Introduction:
A racial caste is a group that is locked into an inferior position. Once placed into the racial caste you are deemed as a permanent second-class citizen. Our system perpetuates a racist divide in our country by creating (and re-creating) systematic ways to maintain white supremacy and black subordination. The United States, successfully, has implemented special tactics into policing in order to maintain its agenda of a racial caste.
Part 1
America’s Racial Caste
Of the total African-American population in 1860, nearly 95 percent were slaves that accounts for approximately 3.9 million—slavery . Between 1889 and 1918, when the legal system and police supported segregation, over 2,500 African-Americans were lynched: captured and viciously murdered by mobs—Jim Crow . The United States locks up more people, per capita, than any other nation, approximately 2.3 million are imprisoned, and African-Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites—mass incarceration2. It is undeniable that slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration, all have something in common. The three systems have existed in order to preserve a racial hierarchy. Within the hierarchal order, black individuals are forcibly deemed as the subordinate group.
Michelle Alexander explores our criminal justice system, and how it operates as a racial caste. It has been able to exist within the systems of three different eras because of how highly adaptable the ideology of racism is; there has been a rebirth of the racial caste. Hence, when a system of racial control, slavery and Jim Crow, collapses, there is a transitional phase where an adaption must occur in order to maintain it. During this transition phase those that are most committed to racial hierarchy look for new means to achieve their goals within the rules of the game as currently defined . The rebirth of the racial caste system is central to the well-being of the elite. Each system embodies white supremacy, and those individuals committed to the maintenance of the racial caste do so in the interest of their social, political, and economic gain.
Today, mass incarceration, is the most modern form of the racial caste. The imprisonment of an astonishing amount of black and brown bodies is, evidently, a means of racial control. Although many people are unable to make the connection between mass incarceration and its older forms, slavery and Jim Crow, the means of racial control truly does exist. Michelle Alexander shares that mass incarceration is like a ‘color-blind bird cage with no door’, which exists in order to trap people into an under caste .
In order to more thoroughly understand the phenomena of mass incarceration, as a racial caste, it is important to shed light on the policing that plays a significant part of its existence. Correspondingly, “the term mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also the larger web of laws, rules, policies, and customs that control those labeled criminals both in and out of prison” . The policing of racial order allows for the current system of mass incarceration, as a racial caste, to thrive.
Part 2
The Policing of Racial Order
Policing, is the activity of exercising legitimate, coercive force to produce and reproduce order. Specifically, in the United States, policing produces and reproduces a racial order. Thus, “the more things change, the more they remain the same. In each generation, new tactics have been used for achieving the same goals—goals shared by the Founding Fathers. Denying African Americans citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union” . For many decades, police have exercised their legitimate force in racially targeted ways.
The War on Drugs
1 in 5 incarcerated people are locked up for a drug offense . Granted, during 1970’s, under the Presidency of Richard Nixon a war was launched. This war was soon to be known as the War on Drugs. Soon after, during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, this war was expanded and became a massive operation. The Reagan administration hired staff to publicize the emergence of crack cocaine as part of a strategic effort to build public and legislative support for the war . The successful publicity, that the administration was able to put together, portrayed poor and colored communities as dangerous drug abusers. Consequently, there was an increase in arrests as bodies were rounded up on the streets. These bodies were disproportionately black and brown.
In fact, the War on Drugs operated as the machinery behind mass incarceration. The ugly truth is that the War on Drugs has operated not to control crime, but as to push for social control. Hence, since the launching of the war on drugs, there has been a massive increase in federal funding. The federalizing of policing has increased their power of social control. Initially, policing was a local and state matter, however, through the War on Drugs it became a way to strengthen local policing through a federal route. The result, more money, more gear, and new modern technology.
Particularly, the federalizing of the War on Drugs proved to be effective for policing during the 1960’s and 70’s. During this time, there were large scale uprisings occurring from the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. The War on Drugs was a way to repress the protests occurring from the movement. As an effective tactic of counterinsurgency, crime, disorder, and drugs were linked to the Civil Rights Movement. Since, the launching of the war on drugs, the U.S penal population has exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the increase . The same study shows that the soliciting of drugs is used by all backgrounds at similar rates, however, people of color find themselves incarcerated at higher rates.
Racial profiling to Stop and Frisk
Racial profiling is the discriminatory action, used by law enforcement, of using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. Racial profiling is a frequently used policing practice to stop black individuals for minor violations, based off of probable cause. At an individual level of policing, reasonableness grants the officer a form of petty sovereign status. Hence, discretion is legally built into the system. Therefore, black and brown individuals are being requested to stop, to be pulled over by police officers, based on racial profiling. Being pulled over occurs both during traffic violations and as pedestrians are walking the streets. While searching these racially profiled individuals, officers look for illegal contraband. Noteworthy, racial profiling leads to many citations, arrests, and even in some cases death.
“Stop and Frisk” is a policing method that results in officers pulling someone over, by car or pedestrian, and temporarily detaining them to pat down their clothing. The Fourth Amendment requires that police officers have reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed before stopping the suspect . However, “racially profiling” and “stop and frisk” are policing tactics that go hand and hand. When police are patrolling the street, black people are targeted at disproportionate numbers to be stopped for a search. We see more black people incarcerated or shot by police compared to any other racial group. In like manner, “the young men stiffen with fear, hands on their heads, facing high beams of the police cruisers. Then it is down on the ground, legs out in front, crossed. The field interviews and frisking begin, scars are noted, IDs checked .
Noteworthy, it is not uncommon to hear stories of victims. Amadou Diallo was a 22-year-old black male who was murdered on February of 1999 by the New York Police in Bronx. Diallo was murdered in the area of the apartment building where he lived. Four white officers who were in pursuit of him fired a total of 41 bullets at Diallo, killing him on the spot. The officers involved were apart of New York City Police Departments Street Crimes Unit. Noteworthy, this special unit referred to the slogan “We Own The Night” . It is noted, the NYPD from this unit commonly used aggressive stop and frisk tactics against African Americans. According to a report on the unit by the state attorney general it was found black individuals were stopped at 10 times that of white individuals, and 35 percent of those stops lacked reasonable suspicion to detain or had reports insufficiently filled out to make a determination . Hence, the “We Own The Night” unit has, notably, used aggressive policing tactics in an unfair manner targeting black populations.
Police Vigilantism
“The beating of arrested Negros—frequently in the wagon on the way to jail or later when they are already safely locked up—often serves as vengeance for the fears and perils the policemen are subjected to while pursuing their duties in the Negro community” . Vigilantism is the action of enforcing the law without legal authority by a self-appointed group of individuals. Often, the act of vigilantism is done pervasively and violently. The state grants immunity for vigilantes in order to maintain the white order. Accordingly, the police is a group that engages in vigilantism. Police brutality, as a method of policing, is state sanctioned extralegal violence. When police engage in police brutality it is often the case that they do not get prosecuted, even after the result of death.
The story of Rodney Glen King, clearly depicts, extralegal police vigilantism. Rodney, a 47-year-old black male was beaten by four white Los Angeles police officers in March of the year 1991 . King, who was on parole, ran from officers into a nearby apartment complex. Once the officers caught him, Rodney was surrounded, and beaten to near death. Policing an unarmed, runaway, consisted of four police striking his body more than 50 times with wooden batons and using a stun gun. The result, Rodney King was hospitalized and needed extensive surgery by multiple surgeons. The savage beating of King went to trial. The charges against the four Los Angeles officers included assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer. However, after the trial, the charges were dropped and the officers were acquitted.
The story of police brutality against Rodney King is awfully similar to many other cases against black males. Jerome Skolnick shares, “…Brutality is employed to control a population thought to be undesirable, undeserving, and under-punished by established law. Such beatings do not merely violate the law, but they go beyond and above the law to achieve a fantasized social order” . Hence, police brutality as a method of private policing is how police attempt to maintain the order.
Paramilitary policing
“Nearby in the shadows, three squads of ten police officers in combat boots, black fatigues and body armor lock and load their Heckler and Koch (H&K) MP-54 submachine guns (the same weapons used by the elite Navy SEALs) and fan out through the ghetto” . Noteworthy, this is not the military, but this is the local community police, who are in a full-blown-out war against citizens.
Paramilitary policing—that is, enforcement using the equipment, training rhetoric, and groups tactics of war—is on the rise . Police, who use military style policing, can be seen saturated in hot spots. Hot spots are specific locations, which are highly targeted by police. These hot spots are often in urban areas, moreover, in communities with people of color. Police rely on their computerized data to identify these hot spots. Once the hot spots are identified, heavy police presence is deployed, war gear, and tactics are employed. It is war on chosen targeted communities.
The Violent Crime Suppression Unit (VCSU) is a special unit in the city of Fresno, California. VCSU is known to be super-militarized and engage is aggressive policing. Accordingly, VCSU receives the title for “the most extreme example of America’s more than 30,000 paramilitary Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams” . For these units, policing is meant to be treated like a battleground. In this never-ending battle, the enemy is people of color, the areas of target are their homes and communities, and the mission is social control by means of mass incarceration.
Paramilitary style policing, a form of everyday policing, which results in massive incarceration in order to maintain a racial case. A typical VCSU operation could be described as the following:
A youth reportedly brandished a gun (not a crime unless a victim is being threatened) and has sped off to his mother’s house. The radios crackle: “1010 deploy units in the alley.” The house is surrounded by the VCSU. From behind cars, officers train AR-15s, MP-5s, and the larger MP-54’s on the front door and in the windows. Overhead, a chopper beats the air, flooding the house with light and scanning the area with infrared (117).
Evidently, paramilitary style policing has no boundaries. The special police units, which use this style of policing are considered to be the epimerization of militarization of policing. This is made possible with their massive amounts of gear, from high-caliber guns, to tanks, to helicopter choppers.
The militarizing of police is made possible due to the amount of money being received. Hence, over the last two decades, more than $39 billion in advanced military equipment such as armored vehicles have flowed from the federal government to both big cities and small towns . Hence, state and local law enforcement agencies have been awarded in cash for the sheer number of people swept into the system for drug offenses, thus giving law enforcement agencies an incentive to go out and look. This includes stopping and frisking, searching as many people as possible, pulling over as many cars as possible, in order to boost their numbers up and ensure the funding stream will continue or increase. For example, Fresno’s Police Department received 28.4 million in Federal Grants, in which leads to the city of Fresno having the nations most advanced “held automation system” .
Technology
Policing through technology is a way in which the police, as agencies of the state, are able to gather intelligence, surveillance, and achieve the means necessary to socially control populations. Ultimately, the goal of police intelligence is repression. Thus, “repression is tricky business…Rebellions may brew, discontent spread, revolutionaries prepare their forces—all before the government even realizes it is facing a threat. Intelligence work is meant to fill this gap” . Police intelligence is a covert form of policing in order to maintain certain populations that pose a threat under control. The targets are generally unaware of police intelligence activity; the public at large barely recognizes its existence .
COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), is recognized as a successful program, which is part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI). It was a unique program that connected the local to the federal in order to monitor and control insurgency. Particularly, during the 1960’s, COINTELPRO, emerged, and was used against social movements such as the Black Panthers. Some of the tactics of the program included, anonymously attacking the political beliefs of targets in order to induce their employers to fire them, anonymously mailing letters, to the spouses of intelligence targets for the purpose of destroying their marriages, and more . Through the program of COINTELPRO, policing was conduct in a manner which was covert. In addition, after the counterintelligence program, the Law Enforcement Assistance Agency was able to supply grants to intelligence units for training and equipment . Evidently, this leads to an even greater expansion of intelligence policing.
COMSTAT, also known as computer generated statistics. Hence, “the early morning hot-seat meetings now involved detailed, computer aided, spatial and chronological analysis of intricately mapped, real-time crime statistics, projected on illuminated wall maps” . The high-technology COMSTAT has made it possible for generating pressure on lower level crimes and hot spots. “COMSTAT was, and still is, high theater as much for external consumption as for constructing a new, more paramilitary, proactive, institutional culture marked by rigor results-oriented competition” . The program of COMSTAT has led to an increase in arrests due to the high pressure placed on policing. Thus, if the department is not meeting a certain status-quo of arrests they are, generally, punished for it.
Zero-Tolerance Policing
“If you peed in the street, you were going to jail. We were going to fix the broken windows and prevent anyone from breaking them again” . “Zero-tolerance”, or “broken windows” policing is cracking down on minor offenses with the end goal of reducing major crime. However, these minor offenses are meant to target those individuals who are considered the ‘unwanted populations’. Zero-tolerance policing leads to mass incarceration.
Zero-tolerance policing has led to an increase in arrests for minor crimes. Police were advised to get out of their squad cars so as to better control panhandlers, drunks, addicts, rowdy teenagers, prostitutes, loiterers, and the mentally disturbed . Moreover, the New York City subway station has become an area that where you can get a sneak-preview of zero-tolerance policing at play. Initially, the subway station would assign a guard to stand near a token booth. However, this was a very low-action method of policing which resulted in little arrests and citations. Once this was realized by the police department, they decided to revamp their subway station policing. The low-action standing guard policing turned into high-action zero tolerance policing. Accordingly, “fare evasion was the biggest broken window in the transit system. We were going to fix that window and see to it that it did not get broken again”. The focus of the police in the subway station became too heavily police those who did not pay for their subway tickets. Therefore, the whole subway ticketing was changed, and arrests were being made at large numbers. Moreover, the zero-tolerance policing gave the police a sense of power and importance.
In addition, Zero-tolerance policing includes driving out the poor from tourist areas that bring the state money. In New York city, the total development spending for the larger twelve–block Times Square neighborhood is estimated to top $4 billion . In accordance, with such a high-scale redevelopment comes the zero-tolerance policing. Zero-tolerance is a central part of the force that capitalism runs on. In order for areas to bring in more money, through redevelopment and tourism, their needs to be an addressing of quality of life offenses that result in disorder.
Policing through others
The police call upon civilians to be their eyes and ears. Hence, the police seek to enlist the support of reliable portions of the population. Ideally this makes it possible for the activity of policing to take place without police officers actually present. Policing, through others, is for pre-emptive and proactive efforts. Notably, this is “soft side community relations policing” . The police attempt to win the hearts of the community, while also expanding its surveillance to others, making it a community effort to enforce social control.
Notably, in the state of Arizona there are many different groups of armed vigilantes which engage in policing activities. Thus, “the extremist groups along the Arizona-Mexico border use radical tactics, including armed vigilante action, to promote an extreme anti-immigrant agenda” . The groups take on the names of, Civil Homeland Defense, Ranch Rescue, Arizona Guard, and American Border Patrol. All of these groups have the same goal, patrolling the border because they are pro-white supremacy and anti-Hispanic. It is seen within these groups that local ranchers unite with firearms in hand in order to try to patrol the border. Forming groups of large numbers, they take matters into their hands. Since, policing could be defined as an activity, which maintains a racial order; the armed vigilantes are an extension of policing.
Today’s secret police operate a vast network of surveillance and monitor, not just individual suspects, but whole populations . ‘Neighborhood watch’, is an organized group of civilians devoted to crime and vandalism prevention within a neighborhood. Similarly, another extension of ‘neighbor watch’ is an application for use over the phone called NextDoor. Through the application, NextDoor, people living in the same neighborhood are able to communicate with each other about anything and everything that may be happening in the area. Evidently, neighborhoods are taking on an extension of the role of the policing through engaging in the surveillance of each other. Once ‘neighborhood watch’ proves to be effective, police do not need to frequently patrol these areas. Instead, neighbors will do the surveillance and snitching for the police. Thus, neighborhood watch is a form of policing through others.
Business Improvement Districts (BIDS), private, self-taxing, urban-micro states that do everything from cleaning the streets and guiding tourists to floating bonds and arresting beggars . The Grand Central Partnership (GCP), is known as being New York City’s largest BID. Interestingly, these individuals who are called a part of an Outreach team are civilians who take on a role similar to the cops. They are homeless or previously homeless people who are paid only $1 an hour to be the extra ‘eyes and the ears’ of law enforcement . The Outreach Team patrols the block of New York City without really any legal jurisdiction to do so. While on the job they walk through the streets yelling at the homeless to leave from the populated business areas. Interestingly, the outreach team is given special instructions to focus on the mentally ill and the homeless . The homeless people who are found on the street are disproportionately people of color. These individuals are under-resourced, therefore, are left to poverty. Many times, when being picked up on the street by law enforcement they are swept into the system.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, it is a common amongst society to be narrow-minded on the activity of policing. When you ask a general citizen on the street as to how they would define such activity, a common response will be, “to protect and serve” or “for our safety”. However, a more thorough definition of policing could be defined as, the activity of exercising legitimate, coercive force to produce and reproduce order. Policing attempts to maintain an order that has existed in our history for decades. The racial order, that has been established, as white supremacy. In order to maintain a racial order, policing activities are done in many different ways. These activities could be evident, but also, sometimes very discrete. However so, the United States has been successful at using policing to produce and reproduce a racial caste, through socially controlling people of color. In the end, this has led to their massive incarceration.
Citations:
1. Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”
2. Documentary: Do Not Resist.
3. Gamal, Fanna. “The Racial Politics of Protection: A Critical Race Examination of Police Militarization”
4. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/slavery-and-anti-slavery/resources/slaves-and-slavehol
5. Kaufaman, Emily. “Policing moblities through bio-spatial profiling in New York City”
6. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. http://www.naacp.org
7. Parenti, Christian. Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis.
8. Williams, Kristian. Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America. Oakland: AK Press, 2015.
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