RVA needs police reform NOW

Richmond Times-Dispatch, https://www.richmond.com/news/local/richmond-police-say-no-known-arrests-were-made-in-protest-black-owned-businesses-vandalized/article_a2299cb2-367a-5f13-a107-97a4ca8a1f68.html

We know a lot about local governance. No-brainer things that are obvious from decades of evidence. We need more affordable housing and public transit options. We should not build sports stadium projects with public tax dollars. We should invest in important public services like libraries.

But of all these things we know, the thing that is most painfully obvious these past couple of days is that we need to reform our local police departments. Like, immediately.

The current action, here in Richmond and across the country, reveal the limits of our very idea of policing. Protests in the streets transform the police from an administrative bureaucracy tasked with enforcing laws to what looks like an occupying army.

Only the point of #BlackLivesMatter and decades, if not centuries, of civil rights protests, is that this is not transformation, but revelation. Protests like the ones going on in RVA the past two nights reveal police for what they really are: an occupying, invasive force in neighborhoods of color.

I can hear the complaints from law enforcement officers and families already. And yes, there are nice folks in uniform. But their good intentions don’t amount to much when they are embedded in institutions that are designed to surveil and control. For too many communities, police are not the source of protection and order but agents of destruction and fear.

And again, despite the best intentions of our local officers and administrators, Richmond is no different. Although reports from the recent protests vary, Richmond police response to protest has often been characterized by restraint in recent years. Still, that’s only when compared to other cities, where police are regularly assaulting reporters and peaceful protestors. Richmond policing shows the same racial disparities that we find in other cities, where blacks are much more likely to be stopped by police than whites. It was two years ago that Marcus-David Peters, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by a Richmond police officer, and his family still feels unheard.

What the city, and the country, actually needs, is a full-scale shift in how we approach the problems of our most vulnerable citizens, including moving resources from policing to community development. But that’s a tall order politically, and entrenched institutional interests of various kinds makes that a goal for the far future.

So the single biggest thing we can do immediately is to institute a civilian review board. This is a city commission or board, independent from the police department, that includes citizen representation. A board could review internal affairs investigations, make recommendations for reforming law enforcement policy, or even conduct their own investigations.

In practice, these kinds of review boards have been a mixed bag. They often fall short of their goals because they are limited to police-friendly lawyers, underfunded, or stonewalled by law enforcement departments. Still, other expert recommendations like internal reforms or an Inspector General office have their own implementation problems. Research suggests that, with the proper resources and authority, civilian review boards offer the best chance for accountability and improved community relations.

If our city was serious about responding to the pain that underlies the current protests, this would be an important first step in response. And it actually holds the promise of reducing protest. Authorities often try to “co-opt” protests by offering something to protestors, to dissipate anger and restore order. (Of course, they more often take the other option: brutal repression.) Rather than offer meaningless platitudes – or like the Governor of Virginia, “a commitment to ensure that we continue to address these issues head on” (which is a commitment to nothing at all) – how about the city responds to these protests with meaningful reform?

Mayor Levar Stoney has a tough re-election fight this fall. Instituting actual substantive changes in response to these protests would go a long way towards showing that he is serious about correcting past mistakes. Otherwise, there’s no reason to give him four more years. Real, substantive police reform should be an essential litmus test for this fall’s election.

A civilian review board. Now.