against an unarmed black motorist. In the early 1990s, a female officer was charged with aggravated battery for allegedly forcing her partner to perform oral sex on her. These recent incidents highlight the growing problem of racism in law enforcement, which not only undermines the credibility of police officers, but also compromises public safety.
The video of the officer punching the black teen in the face shows the impact of racist violence on people of color, especially black people. It shows how some police officers of color who encounter racial discrimination use their bodies as weapons of resistance instead of as agents of justice that empower everyone, including police officers of color.
The video is jarring given the officer’s body cam video shows the teen being punched in the face. The city council and the Los Angeles Police Commission are investigating the incident, and the mayor has stated that he will not tolerate such behavior. The video is being analyzed and used to help develop best practices for officers in the future on how to handle people of color. But the LASD has yet to show any appreciation for the public’s outrage.
Some claim that the officer who was accused of rape and the officer who beat an unarmed black motorist are both doing their jobs. They say the violence is necessary to keep the public safe. But what is actually going on in both instances is completely different than what we are being told.
The most obvious reason why people of color are under attack by the police is because of their lives: their neighborhoods, their livelihoods, their families, their communities. The vast majority of people of color do not choose to live in such communities. And to understand what happens to people of color in communities like these, it is important to learn about those communities and about the specific social conditions that create the conditions that create these communities.
In this report written for the New