The question asked at the beginning of “Black Lives and Police Tactics Matter” is whether the police are a source of public good or a perpetuating factor of racial inequality? After reading this article, listening to the episode of the Intercepted podcast, and following countless stories of police violence over the last decade, the answer is unequivocally the latter. I think an important place to start is with the point made at the end of this article, which is that the issue of racialized police brutality is actually so understudied and unfairly reported and documented that it is difficult to know the depth of the issue that we are facing in this country.

Similarly, the authors put forth that data collection is not enough. Even with a complete data set, racist ideologies are still perpetuated in the highest levels of our governing bodies. And then still, “conversations need to shift from whether there are racial disparities in policing to what can be done to reduce or eliminate racial disparities in policing” (24).

Approaching the issue of racism in policing is, I think, one lens on a massive confluence of issues, as evidenced by the data gathered by these authors. The article shines a light on the disparities marked by race, age and gender when it comes to treatment by the police and perhaps this is the way that all issues surrounding white supremacy should be handled. The fuller the picture of racism on the part of the police, the better we can decide the course of action to eliminate the horrors around this kind of brutality. The fact remains that when you look at the numbers here, there can be no argument in favor of the police as a source of public good.

The Intercept podcast, “Ruth Wilson Gilmore Makes the Case for Abolition.”

Kramer, R., Remster, B., & Charles, C. Z. (2017). “Black Lives and Police Tactics Matter.” Contexts, 16(3), 20–25.