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Over Policing the African-American Community
By Keith Mitchell, Esq
Guest Column
“White people, by and large, do not know what it is like
to be occupied
by a police force. They don’t understand it because it is
not the
type of policing they experience. Because they are treated
like
individuals, they believe that if ‘I am not breaking the law
I will never be abused.’”
-
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of
Blackness
The other night, Monday, March 12, 2018 I had an opportunity
to attend a meeting sponsored by Toledo City Councilman
Tyrone Riley to bring the community’s attention to the
intent of the University of Toledo Police Department and the
Ohio State Highway Patrol to open a police station/trooper
post near the intersections of Dorr Street and Secor Road
here in Toledo. Captain John Altman, District Commander of
the Findlay District One Headquarters for the Ohio State
Highway Patrol and Captain Jeff Newton of the University of
Toledo Police Department explained why this would be a great
opportunity for collaboration of their two agencies to work
together. While their presentation was informative and
interesting, the audience had other thoughts.
One comment was that moving the Highway Patrol Post from its
current location on Airport Highway would appear to be, and
possibly would be, over policing. The University of Toledo
is just across the street from the Village of Ottawa
Hills. Already, there is the Ottawa Hills Police in the
area and the University of Toledo Police. Additionally, the
Toledo Police Department and the Lucas County Sheriff have
jurisdiction to address police matters in the area. By
adding the Highway Patrol, a fifth agency, appears to be in
excess. Both Captain Altman and Captain Newton expressed
their view that each of the agencies would augment each
other and serve the community more efficiently.
Quite frankly, many people in the African-American
community already believe that the police are an
occupying force in our community. Adding another police
agency in the area can make matters worse—not better. Many
times, in the African-American community, routine
traffic stops for minor vehicular infractions lead to
overreactions by law enforcement. Stops for a missing front
license plate, faulty lights on the rear license plate, a
tail light being out, a cracked windshield, a driver or
passenger not wearing a seatbelt can lead not just to a
traffic violation, but rather the driver being asked—or
forced—to exit the vehicle, frisked and sometimes
arrested. According to Alex S. Vitale, in Truthout,
“Even when well intended, these kinds of stops have a
dramatically more detrimental effect on the poor, whose
vehicles are more likely to have minor defects, and who are
least able to pay the increasingly exorbitant fines—which
then lead to warrants and enhanced penalties.” Even worse,
many people believe that law enforcement officers are making
pretextual traffic stops, not because they are concerned
about vehicle safety, but because they are “fishing” for
something else.
Traffic stops by law enforcement officers who are not
familiar with or trained in dealing with people of color can
lead to tragic results. The killing of Walter Scott in North
Charleston, South Carolina, who had a broken taillight is an
example of this kind of tragedy. Other examples are Philando
Castile who was shot to death in his car by a
police officer in Minnesota. Samuel DuBose was killed by a
University of Cincinnati officer and he was stopped because
his car had a missing front license plate and Sandra Bland,
who was yanked out of her car by a Texas state trooper after
allegedly failing to signal a lane change, and later died in
jail.
Some people believe that adding more law enforcement to a
community is less about protection and security than as a
source to generate revenue for the city and state. In recent
years, the Ohio State Highway Patrol is not only just on the
freeways, but also on several of the streets throughout the
city. They regularly engage in traffic stops in all areas of
the city. Even if a driver is just given a simple traffic
ticket, their fines and court costs alone could be hundreds
of dollars. Speed traps, parking tickets, toll roads, speed
cameras and red light cameras all are all major revenue
sources for state and local governments. More law
enforcement will lead to more revenue.
Nikole Hannah-Jones explains some background as to why
African Americans do not trust the police. She writes in her
Letter From Black America, “In the South, police once did
the dirty work of enforcing the racial caste system. The Ku
Klux Klan and law enforcement were often
indistinguishable. Black-and-white photographs of the era
memorialize the way Southern police sicced German shepherds
on civil rights protesters and peeled the skin off black
children with the force of water hoses. Lawmen were also
involved or implicated in untold numbers of beatings,
killings and disappearances of black Southerners who forgot
their place.”
“In the North, police worked to protect white spaces by
containing and controlling the rising black population that
had been propelled into the industrial belt during the Great
Migration. It was not unusual for Northern police to join
white mobs as they attacked black homeowners attempting to
move into white neighborhoods, or black workers trying to
take jobs reserved for white laborers. And yet they strictly
enforced vagrancy laws, catch-alls that gave them wide
discretion to stop, question and arrest black citizens at
will.”
“Much has changed since then. Much has not.”
The perception of over policing the African American
community—or the reality of over policing the
African-American community is detrimental in theory and in
practice. I, along with other members of the audience,
believe that there are already sufficient law enforcement
resources in the Dorr/Secor area. Adding the Ohio State
Highway Patrol would tend to make things worse not
better. I encourage everyone to contact their elected
officials: Governor John Kasich at (614) 466-3555, State
Senator Edna Brown at (614) 466-5204, State Representative
Michael Ashford at (614) 466-1401, President of the
University of Toledo, Sharon L. Gaber at 419 530-2211,
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz at (419) 245-1001, and your City
Council Representatives at (419) 245-1050 to urge them to
abandon the plan of consolidating the University of Toledo
Police Department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Keith L. Mitchell is an attorney who has practiced law in
Toledo for 30 years, having been in the private practice of
law and a prosecutor and public defender. He can be
contacted at 338 N. Erie Street, Suite 100, Toledo, Ohio
43604.
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