Thanks to Margarita for helping me talk and think and rethink through these issues today.
Like the other people I know with politics similar to mine, I was angry when I heard about the verdict in the Sean Bell case this morning. And I’m still angry, for sure. I still feel like justice has been controverted yet again. I still feel like a few sad messages have been reinforced by the verdict: that the lives of people of color are given little worth in our society; that the “justice” system is of little use for many classes of people, including people of color; and that the police pretty much have a carte blanche when dealing with people of color, amongst other oppressed people.
However, I’ve also had time to do a lot of thinking and talking about the case, the verdict, what “we” (me, my friends, others with politics like mine) would have liked to see happen today, and what that all means. And it’s really complicated stuff.
I was reminded of this complication when I saw this picture of the cops who killed Sean Bell in the NY Times:
Since the shootings in 2006 and throughout the subsequent trial, I’ve found it jarring to be reminded that two of the three cops being charged in relation the incident are people of color. It’s almost as if that detail gets lost for me in the bigger picture of the case and I need to be reminded of it again and again. When I saw this picture this morning, it troubled me more than usual, because it made me realize that I was angry that three people, two of whom are men of color, are not going to prison.
I’m not used to being in that position.
If all of the cops being tried for the shootings were white, I think that my anger over the verdict would have been much more clear cut. I would have interrogated it far less. It would been black and white, quite literally; another case of white cops working within a racist police department taking the life of an innocent Black man. If they were convicted and sent to jail, I wouldn’t have shed a tear for them. If they were acquitted, I would have been enraged.
But feeling anger over the acquittal of two men of color? Yeah – that’s a weird spot for me to be in. Probably in part because that doesn’t happen very often; usually the story is the other way around and I’m getting angry over people of color being unfairly convicted and sent to prison. I don’t believe that imprisonment is the answer to any of society’s ills; in fact, for the most part I believe in prison abolition. As has been demonstrated many times, including some reports that have received a bit of public attention, the United States imprisons an appalling amount of people, and the vast majority of those people being imprisoned are people of color and poor folks.
And then there’s this case. Three cops shooting three unarmed men of color and killing one of them with 50 bullets. Two men of color on the trial for shooting three other men of color and killing one of them. Two men of color acquitted, one dead.
In a situation like this, where and how could we possibly find justice?
This is the crux of the problem: the situation is framed within a system that is so completely fucked up to the point that little good could possibly come out of it. Our ability to achieve justice is limited by the fact that the only recourses for justice available in our society are inherently unjust. So instead, we’re left grasping for approximations of justice that will invariably be unsatisfactory in the end.
Many of the organizations involved in the People’s Justice coalition – ALP, FIERCE! and SRLP among them – do not believe that imprisonment equals justice. Some of the organizations are explicitly abolitionist. And yet the emails and web postings coming from these organizations and their members about the protest at the Queens D.A.’s office, a protest that was planned no matter what the verdict wound up being, today all began with the news that all three cops were acquitted. One can only infer that these organizations don’t think that was the right verdict. Like me, these organizations are taking a stance that seems to conflict with their larger politics.
But what are we supposed to do? In this society, we take what justice we can get. A guilty verdict in this case would have sent the message that no, it is not all right for the NYPD to shoot and kill unarmed people of color with abandon, that yes,Sean Bell’s life and the lives of other people of color are worth more than that, that no, the NYPD can’t kill and injure and oppress with impunity and walk away scott free. The family of Sean Bell would have felt like someone was truly being held accountable for the murder of their son, their brother, their husband-to-be, their father.
And yet, a conviction would still be no more than an approximation of justice. First, because nothing that could possibly be done could make up for Sean Bell’s death. Second, because these three cops aren’t really the problem. Imprisoning them wouldn’t suddenly make the NYPD stop being the racist, classist, homophobic and transphobic force that it’s been for its entire existence. These three cops would take the fall, but the system that shaped them, trained them, set them up to fear and distrust and undervalue people of color – that system would emerge relatively unscathed. And in the end, two more men of color (and one white guy who’s probably not terribly high on the white male scale of privilege else he wouldn’t be a cop) would be in jail. All of that doesn’t add up to justice to me.
But we’re still angry, and we’re right to be. There is no justice here, not even a conflicted approximation of justice. What little recourse we have for achieving justice, flawed as it may be, has failed us yet again. And what’s perhaps most galling is that, time and time again, it fails us in the opposite direction. This tremendous “burden of proof” that the judge didn’t think the prosecution met in this case so often seems to disappear when the defendants are poor people of color who aren’t cops and don’t have the protection and support afforded to Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper. If Isnora and Cooper weren’t cops and the same scene had played out that night, I’m pretty sure that both of them would be in jail already (and most of us probably wouldn’t have ever heard about it.)
You raise some really good points and I think the ultimate issue is the problem with the police department (system) and those that it works with as a racist system based in capitalism etc.
That said, what would justice look like then? What context does the mother of Sean Bell or any of the mothers seek justice in. How do we hold these officers of color accountable? What of the phenomenon of “everyone is blue” inside the NYPD and officers of color who dare to speak out against the blue wall of silence are punished for not leaving their person of color status under their uniform.
This is the problem – I don’t know how to answer those questions. Plus, I have the luck to be able to sit around and ponder these sorts of dilemmas because I’m so far removed from the problem. Whatever oppression I may face, I still get to chill at home on a Friday night, watch TV, and not really worry about this case or ones like it on a personal level – I’m not threatened by police violence like that (at least, not to that degree), nor is anyone in my immediate family. It’s easy for me to ask these questions. Far be it from me to expect people who are dealing with this shit to sit around questioning the justice they seek. I hope I didn’t come off as expecting or asking for that.
I do think, though, that it’s important for us who are lucky enough to be able to think about this stuff in a more theoretical or distant way to think critically about our gut reactions and how they play into a larger politics. That’s something that’s really tough for me to do, personally, especially in a case like this given how much I hate the NYPD and how fucked I think the judicial system is. But like I wrote, I think that some of the cops being men of color really took me to that place of conflict and resulting self-interrogation.
As for how to hold people accountable outside of convictions or sentences or jail time – I have no idea. It’s always hard to think outside of what we’ve been taught for so long is common sense, the only way – prevention through punishment. But there has to be a better, more equitable and more effective solution than the systems we’ve got now. At the very least, if those systems could possibly be truly impartial and fair, that would be something. But I don’t know if such a thing can exist in a larger society that’s most certainly neither impartial nor fair.
Good points. Yeah, “everyone is blue” insofar as people of color are supposed to check their identities – and often their communities, their families, their kin and loyalty – at the door for some mythical greater good that’s supposedly being protected by the police. But I guarantee that everyone is not blue in terms of how people within the force are treated (or mistreated) depending on their race.
All of this, of course, is not to say that these cops get a pass. Hell no. I’m not about to deny their agency because they’re people of color; I hate that shit. Sure, choices may be limited and may be shaped by some pretty heavy forces, but choices are still there. And I’m as angry as the next person to see these cops, all three of them, walk away with (so far at least) a relative slap on the wrist. But really though – it’s the NYPD that’s getting the slap on the wrist. The larger establishment is really the key perpetrator here, and in turn is the real murderer that’s getting off yet again.
No I agree Jack, that it’s important to think about these questions and the questions make sense. I just finished reading Conquest and this is a huge part of Smith’s analysis.
I completely agree that within the NYPD not everyone is blue, there have been numerous cases proving that
I guess I’m just trying to find a way to join the theoretical with the grassroots, with the families who are on the front lines. How do we raise the perception of justice to the next level with those families?
I know there isn’t an answer- at least not an easy one- just thinking outloud in response to the very good points you make.
Thanks for this – I’m having some of the same reactions too. Given that our current options for justice are so narrow, and so *unjust*, what do we do?
Well, those are interesting thoughts. I guess I’m someone, a young white guy, doing work against prisons. Not necessarily a prison abolitionist, but close to it.
One of the more “grassroots” reasons people are against prisons isn’t because they don’t fix our problems, but because of how the system of justice is skewed. And the aqquital brings that up to the front.
I think that we live in a country where, with power and/or privilege, a lot people of color will turn to traditional logic about poor people. I mean, a lot of poor people already have it. But for the large part, cops that work outside of luxury areas view everyone as a suspected criminal. Black, white or latino trigger fingers still only fire 50 shots out of hate or rage.
What infuriates me is that the mayor wouldn’t give a speech like that about a murdered cop, a murdered white person, or pretty much anyone. What gets to me is that a system so over committed to locking up poor people in the name of justice won’t provide that same justice, false or not, to the friends and family of Sean Bell.
And of course, if these 3 were locked up, would they be in the same boat as other prisoners? Or would they be treated to luxury, Club Fed style? Of course that wouldn’t be justice at all. But there would be some justice in a conviction/punishment if only because official action was taken.
What you’re thinking about though- if justice isn’t prison, than what would it look like- that’s a big conversation right now. And for people who’ve been having it for awhile, this case might help us stay grounded. Cus you can’t theorize your pain away. And for people angry over this case, hopefully that will bring some new voices into the conversation.
@ la Mala: Yeah, that’s the tricky thing. In part, I think that “we” – people who aren’t dealing so directly with this sort of police oppression and violence – don’t have much business telling families on the front lines, people who have actually been victimized in this way, that maybe the justice they’re looking for isn’t the “right” justice.
On the other hand, I think that we and our communities (and here, I mean communities of people who are often targeted or mistreated by the police and the judicial system) absolutely need to try to think of justice on larger/different/more effective/more meaningful scales. Part of why prisons have been able to become so prevalent in our society is because we’ve been taught that there’s no other way.
@Katie: I think that it’s important for us to focus on things besides individual prosecution of these three cops. Since the larger system is what’s fucked up, we need to continue to push for dramatic changes in how the entire police & judicial systems work. (Easier said than done, right?) Of course, it’s hard to do that when courts seem to sanction actions like the ones these cops took, which is why the verdict is so angering even if we think that convictions & prisons don’t really solve anything.
And although this is not so applicable to this case, I think that our communities need to start thinking about ways to have safety and accountability without relying on the police & judicial systems to enforce that. Groups like the Safe OUTside the System Collective of the Audre Lorde Project are doing excellent work around stuff like that. It’s difficult stuff to envision, but it’s imperative that we try.
@Mitchell: WORD. It’s like – okay, the system is flawed, but if we’re stuck with it, can’t it at least come down on the right side of things for once?
I really appreciate and agree with this take.
The problem is the police are far, far too powerful in this country. After taking Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure courses (3 semesters total) I have come to the conclusion that I hate the police with a passion and will vote for just about any measure that curtails their facist power.