Reform won’t work without perception change
Columbus is still reeling from the recent killing of two Black men. Deputy Jason Meade of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office shot Casey Goodson, Jr. while he was putting keys into his door, and Officer Adam Coy of the Columbus Police Department shot Andre Hill while he was leaving a garage, having just dropped off Christmas money for a friend.
The actions of the police here in Columbus are rightfully being compared to U.S. Capitol police who showed patience, restraint, and even deference in the midst of the Jan. 6 violent riot, where upset Trump supporters came to express their anger and disbelief over President Trump’s 2020 Election defeat.
In 2020, nearly three-quarters of Columbus voters supported the creation of a civilian police review board, and the calls for police reform continue to increase. But police actions related to Casey Goodson Jr., Andre Hill, and the U.S. Capitol riots demonstrate a persistent obstacle: Police reform will not change society’s biased perception of Black dangerousness and white innocence.
A 2017 study indicates that when comparing Black men to white men of the same size, people will tend to view Black men as more threatening and larger. Researcher
John Paul Wilson stated that “participants also believed that the Black men were more capable of causing harm in a hypothetical altercation and, troublingly, that police would be more justified in using force to subdue them, even if the men were unarmed.”
Another study pointed out that these perceptions apply even to children. People, including police officers, see white kids as more innocent than Black kids. Phillip Atiba Goff stated that his research “found that Black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent.”
If our society views Black people as dangerous from the time they are children and believes Black men are more capable of causing harm and thus more “deserving” of police force and harm, then police reform alone will not solve the problem.
These perceptions were no doubt in play in the police response to a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, D.C. as compared to the police response to the Jan. 6 riot. Although 93% of Black Lives Matter protests were determined to be peaceful, the June 6 protest drew a large police presence and 316 arrests.
The insurrection in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, resulted in only 61 arrests even though more police officers were injured and one police officer was killed during the insurrection.
Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, noted that we need to pay attention to “not only what police do” but “when officers choose to do something and when they choose to do nothing.”
Neither Casey Goodson Jr. nor Andre Hill committed any crimes. But the mostly White rioters in Washington DC did. Neither Casey Goodson Jr. nor Andre Hill is alive today, while nearly every rioter who stormed the Capitol vandalized federal property and committed acts of violence yet was able to wake up to see the next day.
We are witnessing our country ask us to reform our system of policing. But how can we reform a system that was largely established over the perceptions of Black dangerousness?
It is impossible to do so. Instead, we must focus on addressing society’s tendency to criminalize Blackness. We must reckon with these systemic inequities and perceptions. Otherwise, reform won’t end brutalization, harm and the unnecessary killing of Black people.
Marcelius Braxton is assistant dean of students at Capital University Law School and a consultant in diversity, equity and inclusion.
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