{"id":185578,"date":"2016-07-11T14:41:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T18:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webadmin.news-harvard.go-vip.net\/gazette\/gazette\/?p=185578"},"modified":"2016-07-11T14:41:34","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T18:41:34","slug":"death-in-black-and-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/07\/death-in-black-and-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Death in black and white"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tDeath in black and white\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
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\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tPolice training can change the dynamics of confrontation, if more communities embrace it, Harvard analyst says\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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The shooting deaths of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota at the hands of police last week, captured on social media, followed by the killing of five Dallas officers by a retaliating sniper, shocked the nation and left many Americans feeling like the country is unraveling.<\/em><\/p>\n

Police supporters and critics of the Black Lives Matter<\/a> movement complain that citizen protests and inflammatory rhetoric are inciting violence against law enforcement. Movement supporters and protestors seeking reforms say that unpunished police violence against black people is fanning community anger. <\/em><\/p>\n

Professor <\/em>Ronald S. Sullivan Jr.<\/em><\/a> is a legal theorist in areas including criminal law, criminal procedure, and race theory, and serves as faculty director of the <\/em>Criminal Justice Institute<\/em><\/a> at <\/em>Harvard Law School<\/em><\/a>. In a Q&A session, Sullivan spoke with the Gazette about the shootings and the longstanding tensions between police and African-Americans.<\/em><\/p>\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong> We\u2019ve had these horrific incidents of violence in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Dallas. On one day, President Obama condemned the shooting of two African-American men by police; the next day, he condemned an ambush by a sniper who targeted and killed five police officers in apparent retaliation. Many Americans feel bewildered, wondering what\u2019s going on? Is what has happened in the last few days different in some way from previous police shootings, and what is at the root of these incidents?<\/p>\n

SULLIVAN:<\/strong> These three events do feel radically different, but I do not think that they are substantively different. My view is that the temporal relation among these three events, having occurred back-to-back-to-back, is having a profound effect on the American public. And to the degree that there are sides or camps \u2014 Black Lives Matter versus Blue Lives Matter \u2014 everybody feels aggrieved in the same very short, compressed time period. So there is indeed a profound feeling of disquiet, but nothing is substantively different. The mistreatment of citizens of color at the hands of law enforcement has been occurring for decades, and the African-American community in particular is quite used to what we saw in Minnesota and Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

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"All public servants should be subject to civilian review," said Professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. Photo by Ethan Thomas\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

GAZETTE<\/strong>: Will video documentation of routine police encounters be the new norm, and does it meaningfully help to ensure fair treatment?<\/p>\n

SULLIVAN:<\/strong> The new media has exposed this problem to the broader public in a way that\u2019s never been shown before. So now people from all walks of life are able to see with their own two eyes the ways in which people are literally killed right on their television or computer screen, how unarmed people are killed, how unarmed people are shot, people with valid carry-conceal permits are shot. It\u2019s heart-wrenching, it\u2019s scary, and it\u2019s something that should not happen in the United States of America. But for these cellphones, dash cams, and body cams, we would be in the position we were 10 years ago where the complaints of communities of color would go largely unheard because there was no tangible proof that law enforcement had misbehaved.<\/p>\n

Recording police activities is fast becoming the new norm, and I think it should become the new norm. There\u2019s an old saying: \u201cSunshine is the best disinfectant.\u201d I think that applies here. All public servants should be subject to civilian review. The people should be able to see what their police force is doing. If you think about it, we give up a lot to our police. We allow them to detain us, to put citizens in jail. In exchange for giving up our liberty, we expect police officers to act appropriately, to act professionally, to act justly, and to act fairly. And if they don\u2019t, they should be held up to the scrutiny of their departments and to the courts, as appropriate.<\/p>\n\r\n

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