As the world looks to Memphis as the latest example of police violence, a new book, 'Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable,' explores the breakdown in accountability for police misconduct cases
“This is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who have been charged with keeping them safe,” Vice PresidentAs the world looks to Memphis as the latest example of police violence, a new book,out Feb. 14, explores the breakdown in accountability for police misconduct cases.
TIME: What specific things did you see in the video footage out of Memphis that made you think of how it’s become harder for police to be held accountable? There are a number of different origin stories that people offer to explain what’s happening. In the South, law enforcement agencies and the officers emerged in the 19th century out of slave patrols, and so violence and racialized violence—violence against Black people—was ingrained into law enforcement, from the very beginning. Policing has been vicious and violent from the start. In the early 1930s, there was the first federal investigation of law enforcement called.
When there’s conversation about the need for extra oversight and accountability of policing, the talking point in response is often that police can police themselves and do police themselves. But all of the evidence that we have points to the contrary. All of the evidence that we have suggests that officers are very rarely disciplined or fired. Even when they have engaged in egregious misconduct.
Add that training with the law enforcement officers’ strategies or the policymakers’ strategies of using vehicle stops as a way to fight crime, that’s essentially what was happening in Memphis in the Scorpion Unit. The chief said the goal was to stop people who were driving recklessly, take their cars, and prevent crime and misconduct from occurring.
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