CGTN America: The Racist Roots of American Policing from Slave Patrols to Traffic Stops
Pegged to one of the most important police trials in U.S. history, the piece looks at the history of U.S. policing as the world reacts to the verdict in the Chauvin trial over the death of George Floyd.
WASHINGTON, April 22, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- CGTN America releases the story on "The Racist Roots of American Policing from Slave Patrols to Traffic Stops".
Pegged to one of the most important police trials in U.S. history, the piece looks at the history of U.S. policing as the world reacts to the verdict in the Chauvin trial over the death of George Floyd.
In his well-researched story, CGTN America correspondent Jim Spellman takes us back to the beginning. The first police beat on these shores started with actual beatings that occurred after chasing and catching escaped slaves in the 1700s. As the name implies, so-called Slave Patrols had little to do with the types of crimes glorified on today's police dramas and everything to do with catching slaves. The targets on the backs of Blacks didn't go away with the abolition of slavery.
"You now have hyper concern about Black people without masters and many feared that black people would become lazy criminals," says Niambi Carter, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Howard University.
That is just one voice in this carefully researched yet fast-moving report on the long and often ugly relationship between African Americans and police. The segment incorporates vintage photographs and archival newsreel clips.
This tale of brutality reached a turning point in 1991 and the age of citizen videos. Camcorders, and now cellphones, have generated evidence of police crimes against Blacks, including hard-to-watch images of the Rodney King beating (that sparked the LA riots) and, more recently, of George Floyd's killing.
The viewer is left to consider whether the image of one knee, on one neck, will make a difference in U.S. policing after a long history of indifference – and whether a guilty verdict will help indict a system that many say needs an overhaul in the name of human rights.
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