Policing in America

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV

Season 3 Episode 5

Episode Title: Policing in America

Guest: Dr. Rashawn Ray

 

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV is a podcast that explores all things diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) related. In each episode, Oscar and his guests have lively discussions around DEI topics, explore the latest research on the topic, and discuss the implications so that listeners will be more knowledgeable about the topics and be able to apply the insights to their lives.

 

Show Summary: "If we solve the statistics, we will solve what is happening with policing the scene. To do that, we have to determine the cultural manifestations of racism and of the black threat."

 

People don't realize that when we talk about policing in America, it goes beyond protecting specific turfs and areas. To understand what it truly meant, you must go deep into the history, origin, and background of law enforcement. 

 

And in this episode, we welcome Dr. Rashawn Ray to the guest chair as he discusses the culture and law enforcement practices that lead to police brutality. Dr. Rashawn earned all his sociology degrees and has published over 50 books, articles, chapters, and nearly 20 op-eds. 

 

He also shares his extensive research and work on liberation for oppressed people, particularly for Black and Brown people, and the criminalization effect. Listen closely as we talk about the in-depth analysis of the efficacy of body cameras, the determinants of police brutality, and police misconduct payouts to understand better the current state of America's policing. 

 

There are so many factors we need to address when it comes to the structure and improvement of policing institutions. Learn what we need to solve racism in connection to civilian payout and police misconduct in the words of Dr. Rashawn. 

3 Exceptional Highlights:

 

• The roots of law enforcement in the United States go back to slave patrols, groups of people who would round up black people fleeing plantations who were escaping their enslavement. 
• Overwhelmingly, it is white people who created the social institution and maintained and enforced the social institution. And so when we think about those origins, that's important. 
• There were 87% enslaved black people. And even the free black people didn't mean they were free. Even today, it is still valid that black people haven't fully reached liberation. 

Show Highlights: 

 

The history of convict leasing

 

3:55 Dr. Rashawn Ray

 

• Convict Leasing was what happened after slavery formally ended. So we're talking about the late 1800s and early 1900s. It became prominent and known as Slavery by Another Name, where black people were arrested and accosted for minor infractions. Interestingly, some of the same sorts of things that we hear today. 

 

The efficacy of body cameras  and the determinants of police brutality

 

21:03 Dr. Rashawn Ray

 

• There's overwhelming agreement on body-worn cameras, implicit bias training, the importance of police officers being held accountable for their behaviour, and the need to deal with the law enforcement Bill of Rights. It gives police officers the ability to commit crimes in their personal or professional lives and not be held accountable for them like the general public.

 

The prominent movement of police defunding

 

28:12 Dr. Rashawn Ray

 

• So two points here, defunding the police means reallocating funding, and it does not mean obliterating the system. You know, it does not mean ending law enforcement, as we know, and some people think we should abolish policing.

 

33:20 Dr. Rashawn