Leaders of Criminal Justice Organizations Say It’s Time We All Were Part of the Solution
Experts on the subject of security and defense of minorities agreed that there is no national strategy around far-right violence and white supremacy, and they expressed concern that many white supremacists are inside the police forces.
“It is a problem that the federal government does not prioritize and local state governments often do not want to take up this crime in the United States,” said Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and former FBI special agent, specialist in terrorism. domestic and covert operations,
German and leaders for criminal justice participated in the videoconference “Reframing the Law and Order Debate: Delivering Security and Justice in Our Communities and Assessing the Impact of Right-wing Extremism”, Organized by Ethnic Media Services.
German emphasized that dIt is up to the media to hold the government to account because there is a perception that crime is increasing significantly.
“Actually that is not true if you look at the historical analysis. There were many more homicides in the 1990s and since then they have dropped a lot and we are still at relatively low levels of violence in this country. “
He pointed out that the recent riots are nothing like the violence we saw in the protests of the 1960s and 1970s.
“One of the things we have to understand is the influence of white supremacy in our society. We formed as a nation as a project of white supremacy, right? This was the European colonization of the United States called “The New World.”
He noted that white supremacy was codified in law for hundreds of years, and police officers enforcing those laws enforced it not just in the South but throughout the United States.
Minority people, he recalled, were not allowed to be in the city after sundown.
“The police have often had a very familiar relationship with white supremacist groups, and we are seeing these protests today being ignored; and at best lauded by government officials, including the President of the United States. ”
How to have a national strategy to address the violence generated by white supremacism?
“That can be done in one fell swoop. All it takes is for the attorney general to say it’s a major concern if a white supremacist kills someone. “
“The FBI could classify that as domestic terrorism, in which case it is the number one priority within the field of counterterrorism, although white supremacy is below any international terrorism.
However, he found it problematic because the FBI calls a white supremacist who kills someone a hate crime, because it also conforms to those statutes, and that already falls into number five of the priorities.
Regarding the protests, he opined that from the beginning there has been an effort by the government at all levels to say that the violence is generated by external agitators and diverts attention from the legitimate concerns expressed by community members.
White Supremacists and Police
German said that white supremacy is a persistent problem throughout our society and is within law enforcement. “The police recruit from society, so they are likely to attract white supremacist militancy.”
And due to the structural racism in the country – he noted – the police are still predominantly white and male. “Part of the problem is that within law enforcement, aggressive police officers are rewarded; and particularly in areas where crime is high ”.
An example of white dominance in law enforcement is the FBI which has 35,000 employees, 83% white, 80% male.
Mothers in charge
Dorothy Johnson-Speight, founder and director of the Mothers in Charge organization, said that in 2001 her only 24-year-old son was shot and killed in a parking lot.
“Of course I wanted to die. But at some point I knew I had to do something about the violence in our community. ”
This is how in 2003 Mothers in Charge began as a way to deal with his pain and anger.
Initially, he said that the objective was to support families affected by violence by improving the conditions and quality of life in the community.
“Several years later, I have a better understanding of injustice, oppression, police brutality and the things that happen against minorities.”
Mothers in Charge is now a national organization with chapters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Kansas, and elsewhere.
“I think that with what we’ve seen in recent weeks, we should be concerned and outraged enough to do something to make a difference. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem ”.
He added that he is hopeful that this new movement in communities across the country will remain strong, but he also wants to see a change at the top that understands what has happened and does not deny it.
Threatened minorities
Raj Jayadev, co-founder of Silicon Valley De-Bug, a community collective in San Jose that works with local communities in the fight for social justice and criminal justice reform, said the premise of Trumpism is to increase police surveillance and incarceration.
“What the protests have tried to say is that police surveillance and incarceration threaten the safety of minorities in terms of who is detained and their dignity stripped when they are asked to sit on a sidewalk because of the color of their skin.
“That includes lethal violence from someone who is killed by the police; and the middle spectrum, which are the people whose lives have been taken away, separated from families and communities because they have been accused, criminalized, prosecuted and imprisoned ”.
He summarized by saying that the protests are to say that safety for the most oppressed would lead to safety for all. “That’s when people say that Black Lives Matters is the initial premise.”
And he observed that there has been an increase in racism, not only in comments on the street but in real institutions like the police.
“In a recent post from a Facebook group of San José police officers, the partner of one of the members displayed the most vile white supremacist racist language, which is very concerning coming from those with the legal authority to kill.” .
