NCJ Number
188331
Date Published
2001
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper presents highlights of an interview (August 3, 1999) with lawyer-scholar-author-activist Derrick Bell about race, crime, law, direct action, and a pedagogy for a new generation of lawyer-activists, with attention to countering police brutality.
Abstract
Bell places the roots of police brutality in a broader economic and political context, focusing on how police violence is connected to and a symptom of the racism that persists in America's political and social structures. He believes police respond not only to direct instructions as to how to do the job of policing, but also to a cultural conditioning that molds police perceptions of black people, particularly black men, as dangerous and deviant. Elected officials fuel this conditioning by focusing on black street crime as the primary threat to community safety. Under such a racially oriented commitment to fight crime, the means begin to justify the ends, so that police violence becomes just one more tool to intimidate the racially defined criminal element. Bell notes that the lack of a tradition of policing as an occupation among minority families makes the recruitment of minority officers difficult. Still, Bell questions whether or not the recruitment of more minority officers would significantly change the racist orientation of the police subculture. Bell notes the potential of grassroots coalition work to effect change in policing policy and practice, but he also acknowledges that the harmonizing of various community group interests is difficult. He believes that using litigation as a tool for reform, supported by other activities, can achieve some change. Still, reformers must gear themselves to accept small victories and a lengthy struggle that involves many defeats. 5 notes