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I am not quite sure what to make of the ruffled YouTube video that is now scouring the web out of Paterson, New Jersey. In the video, the woman filming, who mentions that her mother works in the sheriff's office, is taping a New Jersey police officer holding a black man to the ground. The man clearly has his hands behind his back and appears to be restrained.
As the woman videos the incident from a distance, the officer inexplicably grabs the man, turns him around and puts pepper spray in to his eyes. He appears to do it twice.
Noticing the woman in the background and people watching, the officer picks the defendant up off the ground and approaches the group using quite a bit of profane language. He also mentions something about whether or not the woman saw crack on the ground around the defendant. The video is certainly disturbing, and better video resolution might have been helpful to determine what was going on. All the while, you could clearly see some disturbing actions in the video, which might likely be a case of very serious police brutality.
While we should leave it to the court of law to decide exactly what happened in this incident, here are some quick thoughts that went through my mind:
1) (The obvious one) For what reason did the officer feel the need to put pepper spray into the eyes of a suspect who'd already been detained? If he is lying on the ground with his hands secured behind his back, it makes no sense to spray something in his eyes. This kind of cruel and unusual punishment is not justified just because the person is accused of committing a crime.
2) Why does the officer feel that it is acceptable or necessary to tell innocent bystanders to "get the f*ck out of here, unless you wanna go with him"? Sorry officer, but you must understand that your authority over the citizens of the community is not absolute. You have no right to use abusive and disrespectful language toward citizens, the same way they are not allowed to be disrespectful toward you. Secondly, the idea that the officer believes that he can threaten to take people to jail because they were observing and evaluating him conducting his duties is incredibly problematic.
3) How often does this happen in cases that go unreported? For every case in which someone happens to be standing around taping an incident, there are likely thousands of other cases we don't know about. If police officers wonder why the community has a difficult time trusting them, incidents like this are the reason why.
The bottom line is that part of the reason the relationship between police officers and the black community is so fractured (even worse in Paterson, N.J.) is because officers sometimes believe that it's OK to keep the entire community in a frightened police state. Officers, who are often unable to sort out the bad from the good, tear down the doors of innocent citizens in drug raids and don't even fix the damage that was done to the house (this happened to a friend of mine twice when she was a little girl). They stop black men and harass us without just cause for doing so. They sometimes even beat the heck out of 15-year-old kids.
Now, the most egregious behavior doesn't happen in every precinct and is not committed by every officer., but this video is a reminder that there must be a new paradigm of police interaction with the community. Officers must understand that they are positioned to work with the community and not against it. While it appears that the young man in this video may have done something wrong, the idea of spraying him, cursing at citizens and threatening to take them to jail just for watching is absolutely unacceptable. There needs to be an investigation.
The video is below if you'd like to watch:
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (116)
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By: cheryl on 6/14/2010 12:32PM
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESES POLICE OFFICERS ARE WEARING BADGERS AND CARRYING GUNS THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO PROTECT AND SERVE NOT BEAT THE HELL OUT OF PEOPLE THERE IS A RIGHT WAY AND WRONG WAY IN DOING THINGS. THEY HAD THE MAN DOWN HANDS BEHIND HIS BACK AND I SEE THEY HAVE THE NEED TO SPRAY THAT PEPPER SPRAY IN HIS FACE NOW THAT IS WRONG THEY NEED TO BE FIRED RIGHT AWAY POLICE OR NO POLICE THEY ARE BAD COPS GET THEM OFF THE FORCE BEFORE THEY REALLY HURT SOMEONE PRETTY BAD,
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By: paul on 6/14/2010 3:10PM
If he really wanted justice, he could have just let him swallow the damn thing and watch him die of an overdose.
Maybe this officer was just doing whatever it took to save the criminal from himself.
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By: Ed on 6/14/2010 4:19PM
They don't beat me because I'm not a criminal nor do I associate with them. Stop whining.
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By: DueGee on 6/14/2010 3:29PM
The Caucusoids wentb to the continent of Africa and took human being away to be used as animals?
Then these descendants of the slave traders now say that the African Chiefs sold their people to the slave traders.
And what fools do you think we are? Why would these slave traders offer money to those of whom they didn't consider to intelligent or even to be human.
No one was ever sold in Africa to the Caucusoids.
The Caucusoids followed the same path as they always have, they used guns and force, they went in with their guns and took all the Africans they could pack on their ships and brought all that could survive over here to this country.
DueGee
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By: datruthisscary on 6/14/2010 9:47PM
Sounds to me like you're reaching for any excuse, Gary. (lol) C'mon, be smarter than that. You know that Juanita made a very excellent point. Perhaps you should watch the video again. It clearly shows the suspect was already subdued before being maced. Again, are you and I watching the same video?
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By: charlee on 6/14/2010 5:05PM
what spaceship you just off? Clearly the cop is not alone and to spray pepper spray in an already subdued person is just going to make the person act up and that is what they wanted an excuse to kill him but lucky for him there was a video camera
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By: elohssa on 6/14/2010 5:15PM
This message is for that jackass Bill Schrier. Why is it that whenever there is a caucasian mistreating or abusing an AA, you have to bring your stupid,cowardly, racist punkass to this site? Lord, knows that I would like to meet you out in the open where you can't hide behind this screen. I would like to put my foot so far up to arse that you would have to open your mouth so that I could untie my shoelace to remove my foot. I wouldn't want the shoe. You can keep it as a keepsake. It might remind you that this AA is tired of your s*#t.
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By: TYRANT626 on 6/14/2010 5:18PM
The fact that you're forgetting is the man was already handcuffed and subdued, so there was no need for the officer to pepper spray him. Nor was it necessary for the officer to threaten onlookers who watched the incident and who were clearly evaluating his conduct.
People-like you-think that using brutality on people of color is just fine until the same police you love watching abuse innocent people use the same brutality on you. Once that happens, then you're the first to complain about it (as you should) but you thought nothing of it when they were abusing black people.
Ah, the joy of listening to HYPOCRITES.
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By: DSPOON on 6/14/2010 5:25PM
And what about black people who work for a living?? Do we not pay taxes??
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By: Delorna Johnson on 6/14/2010 5:34PM
The information you read on AOL Black Vocies, web site, and the comments e-mailed by people who read the information from AOL Black Vices web site other than Negroes, do not understand the
nilhilism, forced upon people of color.
People who are intellegent, honarable, indigidous and beautiful. You have to understand, some of the Caucasian race tried to destroy people of color for many years, and yet we still rise.
America has a violent history on people of color, the white race masacared the Indian race for America and now the Caucasian race has finally woke up to see that this world does not revole just around them, so now they are starting to get angry because they are becomming inferior, they are losing power and control and instead of negotioating they use force, and it begins to show, for example this police officer, this police officer is ignorant. He has a job and he does not perform his job duties well. He is ignorant to that fact that somebody is always watching you! and taking pictures if necassary. He is a dum fool.
What kind've changes are there in the streets that are good. Consturction,repairing and renovate are good things in a community. The bad things in the community is were a polce is doing the things like we saw on this video, is that what our soldiers are dying for, for some of the police force to contiune on with their ignorance and not grow and improve. Vicious history of the Caucasian race must change, they have a deep rooted streak for haterd,of people of color. That is so sad! A race so in denial of who they are.
The officers was dead wrong, he was not professional and disrespectful to the community. He needs to be reprimaned. He needs to attend diversity classes and change his routine thinking. The crowd was not rude, if you look closely, you can see how the people of color stood, they stood still, and watch this man take a beating, and peper sprayed. We are not going to let the opressor continue to disrespect us in our community. We welcome them with open arms to moniter our community to make it safe, we don't need that force implemented into our Black community. Do not trespass our community with wicked behavior. People of color demand respect.
That officer will have his day in court!
People of color stand up for each other, do not fight them phsyically, but use their system, playing their game,making it work for you, while Pedagogy and educating your race.
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