A TRAGIC LACK OF RACIST POLICING

by Colin Liddell

This recent video of a mentally disturbed Black man being shot and killed by police on his own doorstep in Dallas is the latest SJW snuff movie to be doing the rounds. This kind of video is becoming increasingly common, not just because wherever you go people can instantly film stuff like this on their smart phones, but also because police are increasingly being required to wear body cameras. This trend towards greater surveillance is driven by the belief, widespread among Blacks and Leftists, that America’s police are acting in a “racist” way, and by the desire of police and Conservatives to show that they are “not.”

But the idea that a little surveillance and disclosure will clear things up is at best touchingly naive. No matter how White police act when arresting Blacks, Leftists and most Blacks are never going to be satisfied that there is a lack of “racism.” Racism is too nebulous and elastic a concept to ever be vanquished, even by the prospect of police officers arresting people nicely and respectfully, while smiling into the camera.

On the contrary, such videos will only increase Black people’s sense of victimization and alienation, as the only ones that will be watched are those in which there is clear evidence of racism and/or where things go tragically wrong, as in the case in Dallas. These videos will inevitably feature White police officers shooting/tasering/choking Black suspects. The raw visual semantics will transcend any notion of right or wrong, and eclipse the finer points of correct policing.

The result of this trend, therefore, will be to increase pressure on the police to be even more ostensibly non-racist. But rather than helping Blacks this will only serve to harm them.

This point is driven home by the video of the shooting in Dallas. The film is not entirely clear and for this reason Leftists will be able to use it to make the case that the man was unfairly shot, although he is shown holding a screwdriver (it may have looked like a knife to the officers) and the off-camera dynamic suggests that he suddenly lunged at police after they shouted at him to put it down.

But the problem with this incident is essentially the exact opposite of what is being presented. This man is shot not due to racism but because of a lack of it. The danger in the situation is caused by the police attempt to affect a post-racial casual tone. Even though they apparently knew they were dealing with a mentally disturbed Black man, they did not even have a taser or billy club ready, and so were forced to overreact by grabbing their guns.

This might just have been down to bad policing or laziness, but nowadays, as we know, police officers are routinely given sensitivity training in which they are taught how to be “non-racist” and show “appropriate” and unthreatening body language, which they are recommended to use in all but the most dangerous situations. This house call, from the man’s mother, to take her son to hospital, would obviously fall into this “be casual” category.

But such training, no matter how pervasive, cannot entirely eradicate police perceptions of Blacks, which are based on their actual experiences, and point towards Blacks being more violent, drugged up, and unpredictable than average, and also resentful of White police. So, mixed in with the attempt at relaxed affability, is a consciousness that the muscles on their trigger finger are still their most important ones.

Also, while police are subjected to such training, those on whom it is applied are not. Whatever the reason, when a group of typically beefy, buzzcut White cops turn up, many Blacks will naturally feel the way a member of any racial group feels when subjected to policing by another racial demographic – a deep, primordial sense of fear, anger, and resentment.

In the video, the attempt of the two officers to affect a casual, neighbourly approach is obvious. Not only are they unprepared with any intermediate response, such as a taser, billy club, or body armour, but they also maintain a close and trusting distance towards the man. Not only are they trying to defuse any tension by trying to appear untense themselves, but you sense that they almost want to be his “friend.” The fact that they were then also able to pump several rounds into him at lightning speed, however, gives the lie to their acting.

This is a near perfect example of “post-racial” or “race-denying” policing, which means that White police pretend to treat Blacks the same way they would treat Whites. The obvious flaw is that Blacks are not Whites, and neither Whites nor Blacks in any situation whatsoever ever thinks they are. All that is achieved is to add an additional layer of confusion to tense and awkward situations that can prove deadly, especially for Blacks.

Not only is there a problem of interracial resentment in situations like these that adds to the danger, but people of different racial and cultural groups have a much lower ability to read subtle facial expressions and body language signals from each other.

If Black officers had been involved – assuming equal intelligence with the White officers – things would have played out quite differently.

First of all the mentally disturbed man would have felt no racial animosity, but secondly the officers would have been instantly more aware of his mood and possible intention, and thus able to counter or preempt it in a way that did not involve filling him full of lead. They would also have been much more able to establish a rapport with him, instead of just yelling at him.

But making special arrangements to have Black officers policing Blacks is obviously racist – and we can’t have that in modern-day America, now, can we?

Likewise, if the actual White officers had been allowed to play the scene according to their racial – and therefore “racist” – instincts, there would have been no attempt at casual bonhomie and fake race blindness. Instead, their actions would have openly shown that they were dealing with a person of another race and a more dangerous demographic, whose face and body language would be harder to read, and who could also be expected to feel natural antagonism towards them.

This would have resulted in them assuming a more stand-offish posture and having a variety of weapons handy until the situation could be properly ascertained. Such demeanour would have made them a far less tempting target to a mentally disturbed Black man. But, in addition to being much safer for all concerned, such an approach would have been intimidatory, unfriendly, and obviously racist – so throw another corpse on the grand altar of multiculturalism and forget about it.

Connected Articles:
Paradoxes of Policing
Another Dyslexic Demonstrator
The Blankout Game versus the Knoockout Game