Dec 9, 2014
The police killer of Eric Garner is free. The police killer of
Michael Brown is free. The police killer of 12-year-old Tamir Rice
was a documented incompetent and a member of a racist Cleveland
police department: he too is still free.
Even more grotesque--American police departments do not keep
accurate documents noting how many people they actually kill in a
given year. America may not have the "desaparecidos" of her
Southern neighbors; yet, the allusion is a chilling one that hints
at the power of bureaucracies to make people disappear into
nothingness because the state deem acts of violence against those
individuals to be "within the law".
In all, America's police are the primary means through which state
violence is rendered on black and brown communities, as well as the
poor.
What should a person of color do when they encounter the police?
How can you ensure that you, your loved ones, friends, and
community members best survive an encounter with the criminal
justice system--what is the new Jim and Jane Crow?
In this, the fourth episode of Season Three, on the podcast known
as The
Chauncey DeVega Show,
I had the great opportunity to chat with Pulitzer Prize-winning
author and journalist Mr. Nick
Chiles.
He is the author of the new book Justice While Black and
current editor of the Atlanta Black Star
newspaper.
Written with attorney Robbin Schipp, Nick's new
book JusticeWhile
Black is
both an excellent (as well as accessible) history of the racist
origins of America's police system, and a invaluable step by step
guide for how to navigate the entrapping maze that is the American
legal system and the many ways that it can (and will) ruin the
lives of those people it encounters.
In our conversation, Mr. Chiles summed up the crisis and conundrum
that is when the colorline encounters the American legal system as
follows: just because it is within your Constitutional rights to do
a thing does not mean that a given cop will respect those
rights.
In this episode of The
Chauncey DeVega Show,
Nick and I discuss what to do when a police officer stops you, how
answering no more than the basic questions you are legally
obligated to is the smart move, how families can cause chaos and
trouble if you are arrested, the dangers of the plea bargain, the
foolish hysteria around common sense "black respectability
politics", tales of black lives ruined by the system, and if he
watches "crime porn" such as The
First 48 television
show.
Nick also clears up some of Chauncey DeVega's misconceptions about
what he should do if the police demand to search his
car.