Why Black Neighborhoods Are Overpoliced
The answer may surprise you - Originally shared on July 7th, 2020
Alright everybody, it's time to begin. Today's discussion will be about "Why Black Neighborhoods are Overpoliced". In this discussion, we will speak on topics such as the War on Drugs, underfunded schooling, fatherless homes, and privitization of prisons. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them. I have also included sources as well, to back up these claims.
When we want to look at the reason why black neighborhoods are overpoliced, we first need to take a look at the War on Drugs, started by President Nixon in 1970. The War on Drugs is an ongoing campaign - which started out with all of the wrong intentions. Nixon's domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman said, "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." (1)
The War on Drugs spends $25 billion per year to try to "fight" the illegal drug trade/drug epidemic in America (2). That's $793 per second. Despite this heavy effort and spending, the average price of buying street drugs has gradually went down over time. The War on Drugs mainly focuses on non-violent offenders, rather than violent ones. Here's the two big kickers here:
• 82% of arrests made are for possession only - and the majority of these are for marijuana charges. (3)
• Black and white citizens use drugs at around the same rates, yet Black offenders are sent to prison at 10 times the rate of white offenders. (4)
If marijuana was legalized in all states, and taxed at the same rates of cigarettes and alcohol, the US would make about $46 billion dollars in tax revenue yearly. (5)
What happens to these offenders who are arrested on drug charges? Private prisons play a large role in the systemic oppression happening in this country as well. Since 2000 alone, the population of private prisons compared to state has increased by 39% (6). The goal of these private prisons is to make a profit, since they are owned by corporations who get money from the government. Since these prisons make a profit off of the prisoners they have, they save money by not offering as many rehabilitation programs for drug users - this is bad for addicts and would help their record to show they went through these programs. Incarceration in private prisons has actually increased recidivism by 20% (7). There is also no solid proof that they are any better in terms of cost to the government.
Conservatives will tell you that there are two causes for black criminality - black culture (also known as personal decision making) and fatherless homes. For starters, black culture addresses individual circumstances, not the whole. This is a distraction from the conversation. In terms of fatherless homes, there are a few points we also have to consider:
• The US holds 5% of the world's population, yet the US holds 25% of the world's prison population (8).
• 34% of the male prison population in the US are black (9).
• 1 in 9 black children have an incarcerated parent due to the residual effects of the War on Drugs (10).
• 92% of parents that are in prison are fathers (11).
It doesn't help that these children without fathers then have to go to an underfunded school. Schools in neighborhoods are funded by the property taxes in that area, and although redlining was outlawed in 1966, the effects of those issues are still being felt today. That means that a 20-year-old then would only be 72 now (12). Non-white districts recieve in total $23 billion less yearly than white districts (13). So what happens when education is underfunded? You have poor education and schooling. Out of all high school graduates, 86% were white and 69% were black (14). Not being able to get a solid education in high school sets a bad starting point for jobs and even scholarships for higher education. For jobs in the US today, there is a big white-to-black worker ratio (15). Part of this could be because of hiring bias, and the other part of this could be because of education opportunities. In law, the ratio is 12 to 1. In management, the ratio is 10 to 1. In engineering, the ratio is 8 to 1. And in education, the ratio is 7 to 1.
So what does poor education, poverty, fatherless homes, private prisons, and the War on Drugs have to do with overpolicing? It's no wonder that police are going to police an area that is almost guaranteed to have drug dealers in it. There are going to be more drugs in that area, which leads to more tickets and arrests, which leads to them being able to pick what things they want in the department. And the police will tell you they do not have quotas (because they are illegal), but what they do have are "productivity goals" (16). Every workplace has this, and even though being a cop is a job where you are working for the community, it is also still exactly that - a job.
Overpolicing is a problem that is not recognized, by politicians and police alike. It needs to change.