Legal cynicism, the biggest threat to policing | Garry McCarthy | TEDxNaperville

[Music] we have a crisis in American policing I think that that is widely recognized I think it's acknowledged but I don't think what's widely recognized and what's being acknowledged is that the solutions or the recipes to correct that crisis that are being used in this country are not producing the results that we're looking for in fact it's exacerbating the problem and I think that what's happening is there's a conversation about law enforcement that doesn't include law enforcement and I think that what's happening is those methods that are being applied are embolden criminals and rendering police ineffective which in my book is taking a stat of road towards lawlessness and I think we're seeing that in a number of different places in a number of different ways now let me say first that it's my opinion that I don't think any one of those young black men that we've seen who have died at the hands of police almost with that exception because there's always exceptions needed to die the police have to do better we have to do better with better training with better supervision and definitely with better tactics because almost every one of those situations that I've encountered and looked at looks like they were tactical tactical errors that were made that put those officers in a position that they had to use deadly physical force so let me get that out of the way the police have to do better the police absolutely have to do but I think the problem is being misdiagnosed and as a result we're taking the wrong medicine for what ails us which is making the problem worse instead of better and I'll take you through that probably the best example that I could give you of what really strikes at the heart of this to me is the fact that criminals are non-compliance by their very nature we know that my greatest concern is that the non-compliance that runs through virtually every one of those tragic events that we see is being legitimized and in my book this actually is the bedrock foundation of the United States Constitution compliance compliance with the police compliance with the law and the legitimizing of that non-compliance is happening on a number of different levels and it's happening in a number of different venues and the best example that I could give you is a recent example in Chicago where young men stole a car a young african-american men stole a vehicle took the police on a high-speed chase crashed that vehicle purposely into a police car at 50 miles an hour causing a violent confrontation and he ends up dead now the police may have acted improperly and out of policy and they should pay for that I need to say that if the police act outside the law they should be prosecuted like any other United States citizen absolutely positively and if they act outside of policy they need to be disciplined that's how we keep policies intact in policing but in this case the narrative is not about what that young man did it's only about what the police did I yet to hear anybody say the police are being castigated for this incident by the way but I've yet to hear anybody say I have an idea if we want to prevent these incidents from happening eight don't steal a car v don't take the police on a high-speed chase and see definitely do not crash that car into a police car causing a violent confrontation and then complain when something bad happens as a result so if the bed had already happened now how is it that this is happening why is this happening it's happening on a number of different levels but I want to introduce you to a social sociology concept it's called legal cynicism and this is what I'm talking about the issue being misdiagnosed do you know that police-related shootings in the city of Chicago are less than half of one percent of the shootings in this video Chicago I'm going to say that again less than half of one percent of shootings in the city of Chicago and it's my opinion that the problem set of vexing the african-american community that are resulting in attempts to fix the police or social and economic problems that at their core have this concept of legal cynicism and legal cynicism is a cultural orientation in which the law and its agents of enforcement are viewed as illegitimate unresponsive and ill-equipped to ensure public safety think about what this says the law and its agents of enforcement so we're not just talking about the police we're talking about prosecutors talking about judges we're talking about the law itself we're talking about correctional facilities we're talking about everything in that system that's legal cynicism and what I think we're seeing is legal cynicism on steroid because if you think about it and I know you have at the end of the day the disenfranchised community that's overrun by poverty lack of education mass incarceration causing the breakup of the family unit led in the water poor health care no mental health care you name the issue that exists in that community anger Wells up at a government system that is not providing the basic elements that those communities need that anger is being focused on the most forward and visible component of that failed government system and who is that that's the police so what I'm telling you is fixing the police is not going to change those societal conditions that exist in those neighborhoods and five years from now we're going to be having the same conversation now why is this happening and who is accountable because accountability doesn't just apply to the police we're empowering criminals and rendering the police ineffective and people are dying as a result the methods that were using the medicines that were applying are making the situation worse now who's to blame I already told you the police has to do better I'm no two ways about it please don't think that I'm saying anything different but I'm going to give you some other thoughts and some other people who are helping to empower criminals I can't help it but I have to start with the media the media no longer engages in journalism what they're doing is they're competing for ratings like TMZ the goryeo the more controversial the better for the press and I want you to think about the way that things are present everybody knows the story of Eric garner in New York City it's now become the illegal chokehold death of Eric garner I got two facts that nobody realizes a the chokehold was not illegal it was against department policy so it was outside policy it was not against the law and be the coroner says that Eric garner died from chest compression in other words somebody was sitting on his back during that scrum trying to arrest him he did not die from chokehold but try putting that genie back in the bottle because it's the illegal chokehold death of Eric garner I was a guest last week I woke up first thing I always do just to get myself annoyed is I turn on the television and watch the news the anger keeps me focused and what did I see the tag line on the bottom said New Mexico police officer killed and shootout with offender but it's unclear who fired first what are you kidding me and then the other thing that I saw think about how the press presents things I'm watching the demonstrations in Charlotte after the police shooting and what did I see I saw people jumping up and down on top of police cars breaking windows property damage those people were called demonstrators I think they were criminals and the police were called riot police just attached word riot to police and think about it and how many times have you seen them now revel when they say another police shooting caught on video we're empowering criminals through the media through the perception and what's happening what's happening is we're ending up with police officers getting murdered in places like Dallas Baton Rouge New York City and most recently Iowa the second component elected officials elected officials are trying to legislate good policemen you can't legislate good police they came up with something called the Community Relations Improvement Act in Springfield which results in a two-page report every time a police officer conducts a stop it's akin to conducting a robbery investigation rather than filling out a card saying you stopped Garry McCarthy this is where this is when this is why elected officials campaign on the term new term new lexicon police violence they campaign on police violence they support community leaders and community leaders this is a segue to community leaders they support community leaders who go out and shut down Michigan Avenue those community leaders I actually heard somebody from black lives matter on TV going to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and said that he was going there he was not going to comply with the police he was encouraging everybody else not to comply with the police and he was going to get a gun and bring it with him this is empowering criminals at the same time whether or not you know it during those protests on Michigan Avenue police officers were assaulted all day long we have photographs of a leader a community leader punching a police officer in the face we arrested him and couldn't get him prosecuted the charges were dropped by the state's attorney this is empowering criminals the last component that that's really important in this dynamic is government and this goes from the top to the bottom now my comments are specific to Chicago for obvious reasons I a little bit about what happens in Chicago but I was also the vice president of the major city chiefs Association and this is about policing nationally and when I say from the top to the bottom the Department of Justice in my mind is getting people killed in America today that's a controversial statement but I could tell you this DOJ is in Chicago right now investigating our patterns and practices and DOJ will tell you very proudly and by the way this is the politicizing of the Department of Justice which you may or may not have noticed maybe a little bit in this national election that's going on DOJ will tell you proudly that they've opened 22 investigations into civil rights violations by police departments in the last eight years and that's more than any other time in history they're very proud of that by the way any officer who violate somebody's civil rights needs to be prosecuted no two ways about it I have to be clear about this I'm not being soft on police officers but the standard that DOJ is using this is terrible the Supreme Court of the United States says that the police can stop somebody based upon something called articulable reasonable suspicion and they found this in a 1968 case of Terry versus Ohio that's what the highest court in the land says the Department of Justice is investigating patterns and practices of Police Department's based upon population demographics and they say that we're disproportionately stopping African Americans across the country now I want you to think about this the most violent community in Chicago is Inglewood Inglewood happens to be ninety-seven percent african-american as a result we put more officers there and the standard on the DOJ has it that in that community of 97% african-americans we're supposed to stop 32% white people it's really not funny it's preposterous because that community deserves protection and the very people that they're trying to protect are the ones who are losing their lives where were we in Chicago there are my four and a half year tenure as police superintendent we had about a 40% reduction in overall crime we had back-to-back years in 2013 and 2014 of the lowest murder rate in Chicago since 1965 and by the way it was two men whose 405 and 415 which is not OK but where are we today oh by the way we're back-to-back years of 50% reductions in complaints against our officers by civilians we had a 20,000 less arrests over a two year period yet a 23% increase in gun arrests so we weren't just locking up everybody because mass incarceration is real it's not about arresting everybody it's about arresting the right person at the right place at the right time for the right reason and that's how you reduce crime and most significantly if you don't know it there was a 68 percent reduction in police-related shootings during my tenure as police superintendent in Chicago 68% and that was because of better supervision better policies better review practices and better training but one shooting has flipped over the table in Chicago laQuan McDonald that officer has to answer for what he did that day that officer has to answer but we're empowering criminals and hamstringing the police through all these policies that I talked about and all these things that are happening and what's the result in Chicago this year we've got 4,000 people shot already take a moment ensuring that 4,000 people shot in Chicago this year stops are down by the police by 95% well what did we think was going to happen if they arrest somebody they don't get prosecuted and if you stop the wrong person the officer can go to jail what effect is that having on crime rate the likelihood is we're definitely going to go past 700 murders we're going to go past 700 murders it's likely that we're going to hit 750 now I want to put that in perspective for you because the worst year that New York City ever had was 1990 and there were two thousand two hundred and forty five people murdered in New York City in 1990 that was at the height of the crack epidemic that's before proactive policing existed Chicago is one-third the size of New York City so let's do two math together that means that we're gonna hit the murder rate that New York City had 26 years ago when the world was a different place there were no political solutions for practical problems we can't engage in a game of look at the squirrel every action has a reaction and while we're spending this time trying to fix the police I love the saying that we're going to fix police community relations we're going to we established police community relations well you can reinstate you can't reestablish something that didn't exist in the first place because I want you to think about the history of african-americans in this country 400 year history maybe longer that started with slavery went to Black Codes from there Jim Crow and after that segregation I can't believe as I stand here that segregation existed in my lifetime I think it was 1964 is when the civil rights bill was signed that narrative of distrust is well earned by the police because we were the ones the white police officers who are enforcing those racist laws they were laws ladies and gentlemen that were on the books and we enforced them so if you can reverse 300 years 400 years of history then you can re-establish trust the solution lies in first identifying the problem there's a social and economic divide in this country and people are angry about it we're taking the wrong medicine for what else's people are dying as a result this is not just in Chicago this is in places like Cleveland Baltimore New York is staying at the level that it got down to because it stayed the course it didn't reverse field as soon as we had choppy waters I was in charge of New York City's current strategy for seven years very proud of it people are dying as a result of what we're doing and until we recognize the issue and have a conversation with law enforcement about law enforcement until we start coming up with solutions instead of knee-jerk political reactions to curry favor politically this is going to continue I was actually on a Don Lemon show a while back at a town hall meeting where I actually made the offer to black lives matter to sit down with the leadership and law enforcement in this country of course I can do that because they're my friends and it was tacit approval they all took my cards I haven't heard from one yet but the next day I got right on the phone and I started calling my friends and they said Gary I spoke to the president of major city chiefs the president of IACP they said Gary we were just at a meeting with the President of the United States Barack Obama he made the same offer it was declined it's got us thought with a conversation and a recognition of what's happening people are dying in record numbers as a result of what we're doing the politicizing of this issue is disgraceful but if we're satisfied with what's happening then by all means let's keep doing it thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 19,677

Rating: 3.9587302 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Global Issues, Crime, Criminal justice, Law, Social Justice

Id: 2Grqe9mWydc

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 07 2016