It was the click-heard-’round-the-world.
First we saw the white cop in the suit put his hands behind his back and wait. Next a white cop in a deputy sheriff’s uniform reached behind him. Then we heard the click. Finally, when they turned and walked out the door, we saw a sight we had failed to see in courtroom after courtroom: a convicted cop in cuffs, being walked into his prison destiny. He had, in effect, executed, in a slo-mo murder in Minneapolis, a never-tried man he thought committed a small-time crime of passing a fake $20.
What was so revolutionary and historic, of course, was that the whole world finally saw the reality the police had repeatedly denied. Indeed, the Minneapolis police never mentioned any of that in their first no-problems press release. But they were forced to face the truth because a gutsy then-17-year-old hero, Darnella Frazier, dared to record it all on her smartphone and posted it on Facebook. Only then did the Nobel-deserving teen show the world how former police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd – by pressing his knee down on his prone, handcuffed prisoner’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes.
But right after the court verdict was announced, one designated TV talking head departed from the same-old, same-old – and served up an experience-based series of revelations that provided unusual new insight and urgency. Of course, such TV punditry is usually spoken and forgotten (unless it is accompanied by video that crashes, explodes, burns or bares bits). But today we are resurrecting the video moment just for its words – because these informed insights were dished on CNN by the iconic Charles Ramsey, the retired Washington, D.C., police chief and Philadelphia police commissioner.
Unlike most TV pundits and professors, Ramsey shined his half-century old true-blue spotlight on a reality his police colleagues prefer to keep in shadows.
“I've been in policing for more than 50 years – and I've seen a good side of it,” Ramsey explained. “But there is a dark side. And that's the side that Derek Chauvin, and others like him … operate…. And light has to be shown there…
“I … can't be blind to the fact that we've got people who have no business wearing a badge and a gun. … We don't teach the history of policing. So young cops hit the street and wonder why they go in some neighborhoods and people look at them with suspicion and don't trust them.
“ … We don't teach people how to deal with power and authority. Can you imagine hiring some 20- (or) 21-year-old, give him a badge and a gun and a souped-up car with lights and sirens – and then wonder why you have problems? I mean, you know, we have to really look at our profession differently.”
One of the most infuriating things the world saw in Darnella Frazier’s video was that while Chauvin was committing his long, slow murder, his three colleagues were inches away, unconscionably doing nothing. Not intervening to prevent a murder. Ramsey calls it a cultural failure in American policing. He called for urgent systemic reform.
“It's the peer pressure,” Ramsey said. “ … When some cop … did something wrong, and in that (police) locker room, somebody pulls him aside and says, ‘Hey, we don't do that here, we don't do that!’ – That’s when you get change. That's culture change. And that's what has to happen. … And it starts with holding people accountable (who) … operate outside of the bounds of justice…
“I hope that this (court verdict) is a springboard toward really getting there. Because we have a short attention span. … This is the moment, the moment is now. … I’m very … optimistic.”
Ramsey was right to be optimistic. As he spoke, Attorney General Merrick Garland was preparing to announce a federal examination of the Minneapolis Police Department’s pattern of excessive force against minorities. “Good officers do not want to work in systems that allow bad practices,” Garland declared Wednesday.
And most significantly, Senate Republicans now seem ready to end their do-nothingism and move responsibly toward bipartisan policing reforms. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is pushing to replace the Democrats’ plan to end individual immunity for police officials with an improvement – to allow citizens to sue police departments, but not individuals. While the Democrats’ approach could discourage good potential cops from applying and risking financial ruin, Scott’s reported idea will force local police and municipal leaders to finally get involved and demand best police practices.
Indeed, that video-driven Minneapolis courtroom verdict may have given Scott the Senate cloakroom clout he needs to re-float his grounded Republican Party, get its paddlewheel spinning, and maybe actually help make America great again.
