Citation

Dreyer BP, Trent M, Anderson AT, Askew GL, Boyd R, Coker TR, Coyne-Beasley T, Fuentes-Afflick E, Johnson T, Mendoza F, Montoya-Williams D, Oyeku SO, Poitevien P, Spinks-Franklin AAI, Thomas OW, Walker-Harding L, Willis E, Wright JL, Berman S, Berkelhamer J, Jenkins RR, Kraft C, Palfrey J, Perrin JM, Stein F. Pediatrics 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Academy of Pediatrics)

DOI

10.1542/peds.2020-009639

PMID

32591435

Abstract

We have seen the horrifying cellphone and surveillance video footage of the murder of George Floyd replay again and again in the last few weeks. The aftermath begs the question why this particular murder of a Black man by a police officer has sparked the international response so few have received. Scores of other Black men, women, and children have been killed by police since the 2014 murder of Eric Garner in New York City, in which he suffered an illegal chokehold and uttered the devastating refrain "I can't breathe", and countless others have been murdered over generations. These cases represent just the tip of the iceberg because these murders happened to be recorded on bystander cell phone video or police webcam capture. Moreover, it is the tip of another iceberg because these cases represent modern-day lynchings. The lynching of Black people in the United States was routine prior to the "civil rights era," when there were major legal advances to change the treatment of Black Americans in this country. However, it wasn't until February 2020 that federal legislation, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, was passed by the House of Representatives but is still awaiting Senate approval to make lynching a federal hate crime. The case of George Floyd and other recent cases demonstrate that we clearly have so much more work to do.

When we watched previous videos, including the one of Eric Garner's death, society let the mistreatment of Black Americans continue unabated and gave in to the excuses and the protections that make it nearly impossible to hold police accountable for their actions. Police unions defended the officers caught on video killing Black Americans, and society went along. Investigators, prosecutors and juries were unwilling to second-guess an officer's often split- second decisions, even when they were clearly not split-second at all, and society went along. Defenders of these actions warned of demoralized police who would be afraid to act quickly to protect the rest of us, and society went along. Local police review boards were incredibly weak...

Language: en