Contact CU Independent News Staff Writer Jake Mauff at jacob.mauff@colorado.edu
Lawyer William Thorne and journalists Rob Warden, Joe Sexton and Adam J. Schrager discussed the role of race in police shootings at a Conference on World Affairs panel entitled “Police Shootings: When the ‘Perfect Storm’ is the Perfect Cop-Out” on Tuesday. It was moderated by Caroline Conzelman in the Glenn Miller Ballroom in the UMC.
Thorne presented his view from a lawyer’s perspective, looking at the “reasonable fear for their life” rule behind most police shootings. He said that knowing if the officer was in legitimate fear of being killed is another issue. Thorne also talked about how race may play a role in these questionable situations, which set the tone for the rest of the discussion.
The rest of the panel focused on these supposed race-related police shootings, like those of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Tamir Rice in Cleveland.
Next to speak was Sexton. He was very adamant that the narrative claiming that the only police violence that exists is between white officers and unarmed black victims is false. The data he presented said that 990 people were killed by police, and that only 10 percent of these instances involved a police officer killing an unarmed victim, regardless of race.
Sexton wanted to put these statistics into perspective, explaining that there were 100 questionable shootings by police officers in a nation of 300-million-plus people. Sexton also wanted people to realize that racially motivated shootings by cops are not an everyday occurrence.
Warden spoke next, offering his opinion on a potential method for solving every situation of police violence. He proposed a public integrity unit, which would review cases independently of the police force. Within this plan, every case of police force would go to a grand jury to help immediately articulate facts.
Last but not least was Schrager. He spoke of a case in Madison, Wisconsin, where a white officer shot unarmed black man. The officer said he was assaulted and shot the unarmed man seven times. He used this case because it is the only case of a white officer shooting a black man in Madison in 2015.
Shrager reiterated Sexton’s point that racially motivated police shootings are not an everyday instance. Schrager also said that training can help prevent violence, especially when it does not focus on militaristic tasks. In regard to the Madison incident, he explained that the police force is more diverse than the national average, which helps with some of the problems seen in less-diverse situations.
After Schrager’s remarks, the panel members discussed their beliefs with each other. The first to jump in was Sexton, who took issue with Warden’s words, particularly with the idea that only white officers killed black citizens in these shootings, a claim that Sexton disputed with factual evidence.
Arden expanded on this issue, explaining that he had to look at anecdotal evidence about police shootings because the reporting is often foggy.
Thorne also chimed in, curious about what happens to officers after a shooting, and how transparent these acts are. He also claimed that the system protects its own, which makes it a hard system to trust.
Schrager said that a new system could be implemented across the country once an incident of police violence occurs. He also mentioned that the information about the case in Madison is available online to the general public, which allows for transparency.
After the panel discussion was over, the audience had time to ask questions. With much of the focus on race, many members of the audience wondered why black people weren’t a part of the panel.
