There are direct parallels between the way African American men were portrayed in the past, and how police officers are seen now, and it is the legacy media who have twisted American perceptions- then, as now. This essay was first written as a response to an article at Quillette, entitled The Accomplishments of Black Conservative Thought
On the subject of police shootings the first thing to point out is that American police officers face a unique set of circumstances, compared to officers in other countries. In most Western countries, officers simply don’t the same risk of encountering as assailant with a gun. But there is a lot more than that at play. Virtually every Western country has embarked upon upon various policing strategies similar to the War on Drugs, anti-gang and proactive policing, part of which is known more popularly as ‘Broken Windows’, but none have had anywhere near similar levels of incarceration, which I believe is intimately related with the vile tropes which have been engineered by the media in relation young African American men in the past, and police shootings in the present.
Obviously, every police shooting is tragic, made the more so by the desecration of just authority seen in those rare instances which shock the conscience so vividly, but more broadly- it’s not the police who are to blame for America’s troubles, they are mostly the janitors who clean up the mess. So what is to blame?
Well, first we need to consider that despite the fact that the number of citizens per police officer in America is roughly comparable to other advanced Western economies, they routinely have to deal with 5 to 7 times the level of violence. This creates a system of Criminal Justice which is critically overworked, and in which the normal checks and balances have been overwhelmed. We also really need to look to what social condition are unique to America- it’s one for the social scientists. I wouldn’t hold out much hope, given that they seem to studiously ignore the wealth of data showing the proportion of fathers in a community is crucial to both upward social mobility and preventing juvenile violence, which is often a precursor to adult criminality.
But more broadly speaking, we need to look to the media and political classes and the effect they have had in corrupting America’s Criminal Justice system. And if COVID has taught us anything, it is that the legacy media dictates the actions of politicians- the tail wagging the dog, as it were. Pre-pandemic planning and epidemic rehearsals contained no such thing as a lockdown. It wasn’t in the playbook because the behaviouralists all agreed that it simply isn’t possible to keep an entire population compliant in any meaningful way for any length of time.
But after initially dismissing concerns by experts and then realising they had blundered, the legacy media first proceeded to foment a panic- because it sold the news- and then decided we needed strong action. What this clearly demonstrates is that politicians are little more than indentured servants to the media cycle. If we remember our recent history, it was the media which perpetuated the news cycle of ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ that so scared the American public, subsequently finding an obscure conservative academic who first coined the phrase ‘superpredator’.
And the parallels between the narrative which once surrounded young Black men and now dictates the reaction of large swathes of the American public towards police officers are striking. Both rely upon the selective curation of news stories to produce a false reality for media consumers, fooling people into accepting a deeply flawed availability heuristic which bears no relation to the facts on the ground. Most Americans simply don’t realise that for every George Floyd there is Tony Timpa, that for every Black child shot for possessing a toy gun, we could find a white equivalent.
And what was the result of the previous false narrative perpetrated by the media? Substantial changes to the American Criminal Code. The deliberate undermining of judicial discretion- the only person in a courtroom who should exercise any real degree of discretion- based upon yet another flawed heuristic, the perception that a tiny number of ultra-liberal fruitcakes in robes were somehow more broadly representative of the judiciary.
Draconian sentences were also a huge factor, implemented by legislative fiat, which, in a truly constitutional society should have been rejected as a violation of the principle of the Separation of Powers. When Parliament passed the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994, which removed the ‘Right to Silence’ along with many other changes, British judges showed more backbone- almost all simply refused to have any mention of a ‘no comment’ or ‘no reply’ in their courtroom. Many still don’t to this day.
The average coke dealer gets a sentence of 39 months in the UK, which is misleading because there is clear distinction between those who the court deems odious, but relatively safe (other than through their trade), and those who pose a substantial risk to public safety. In the US, the average sentence imposed for federal drug trafficking in 2016 was 71 months, and this type of sentencing is typical of American sentencing mandates.
It is such a failed strategy. Research has shown that longer sentences have almost no value in terms of added deterrence or in preventing crime- the only ground for longer sentences should be when a criminal poses a substantial risk to the public. An empirically based approach would cut spending on prisons and spend more money on detecting and catching criminals, because the research also shows that if you substantially increase the risks of a criminal getting caught for a given offence, the crime levels drastically reduce.
Nobody should doubt that violent offender who cause lasting harms should be locked up for periods which are reflective of their crimes and until they have passed the age at which rates of aggression and violence rapidly begin to decline (35), but one really needs to ask the questions about the length of sentences handed out in the past in America, as well as the extent to which a lack of options and state support after incarceration pushes people back into recidivism. It may strike at the notions of justice of many to offer housing or welfare to former felons, but at a statistical level it reduces the harms suffered by the general public. Non-violent offences classified as felonies are perhaps the area to focus on here- a more measured approach would see prosecutors misdemeanor-maxing to accomplish the same sentencing aims.
It should be noted that the Australian sentencing for drug offences has also proven highly ineffective at tackling the problem- leading to an increase in the total number of people engaging in drug-dealing (and subsequently serving sentences), through the conveyor belt of the dumb and the desperate.
Perhaps realising their institutional historical mistakes, having read Michelle Alexander or watched13th, the media are only compounding their error by encouraging a style of policing and Criminal Justice which exists at the polar opposite extreme- jeopardising the quality of life of huge numbers of mainly Black and Brown urban residents and exposing them to substantial increased risks of murder- with homicides rising by 36% in America in 2020, three times the previous record of 12%. Again, the victims are primarily Black and Brown, and although COVID may well be factor in some peripheral sense, every other Western country has seen a fall in violent crime since the onset of the pandemic.
Under the baleful omnipresent influence of legacy media, American Criminal Justice is not so much a set of scales, but a pendulous scythe which swings violently from one extreme to the other, unheedful of the damage it may do to those unfortunate enough to fall under its auspices. And Criminal Justice is only one of many American public policies which media undermines- many people belabour under the misapprehension that the failures of the public school system are down to money (which can be true at the margins, or in some States, but many States have also instituted policies which target additional funds to inner city schools, to little effect), rather than the result of disrupted classrooms, flaky and unproven educational theories and an educational bureaucracy which has singularly failed in the one job it was tasked to do- raise performance standards in education.
An empirical approach to improving American society would see the redistribution of taxpayer money away from funding student debt and from public universities and towards vocational training. It’s not the kids who do well at school and go to college who end up committing crime and going to prison. It’s the kids who don’t do well at school, who feel like failures at 16 and feel they have no chance of leading a healthy and productive life who are drawn into crime, with the inevitable results.
Many kids who go to college find themselves barristas or bartenders when they graduate. Meanwhile, there were 7 million relatively well-paid vocationally orientated jobs which employers simply couldn’t fill in 2019. Since the early 2000s, Black America has made huge strides- which goes widely unreported other than by Coleman Hughes. If America wants to capitalise on the gain, and see a real and substantial improvement then they need to create a roadmap for success for kids from poorer backgrounds who don’t do well at schools.
It would also do a great deal for the perception of racial equality in America- because although poor white kids probably outnumber poor white kids in terms the pure numbers, the percentage of Black kids who are poor is disproportionate. The jobs exist, as do the people- it’s simply a case of creating the right linkage to fill the vacancies. With well-paid work these young men won’t have time the time or the inclination to go out to commit crimes.
When was the last time you heard good news about the state of black America? Given the way the topic is reported in the media, you could be forgiven for not remembering. Most will be familiar with … (from the article).
If you don’t believe me about the extent to which legacy media has distorted the American Public’s view of police shootings, then read this article from the New York Post:
Social movements tap into our most primitive emotions, obscuring the complexities of sociopolitical problems. Reason is traded for ideological fervor and skepticism is swapped with religious dogma.… (from the article).
This graph shows estimated of police shootings of unarmed Black men. The actual number was 27, according to a source quoted in the article.
I would highly recommend you read the Coleman Hughes article. It articulates a positive and uplifting empirically-based picture, which is a far cry from the depressing and often destructive narrative portrayed by legacy media.
"Meanwhile, there were 7 million relatively well-paid vocationally orientated jobs which employers simply couldn’t fill in 2019."
If there is a datum which should outrage one and all it is that one. Who is in favor of this? From Bernie to the Koch brothers, and from Hillary to David Duke, who believes that it is good for working people to live in hopeless demi-poverty while industry goes begging for workers? Give me absolute power for one day and I'm going to find some scapegoat for the above and shoot him against a brick wall. Then install AOC as commissar of ... na, fuck, that won't work ... strike a royal commission to find someone who can take charge of it. They say the Swiss train their people for real life in a real economy designed to benefit those same real people. Rotten commies.
I think violence in America and the threat to police is overblown. Yes, there are several relatively small areas that are regularly violent, typically those occupied by criminal enterprises offering for sale to a demanding clientele that which authoritarians foolishly prohibit. Most police never deal with an armed criminal, nor have to draw their arms. Stats make it seem like everyone is in danger, but it's quite concentrated.
This isn't particularly new; I distinctly remember Blacks (and Democrats) insisting on stronger sentencing for crack cocaine back in the 80s. 20 years later, they were complaining about the sentencing disparities - disparities that they themselves insisted on!
"Meanwhile, there were 7 million relatively well-paid vocationally orientated jobs which employers simply couldn’t fill in 2019."
If there is a datum which should outrage one and all it is that one. Who is in favor of this? From Bernie to the Koch brothers, and from Hillary to David Duke, who believes that it is good for working people to live in hopeless demi-poverty while industry goes begging for workers? Give me absolute power for one day and I'm going to find some scapegoat for the above and shoot him against a brick wall. Then install AOC as commissar of ... na, fuck, that won't work ... strike a royal commission to find someone who can take charge of it. They say the Swiss train their people for real life in a real economy designed to benefit those same real people. Rotten commies.
I think violence in America and the threat to police is overblown. Yes, there are several relatively small areas that are regularly violent, typically those occupied by criminal enterprises offering for sale to a demanding clientele that which authoritarians foolishly prohibit. Most police never deal with an armed criminal, nor have to draw their arms. Stats make it seem like everyone is in danger, but it's quite concentrated.
This isn't particularly new; I distinctly remember Blacks (and Democrats) insisting on stronger sentencing for crack cocaine back in the 80s. 20 years later, they were complaining about the sentencing disparities - disparities that they themselves insisted on!