There are lessons to be learnt from the Ferguson/Missouri incident

Sep 02, 2014 Editorial

The Missouri riots should be a lesson that our local police should be required to analyse and learn from, in terms of the Ferguson police’s handling of the post shooting events and to relate applicable aspects in their operational approach to similar situations here. Our politicians could also spend a few reflective moments on how not to vacillate in crises and to be prepared to step up and lead from the front.
The point of this column today is the implications of profiling in law enforcement. At first blush it might be assumed, and indeed it has been argued that the Ferguson, Missouri situation stemmed from a police fatal shooting involving a white policeman as the shooter, and a black victim in the person of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Fatal confrontations are not unknown locally, but they definitely have never aroused the kind of reaction as seen in the Rodney King and now Michael Brown sagas.
Arguments have been flowing fast and furious supporting claims that racial profiling was the principal cause for Brown’s demise. Of course other quarters posit that the level of angst displayed in the Ferguson riots, and the virtual mayhem which ensued would not have occurred if the victim was a white person and the policeman was black. The jury will probably almost always come back hung on that question in societies as racially diverse as America. Perhaps the fact that Blacks make up the majority of the affected population would explain the official responses, and the riotous conduct that the world has so far seen up close and personal.
President Barrack Obama in a commendable public gesture called on the police to respect peaceful demonstrations, and cautioned against the use of excessive force against peaceful protesters for lawfully exercising constitutional rights. At the same time Obama did not seek to excuse the robust mob behavior which in many instances provided cover for attacks on the police, vandalism, looting, and physical harm against law abiding citizens.
Legion are the tales of Afro-Americans being stopped by the police because of their colour, which leaves them with an after sense of victimisation and public humiliation. It is for that reason that law enforcement officers must be sensitive to the feelings and perceptions of those whom they come into contact with daily. It is therefore an interesting intervention that the local police force has initiated in certain communities which hitherto were treated as comprised of mainly ne’er-do-wells.
However, what should not be ignored or left to chance is the possibility that there may be members of the force who are repulsed by the unfair and unconstitutional policing practices engaged in by their less than professional colleagues. Moreover justifiable concerns about unreasonable suspicion have been borne out in Australia by an examination of police station diaries. It was found that people were stopped on suspicion of being “criminals loitering”, or because they appeared nervous in the presence of police officers, or were wearing “homeboy clothing.” The findings also revealed that African Australians were more than likely determined to be associated with criminal activity where when in a group they are members of a gang. If singly they are seen as drug dealers. In the final analysis the profile being what it is causes people to be unfairly suspected of criminal activity.
In light of the incidents involving the use of CG motorcycles in the commission of gun crimes in recent times it might be a fair assumption that riders of these vehicles would be viewed with more than a modicum of suspicion. The situation is certainly not helped by the fact that a lot of the young men in possession of these motorbikes – if investigated do not have any apparent means of support by which they can generate an income to match their observable lifestyle. The question is how do we balance our recent experiences with the expectation of reasonable cause for suspicion to bring a halt to this spate of robbery and murder?
It is important to note that stereotyping does more harm than good and therefore the police are expected to operate in a manner that avoids offending those law abiding citizens on whose support they genuinely depend.

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There are lessons to be learnt from the Ferguson/Missouri incident

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