Institutional racism was defined by Sir William Macpherson in the 1999 Lawrence report (UK) as: “The collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”[5][6]
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Between me and my kids, we have been nearly (as in, within a minute or two, happened to have left the exact spot where it would have happened) killed by police response a dozen times that I know of (I assume my kids wouldn’t tell me every instance, to keep me from freaking out completely). None of that is on this map. Nor are the people in my community who have been hurt or killed in this way.
Instead, it gets pinned on whomever they were chasing/shooting at. So it’s not police violence, don’t you see? It’s the suspect’s fault. Doesn’t show up in the statistics that way.
Illinois is a no-death-penalty state. Any suspect who goes through the system will not be executed, no matter what they’re found guilty of doing. So instead, let’s kill them before going through all that pesky legal stuff. Less paperwork and time away from the streets that way. And if any bystanders get caught in the crossfire? That’s the cost of doing business.
Here’s the thing: an awful lot of people DO get up in the morning with some level of that thought in their heads. It might not be spelled out in words, but it’s how they feel, and how they interact with others during the day. It would be great if it were just a caricature, but it’s all too common, as we can see from the number of times something like this happens.
No, he got up in the morning thinking “every day is a good day to shoot some darkies for the good of my race.”
Are you really saying that the lack of a death penalty is an active factor in cops being more trigger-happy and willing to shoot people? Really? Interesting hypothesis - I’d like to see some evidence (while admiring the cynicism of said hypothesis). It could prove to be true, though I doubt it is provable.
No I’m not, but I see how my snark in the same sentence could be understood that way.
What I meant to say was that involving the police has a tendency to end up in the death of someone, which is particularly egregious when you consider that there’s no crime the person could have been doing that would legally invoke the death penalty.
In other words, never call the police for anything. You’re signing someone’s death warrant (maybe even your own, if you’re physically nearby).
This is especially true in Chicago. The police see themselves as an occupying force in a war zone, even though they themselves played a huge part in creating this war zone, which has no real reason to exist.
Calling the cops is weaponized caucasity.
Once again, The Onion is prescient.
As per James Baldwin:
In Harlem, Negro policemen are feared more than whites, for they have more to prove and fewer ways to prove it.
— Notes of a Native Son (1955).
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