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In fact, the majority of Americans (56%) believe that American society is racist. Also that the police treat blacks and whites differently (67%). But the United States is also divided on this issue. It is true that there is no question that black Americans are overrepresented among those killed by the police, among those arrested for traffic violations, and among the huge prison population of the United States. But while some argue that overrepresentation is due to racism within the police force, others, especially conservative voices, say other factors come into play. Among other things, that crime among black Americans is higher than among whites and it leads police officers to confront an armed black man more often than a white man. A study by the leftist People’s Policy Project found that social class, rather than skin color, was the factor that seemed to affect the risk of being imprisoned the most.
Fear of the police
All the explanations have in common that they do not actually rule out the errors of the system, but rather point out that the errors of the system run deeper than the simple racism possible in the judiciary. Poverty, poorer housing, and a tougher path to higher education – There are many factors that contribute to the fact that nearly 80 percent of the black population views the United States as racist.
Fear of the police and dying from police intervention is another reason.
More than 15 million Americans protested this summer against police brutality after George Floyd’s death, according to estimates from four different studies. Even if the numbers were significantly lower, they still mean that this summer’s demonstrations may be the largest protests in American history, larger than the civil rights movement protests in the 1950s and 1960s.
Democrats wanted to ban police strangulation
Therefore, it was not surprising that both sides quickly drafted proposals for police reforms. First from the Democrats in the House of Representatives and then from the Republicans in the Senate. Both contained proposals to compel police to collect data on the use of force, increased use of body cameras, and more training. But there were also real differences. Democrats wanted to ban all kinds of strangulation by the police, like the ones that led to the death of George Floyd earlier this year and the death of Eric Garner in New York City in 2014. Republicans stopped asking states that banned strangulation and also defined strangulation much more strictly than the Democrats. Democrats also wanted to weaken police legal protection.
So how did it go? The Republicans’ proposal in the Senate was rejected by the Democrats, who voted through their own proposal in the House of Representatives, a proposal that Senate President Mitch McConnell (Rep) has since refused to accept in the Senate, and that President Trump has already promised to veto.
Trump focuses on the riots; Biden on police brutality
Now that the election campaign has accelerated and protests continue, only Democrats are pushing for police reform to be an electoral issue. While President Trump focuses on riots, vandalized small businesses and police security, challenger Biden talks more about police brutality and racism.
This is not strange. You need the votes of those 15 million voters who protested this summer. For many of them, this is not the first time they have heard a politician talk about making the judicial system fairer in the United States. The question I ask myself is who do Americans prefer to vote for? Someone who perceives as racist, or someone who does not believe that it changes anything. The answer, and Joe Biden’s big headache, may be: None of them.
