The Law is the Enemy

One might think that in modern times, having overcome slavery, segregation and having elected the first African-American president, racial discrimination has long gone. But current floods of newspaper headlines proof this assumption to be far from true. African Americans still remain the most frequent victims of crimes, and even more shocking is the fact, that in many cases the culprit is a police official on duty. Race and accusations of brutality carried out by law enforcement officers continue to be closely linked, and the phenomenon has sparked race riots until today. 

According to the most recent one in Baltimore, the USA once more caused a worldwide stir with it´s exceptionally brutal and dramatic scenarios, happening in Afro-American neighborhoods. The dramatic death of Freddy Gray on the 12th of April 2015 was just the "gasoline, that fueled the fire", as one Afro-American participant of the riots put it into words. Gray´s death was an unnecessary, dramatic but sadly typical case of abuse of power - but with a final surprise of sanction.               

Laws intended to protect citizens against police abuse of authority include: 

• the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution - protection against unreasonable searches and seizures  
• the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution - Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses  
• the Civil Rights Act of 1871; (has evolved into a key U.S. law in brutality cases)   

However, all of those laws have been assessed as ultimately ineffective in deterring police brutality. Judges often give police convicted of brutality light sentences on the grounds that they have already been punished by damage to their careers. In fact, surveys of police officers found that police brutality, along with sleeping on duty, was viewed as one of the most common and least likely to be sanctioned forms of police offences, besides corruption. 

Therefore, the surprisingly quick and serious charges of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby in the case of Freddy Gray was more than overdue. The judge filed charges of murder and false imprisonment against police officers. In addition to this, four of the six officers are accused of manslaughter — which is extremely rare, almost unique.  

(i.e. North Charleston, police Officer Michael Slager, who was captured on video shooting a fleeing man in the back, has been charged with murder. But no charges were brought against the officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, of Eric Garner on Staten Island in New York or of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.) 

But there is no more excuses in times of videotapes that precipitate incidents and social media that disseminates them. The entire nation is witnessing and finally, hopefully, there will be legal actions, fair charges and no more outrageous conduct under color of law as this is a matter of official racism and personal sadism.  

Fixing poverty as Obama suggested, will not alone fix this problem. Senator Robert F. Kennedy put it differently, and had it right already 50 years ago: ”There is no point in telling Negroes to obey the law. To many Negroes, the law is the enemy,..." 

Sources:

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/29/the_law_is_the_enemy_what_rfk_can_remind_america_about_police_brutality/
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-riots/bs-md-gray-case-analysis-20150501-story.html