The Black Lives Matter movement started gaining nationwide attention for police brutality during the mid to late 2010s. However, people brutality has been a major problem for almost 100 years with many examples occurring from the 1950s to today. There are three major examples of police brutality that I will touch on in this section. The first two (John Derrick and Jessie Roberts) are from before 1965 and show the beginnings of social movements against police brutality. The latter example (Eric Garner) shows the effect of social media and technology on the spread of information regarding police brutality.
John Derrick was an army veteran who had been wounded in Korea and released from active duty in December of 1950. Due to his injury, he had been rewarded with a large settlement and decided to go to a bar with some of his friends. Derrick decided to buy his friends some alcoholic beverages while not partaking in the alcohol himself. On the way home from the bar, Derrick and his friends were stopped by two patrolmen. The patrolmen asked Derrick and his friends to raise their hands in the air. Without hesitation, the two patrolmen opened fire on Derrick and his friends. Derrick, unfortunately, took a bullet to the heart and ultimately passed away. According to Taylor, 'Stunned by the shooting Milline asked, 'Why? Why did they do it? I've never seen anything like it in my life.'' (205). Police later claimed they believed Derrick has a gun on him but that was never proven to be true. The New York district attorney ruled that the patrolmen were within their rights and no charges came from this act of violence. The findings of this greatly upset the Harlem community and began a major protest movement, one of the first that gained the support of famous figures at the time. A rally, scheduled for January 5th, 1951, was formed by the New York Amsterdam News. According to Taylor, 'New York Senator Jacob Javits, Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., labor leader A. Phillip Randolph, baseball great Jackie Robinson, and boxing sensation Sugar Ray Robinson agreed to attend the event' (205). This was one of the first movements against police brutality that featured prominent social figures the common man would recognize.
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Jessie Roberts reported that his car had been stolen at his local police precinct on November 7th, 1963. Roberts had told the precinct that he suspected Richard Warme had stolen his car but had no interest in pressing charges against the teenager. Roberts simply wanted his car to be returned. Roberts waited for an extended period with no update, so he decided to return to his automobile repair shop. Upon return, Roberts found three police detectives inside the auto repair shop. These detectives claimed to find a large bag of marijuana that Roberts had never seen before. The detectives refused to believe this and physically assaulted him before arresting him. When returning to the precinct, Roberts was interrogated about gun possession and other things which were not truthful. Policemen then stage a fake crucifixion with Roberts inside the detention pen. Roberts continued to be physically assaulted while in this position sustaining several broken ribs and other injuries.
Following this incident, Roberts went to the Congress of Racial Equality located in the Bronx to describe the traumatic events he had recently endured. The Congress of Racial Equality found several unusual aspects of Roberts' arrest including the fact that the police had no warrant for Roberts' auto-repair shop. Following these discoveries, the district attorney of the County of the Bronx opened an investigation into these irregularities and presented the case to a grand jury. Unfortunately, the case was poorly put together and the jury did not allow for all of Roberts' testimonies to be heard. This led to no indictment on the policemen's behalf and an eventual drug charge for Roberts. This drug charge was eventually suspended by a judge. Following this, Roberts received many phone calls from the New York Police Department threatening him to leave the Bronx. Roberts' landlord also received several letters asking for the eviction of Roberts' automobile repair shop.
Eric Garner was a father of six children from Staten Island, New York. Before his death, Garner was stopped by police on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes, which is a small offense in the state of New York. Police accuse Garner of resisting arrest and eventually place him in a chokehold while tackling him to the ground. Garner eventually passed away because of the chokehold which had been banned by the New York Police Department. This death led to a large outcry due to the technological advances made before this death. The events leader to Eric Garner's death were caught on camera by bystanders. According to Marcus, 'In the end, Eric Garner cried out to the officer who had him in a choke hold 'I can't breathe' eleven times before his heart gave out, which would lead to his death an hour later' (55). The 'Black Lives Matter' used Eric Garner's last words as their slogan for changes when it comes to police violence. 'I can't breathe' has been used throughout African American society with various artists using those words as lyrics for songs asking for change. Numerous teams from the National Basketball Association wore shirts with those words on them in support of the African American community.
Several organizations have been formed over the past century to bring light to racial injustices throughout every aspect of society. Sit-ins were one of the most influential in the early days of the civil rights movement. One of the most notorious was the 'Black Power' started by the Black Panthers. However, none of these had the widespread media attention that the 'Black Lives Matter movement has gained in the 10 years it has been formed. The Black Lives Matter movement was originally a social media movement in which people used hashtags to show their support for change in police brutality occurrences. However, as more unfortunate events began to occur, the Black Lives Matter movement began to organize protests and social movements to call for change.
The Black Lives Matter movement gained national attention following the tragic death of Trayvon Martin on February 26th, 2012. Martin was an African American teenager who was walking around the neighborhood of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was the head of the neighborhood watch and felt it necessary to call the police because Martin was suspicious of Zimmerman. The police told Zimmerman to not engage the teen and wait until the police arrived. Zimmerman ignored these requests and began to follow Martin. Eventually, there was an argument that occurred between Zimmerman and Martin which led to the firing of Zimmerman's weapon. Martin was struck by the bullets and passed away soon after. According to Kovera, 'Zimmerman was not charged with Martin's murder because he claimed to be acting in self-defense Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder but acquitted by a six-person jury that contained only one person of color' (1139). Following this outcome, the Black Lives Matter movement began to hold active rallies and cry out for justice through social media on an unprecedented scale. Hundreds of cities began holding protests to gain the attention of policymakers to change the power struggle between African Americans and police forces. This seemed to work as President Obama and other high-level politicians released several statements condemning the actions of Zimmerman and promising change. However, these changes were meniscal and did not prevent more lives from being taken through police brutality.
As mentioned previously, the Black Lives Matter movement had its beginnings during the George Zimmerman case. The Black Lives Matter movement had been working for almost 2 years at this point to find justice for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Tensions were high as the movement demanded something to be done about the power police officers have and the non-existent repercussions of their actions. The movement then reached a climax during the Michael Brown case in August 2014. Michael Brown was walking with one of his friends when they were stopped by police officer Darren Wilson. A struggle ensued leading to Officer Wilson discharging his weapon towards Brown but missing. Wilson and his friend then fled on foot to escape Wilson. Officer Wilson pursued Brown and eventually caught up to him. Brown was then shot several times and passed away shortly after. The Black Lives Matter movement first expressed outrage at the number of times Brown had been shot. Wilson provided a statement on this which further outraged the African American community. According to Francis and Wright-Rigueur, 'Officer Wilson explained, 'At this point, it looked like he was almost bulking up to run through the shots like it was making him mad that I'm shooting at him'' (452). Wilson was not indicted on any charges because he testified that he feared for his life in the moments before murdering Brown. The Black Lives Matter movement took the extreme issue to this as Wilson and Brown were of similar build and Wilson was armed at the time. This incident took place in Ferguson, Missouri which is obviously a smaller sample size than New York City. However, this example can show the power of repeated protests by the Black Lives Matter Movement. The United States Justice Department launched investigations into the incident, with one investigation finding major racial bias. According to the report, found on the BBC's website, 'Police were quick to escalate force and when they did, African-Americans accounted for 90% of the officers' use of force' ('Ferguson unrest: From shooting to nationwide protests'). The findings go on to highlight racial differences when communicating with the court as well as the court's overuse of arrest warrants on African American citizens. Following the investigation, multiple officers from the Ferguson Police Department were released including the police chief at the time.
Recently, the actions of the Black Lives Matter movement have not been in vain. Reforms have begun to be put in place that could limit the occurrence of police brutality. The first instance of this is the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) to keep officers accountable. The ability to have recorded footage of officers gives the public ease of mind. According to Lum et al., 'BWCs were intended to document interactions between police and citizens to increase the transparency and accountability of these interactions, especially during investigations of police misconduct' (4). Regarding protesting, there had been a history of violence between police officers and those protesting. Tactics would be used by the police to trap the protestors and arrest them or even physically abuse them. One example of this is called kettling. Kettling is the act of corralling protestors or even peaceful bystanders, and keeping them in an hour for several hours. Often, this is done to keep people in an area that is easy for police to arrest people and collect documents or other personal details. One example of this comes from when the G8 summit was hosted. Protests broke out and police used the kettling tactic to control the crowd. According to Rosie and Gorringe, corralled protestors and bystanders for several hours without water or toilets photos showed police shoving onlookers with shields and raising batons against protestors (2009). These same tactics were used on Black Lives Matters protestors in New York City. Following these events, Letitia James demanded an end to the use of excessive force against peaceful protestors. The Black Lives Matter movement has been a social reform tool that has changed major aspects of life for African Americans since its inception in 2012. While there is clearly still work to be done, the movement has inspired change in many aspects of life that did not seem possible. However, this would not be possible without the protests of early incidents of police brutality in the post-Cold War era. As strides are continuing to be made, the Black Lives Matter movement must continue to look at its early history for examples and advice on the proper ways to advocate for social reform. Hopefully, peaceful protests can continue, and reform will continue to happen on a nationwide stage as it has for the previous decade.
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