George Floyd changed my mind

For many years, I was skeptical about accusations of racism in the criminal justice system. Yes, I knew that Black people comprised only about 12% of the population yet represented 33% of the prison population. But that data alone did not prove that police are racists or that courts are tougher on Black people than others. The relevant criterion is not the percentage of the population, but the percentage of the criminal population, and when you consider the higher rates of offending among African Americans, the seemingly disproportionate rates of incarceration make sense.

Well, some countered, if you look at who winds up on death row, you can see the racism at work. Less than half of murder victims in the U.S. are white, yet a 2003 study found that 80% of inmates on death row had killed white people. I wasn’t convinced. It might be evidence of racism, or it could be that when people kill others of their same race, they are more likely to know them. These could be crimes of passion and therefore less likely to draw the death penalty. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 2001 and 2005, nearly 78% of Black people were murdered by other Black people, and nearly 70% of whites were killed by other whites.

I thought Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a cop in Ferguson was tragic, but the Obama Department of Justice investigation found that the forensic evidence supported the officer’s version of events.

My views have changed though, bit by bit, over the past half-decade. Was it the sheer accumulation of cases? Eric Garner was choked to death. Yes, he was resisting arrest, but for what? For selling “loosies” — untaxed cigarettes. Freddie Gray, 25, was taken into custody in Baltimore. Somehow, he snapped his spine in the police van. He lapsed into a coma and died a week later.

Walter Scott was stopped for a defective taillight. After initial questioning and a quick scuffle, Scott fled the officer. Officer Michael Slager shot Scott in the back, killing him. He filed a police report saying that Scott had grabbed his Taser, but a bystander video showed that after the shooting, Officer Slager ran back to the site of the initial scrap, picked something up and dropped it next to Scott’s body.

And, of course, there’s the depraved murder of George Floyd, crushed to death under the knee of a pitiless cop while three other officers stood by.

I know there are videos of whites being shot by police. And as John McWhorter argues, it’s likely that we haven’t seen those videos because they don’t fit the narrative of racist white cops.

And yet, I think of the testimony of Black men that they are routinely pulled over and hassled for “driving while black.” Is that their imagination? Can we dismiss Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who recalls a meeting at which one man after another recounted his experiences of being stopped by police, only to reveal that it was a conference of Black physicists? What about Senator Tim Scott? He was stopped seven times in one year driving in his own neighborhood.

There’s a lot more where that came from.

I’ve long believed that police have a difficult job and deal with the worst of the worst on a daily basis. I’m grateful for their protection. But I’ve come to believe that mistreatment of African Americans is not a myth and is not uncommon.

I’m glad that so many Americans are signaling their dismay at these outcomes. People’s minds can change. Mine did.