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[Detailed description of the United States] is an exclusive column opened by the Fool of the Creek in the public account of "Canada and the United States Must Read", and the edition 权️ belongs to The United States must read, without permission, please do not reprint.
Today marks the first anniversary of Freud's death on his knees. Civil rights activists say the protests that followed Freud were as extensive and deep as the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties. I have also said many times that we have reason to expect the protests generated by Floyd's death to have a effect similar to that of the Civil Rights Act.
So, a year later, are we seeing a shift in expectations? The answer may not be a black-and-white "yes" or "no," but rather gray representing something tentative. Even more worrying is the fact that the enthusiasm for black people's lives is also their lives (BLM) seems to be fading.
According to a Citiqs poll, the net value of popular support for BLM grew, taking 2018 as a reference, starting in 2018 and reaching its climax after the Floyd incident. However, this orgasm did not last long, and after half a year it returned to the level before Freud.
The chart above reflects the change in the net value of public opinion on BLM support, based on the beginning of 2018. (Source: Civiqs.) ）
The chart above is a partisan view of the change in BLM support, based on the beginning of 2020. (Source: Civiqs.) ）
The chart above is an ethnic perspective of the change in BLM support, based on the beginning of 2020. (Source: Civiqs.) ）
That is to say, the innocent killing of black people does make people think for a moment, but not all of them change their minds because of it. Perhaps this explains why police reform remained a hindrance after the conviction of Derek Chauvin, who knelt to death in Freud.
I have always thought of Freud's death as a historical event equivalent to Emmett Till's lynching, and an opportunity to turn history around. But Dr. William Barber's op-ed in The New York Times as a guest a few days ago inspired me to take a new look at the so-called turning points in history.
Dr. Barber argues that the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century amounts to a second "Reconstruction." After the abolition of slavery, there was a period of officially named Reconstruction in American history. This refers to the informally named second reconstruction). The recent BLM movement is the third reconstruction. At the same time, Dr. Barber placed particular emphasis on looking at these two events separately from a generational perspective.
In 1955, A 14-year-old black boy, Tyre, was innocently beaten and lynched by white people with great cruelty, and his body was unbearable to see. Thiel's mother decided to hold an opening funeral for the world to see what her son was like. In a church on Chicago's south side, 50,000 Chicagoans witnessed Tyre's mutilated body. A few days later, thousands of people attended Tyre's funeral. Tyre's unrecognizable "face" not only caused great repercussions in the black community, but also gained widespread sympathy from whites.
But Dr. Barber believes that the most important thing about Tyre's death is that he inspired his contemporaries to fight for their equal rights. Despite numerous setbacks in their efforts, as this generation became college students and young adults, they became the main force of Freedom Summer and the Chicago Rainbow Coalition, achieving a second reconstruction, the Affirmative Action.
In Dr. Barber's view, the 2013 shooting and unlinquiried killing of 17-year-old Boy Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman was the trigger for the BLM movement. A generation of Martin's peers is also a witness to one case after another in which black people were innocently killed and those who were exonerated. Now, they are adults and are pushing America toward a third reconstruction.
If Dr. Barber's theory holds, it should be the harvest of the third reconstruction. Although in terms of polls, the support BLM received declined a few months after Floyd's death, the reform enthusiasm of Martin's contemporaries is still there, and they will continue to promote the civil rights movement. As long as this group of people persists, as long as there are leaders leading the way, we will see the fruits of the third reconstruction.
Dr. Barber is president of Repairers of the Breach, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, and author of Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good.
He defined the third reconstruction clearly:
The significance of the third reconstruction is far more than just to allow blacks to survive the conflict with law enforcement, but to embody the equal value of black citizens in unprecedented ways and steps, to ensure that black people are no longer twice as likely to die in the pandemic as whites. It's about rebuilding a system that puts them in debt to students and then get paid at poverty levels.
The third reconstruction will ensure that all Americans have access to decent housing for their families and a high-quality education for their children. Ensure that all Americans have access to clean and lead-free water, and that their participation in American democracy is expanded and protected in the face of widespread voter repression efforts.
The third reconstruction is to counter policies and practices that produce death, whether it is police killings, poverty, lack of health care, ecological destruction or unnecessary war. In short, it is a declaration that unnecessary death is intolerable and that democracy is still possible.
The significance of the third reconstruction will go far beyond any single bill or the agenda of one political party. It is about building a force that fundamentally reimagines the possibilities of our society. The first and second reconstructions in American history were the result of moral movements that recaptured the commitment of the vulnerable to democracy as a new, expanded electorate that insisted that new priorities must be set. If Martin's generation can awaken America's conscience and spark a moral movement, we believe that a coalition of poor and low-income voters whose voices have been suppressed throughout history has the potential to change the political landscape. We have to work around an agenda that rises from the bottom so that everyone can be promoted.
After 400 years of rule in this white supremacy-based system, no single verdict or election can be expected to bring about the radical changes America needs. But Martin's generation learned from Martin that, regardless of the color of their skin, their lives are unimportant in this society unless black lives are respected in our public policy.
The goal of the third reconstruction, as defined by Dr. Barber, is actually the goal of the first and second reconstructions. However, history has always been two steps forward and one step back, and to reach the goal, it is bound to experience many twists and turns. So there's a time to start over and set goals again and again.
The guilt of all three counts of Shawin, who knelt to death of Freud, was a landmark verdict. But these are only the beginnings, not the ends. A few days ago, New York City Attorney General Letitia James announced that a grand jury refused to prosecute a police officer who killed Daniel Prude, a black man, perhaps as an example of a step backwards.
At the time of the incident, the officer nailed Prud's face down on the sidewalk until he lost consciousness. Last month, a judge approved James's request to release the grand jury trial record, which revealed confusing information. The record shows that prosecutors appear to be acting as both prosecutors and defence counsel for the accused, as much of the evidence and witnesses presented can be said to be chosen only by the defence counsel. Such an approach would be unconventional.
The grand jury is designed to hear only one side, that is, the jury members only listen to the evidence and testimony of the prosecutor or the police, and the defendant's lawyer has no place in the grand jury. If the defendant wants a lawyer present, he or she can request a pre-trial with similar function to a grand jury. The failure of the defendant to make such a request is tantamount to a waiver of this right. Although the prosecutor has the responsibility to present the grand jury with evidence that can clearly prove the innocence of the defendant, the prosecutor should definitely not provide evidence in the same way that it also assumes the responsibility of the defendant's lawyer, otherwise it is tantamount to letting the grand jury assume the function of a jury for a formal criminal trial. So the prosecutor's actions here are puzzling.
It is a matter of opinion whether this case can be classified as what we call judicial reform taking two steps back and one step back. But it does make many question the prosecutor's motives. Now that the grand jury has decided not to prosecute, the prosecution can still sue, but must prove to the judge that it has a good reason to do so, which means that the threshold for prosecution will be higher. Whether this case will take this step will also help us understand whether the prosecutor's approach is reasonable.
In fact, one sentence that went barely noticed on April 3 this year is very meaningful: William Darby, a police officer in Huntsville, Alabama, was convicted of murder and will face 20 years to life in prison. Darby shot a man who called 911. The man reported suicidal tendencies and held his gun to his head when police arrived.
A city review board cleared Darby of all of its mistakes before the court trial, and the Huntsville City Council voted to allocate $125,000 in public funds for Darby's criminal defense. Police across Alabama are watching the case because they often have to deal with mental health incidents.
The verdict in this case illustrates that the jury is now increasingly open to the notion that the police cannot act recklessly. However, the police do face many complex situations and difficult decisions to make. The above two cases are proof.
Last summer's long-running protest against police violence in the United States made police eligible immunity a hot topic. Eligible immunity is a privilege of the police in civil proceedings. When the policeman is the defendant, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant "violated a statutory or constitutional right that has been clearly established and would have been known to a reasonable person" before the defendant is protected by a qualifying immunity.
This qualified immunity has long been abused, and it seems that the police are entitled to immunity in any case. So, since Biden took office, Democrats have been trying to remove this immunity from the police. While there has been no progress on federal legislation to date because of Republican resistance, individual states have removed eligible immunity from police within the scope of state law.
In addition, last year, the High Court unusually accepted two cases concerning police immunity. Both cases came from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, each ruled by two panels of three judges, both led by Republican-appointed judges, and both court decisions were available to defendants with police immunity. But the Supreme Court overturned both judgments of the Court of Appeal, saying the facts of the case were shocking and that any sane person knew the defendants' actions violated the Constitution.
In both cases, prisoners were held in fecal-covered, cold, icy cells for six days. The other was to spray chemicals on the prisoner's face for no reason. In such cases, the police are allowed to enjoy qualified immunity, which shows how much this right has been abused.
Does the High Court's decision in these two cases represent a turnaround? No one dared to draw conclusions. Lawyers, academics, and political analysts, some cautiously optimistic, some are completely skeptical. Hopefully, this is also a leap forward in the reform of the judicial system. As long as you keep moving forward and pushing unremittingly, you will reach your destination.
I have written that the mass unemployment of black men caused by industrial migration and the subsequent unjustified mass imprisonment of black men have ruined the black community. (See "Is It Hard to Obey the Police?") Why are black people so unwise? Once a community is destroyed, it is very difficult to rebuild. That means we have to make extra investments and make special efforts.
For example, special emphasis is now placed on not overcarceration. However, simply releasing people without providing the means and opportunities for survival is often just forcing those people back onto the path of crime. Also, if you don't provide medical intervention for addicts, it's hard to guarantee that addicts themselves can get out of that pit.
Another serious problem facing the black community is that too many people have mental illness. In fact, many black people who have committed hate crimes against Asians have mental problems. As mentioned earlier in this article, the presence of such people also poses a huge challenge to the work of the police. These are the problems that Dr. Barber has proposed that must be solved for the third reconstruction.
We must face up to the fact that blacks are not treated equally and served in all aspects of life, such as employment, education, housing, health care, banking, shopping, etc., and must undergo deep, lasting, and systemic changes. Hopefully, the third reconstruction will be the last, and hopefully the ultimate goal will be achieved in the hands of our generation.
Resources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/opinion/george-floyd-death-william-barber.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/opinion/blm-movement-protests-support.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/us/huntsville-police-convicted-murder-suicidal-man.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/nyregion/daniel-prude-death-letitia-james.html
(Canada and the United States Financial Special Article, plagiarism must be investigated)
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