Recommendation: Austin Police Department training curriculum

2019 The History of Police and Race in America A CURRICULUM FOR THE APD TRAINING ACADEMY BY DAVID GIANNAULA UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE OFFICE OF POLICE OVERSIGHT AND PROFESSOR JENNIFER E. LAURIN i Table of Contents Letter to the Instructor ............................................................................................................................... 1 Course Description ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Course Outline ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Part I: Streams and Rivers Activity .......................................................................................................... 4 Streams and Rivers Student Handout ........................................................................................................ 6 Part II: Resource Depravation Game ....................................................................................................... 7 Group 1 Instructions.................................................................................................................................. 9 Group 2 Instructions................................................................................................................................ 10 Group 3 Instructions................................................................................................................................ 11 Activity 1 Handout .................................................................................................................................. 12 Part III: Overview of the History of Race and Police ............................................................................ 13 PowerPoint Presentation Slides .............................................................................................................. 14 Part IV: Flash Point Activity ................................................................................................................... 40 Post-Reconstruction/Jim Crow Era 1865- 1930 ...................................................................................... 42 Civil Rights: The 1970s .......................................................................................................................... 50 Re-Entrenchment: 1980-2000 ................................................................................................................ 65 Part V: Final Reflection ............................................................................................................................ 77 Student Handout for Final Reflection ..................................................................................................... 79 References .................................................................................................................................................. 80 1 Letter to the Instructor The materials included within this curriculum are the product of many months of research, planning, and reflection about what to include and how to present the information contained within. Surely, you will not have the same amount of time to dedicate to a single course. For this reason, I wanted to begin this curriculum by laying out the thought process behind the broader structure of the course. First, a word about the order of the activities. This course asks students to engage with topics that are both emotionally difficult and potentially traumatizing. Students will engage with the troubling history of the police and race for four hours. This has the potential for students to disengage from the material and miss out on important information. For this reason, the course is structured to mimic a roller coaster by first priming the students to receive the material, then giving them a burst of high-energy activity, next asking them to engage with difficult materials in a variety of ways before finally allowing them to sit and reflect on the material they just learned. The first activity is meant to ground the students by demonstrating the way people form their opinions about police by having them reflect on how they formed their own perceptions of the police. Next, the students will play a game that is meant to be fun and to lighten the atmosphere before the heavy material that follows. The third part is a heavy lift and covers a mass span of history in order to provide background to the students. This section is meant to draw the line, quite explicitly, from slavery to mass incarceration and to demonstrate the police’s historical role in this process. Then the students are asked to engage with, and present to each other, the Austin/Texas specific history of race and police. Finally, the students will have time to reflect on what they have learned together. While some of the information included in this course may be covered in other parts of the training academy, presenting all of it together and in this sequence is meant to have a very specific impact. The students are meant to make the connection that the police have played a role in racial violence and subjugation throughout history, which has led to a mistrust of police in the communities they police. By demonstrating this to the students, the hope is that they will better empathize with community members and be better equipped to change the image of police moving forward. There is certainly a lot of information to cover in this curriculum. There may be a temptation to cut certain parts. It is urged that this not be done, but if it is absolutely necessary, you as an instructor may consider cutting the first activity, and PowerPoint point slide covering the history of Austin and Texas police . 2 The History of Police and Race in America Curriculum for the Austin Police Department Training Academy Course Description: This course seeks to provide historical context to interactions between future and current Austin Police Officers’ and the communities they police. The course will trace policing in America back to its origins and demonstrate how police and race relations have been inextricably intertwined. Beginning with slave patrols in early Colonial America and moving through to recent history, the course will explain the ways police have been used to subjugate racial and ethnic minorities. The course will place an eye toward how this history informs the way modern communities of color view police today. Students will learn both about the police’s historic role in this subjugation in America broadly, and Austin specifically. Students will be asked to call into question traditional notions of police as a force for good, so that they might better understand and empathize with the communities whom they are or will be policing. Goals of the Course: Realizing that the history of police and race in America is not a subject commonly studied, this course seeks to: - Inform police officers about the historical role police played in slavery, reconstruction, segregation, the Jim Crow south, the civil rights movement, and in communities of color here in Austin. - Provide police officers with historical knowledge of specific racial injustices carried out by police both nationally and locally. - Foster empathy for community mistrust of police by contextualizing that mistrust. - Demonstrate the way historical violence and injustice can be passed down and internalized in communities. - Amplify the voices of victims of past police injustices, and let their voices be heard by the police officers soon to be entering their communities. Structure of the Course: This course will be a half-day course at the Austin Police Department Training Academy. Students will engage in self-reflection on their own views of policing. They will then engage with both primary and secondary sources outlining the history of police and race in an easily accessible manner. After learning about the broad history of police and race relations, students will read about specific flash points in police and race relations here in Austin and present what they learn to their peers. Finally, students will be asked to reflect on the ways that this history will play a role in their future interactions with community members. 3 Outline of the Course Part I: Streams and Rivers Activity Time: 15-20 minutes Materials: Student Handout (pg. 6) Part II: Resource Depravation Game Time: 30-35 minutes Materials: Student instructions for each group (pgs. 9-11) 3 Scientific Calculators 2 Slide rules 1 jar filled with 10 dollars in quarters 1 jar filled with 10 dollars in nickels and dimes 1 jar filled with 10 dollars in pennies Part III: Overview of the History of Race and Police Time: 1 hour Materials: PowerPoint Presentation Part IV: Flash Point Activity Time: 1.5 hours Materials: Enough copies of each Flash Point Packet (pgs. 42-65) Poster boards for each group Markers and Pens Part V: Final Reflection Time: 30 minutes Materials: Final Reflection Prompt for each student (pg. 79) Total time: 3:45 – 4 hours 4 Part I: Reflection on students’ views of police Introduction: This course will ask the students to critically think about the police and policing. The primary goal of the course is to have students better understand and empathize with community views of policing. In order to do this meaningfully it is important for the students to reflect on their own views about policing. By thinking about, and better understanding, the ways that their own experiences have shaped their views of policing, it is the hope that the students will be able to understand the way the events they will learn about in subsequent parts of the class may shape community views of police. Essential question: How do our lived experiences and interactions with police shape the way we view police? Enduring Understanding: An individual’s view of the police will largely be shaped by their interactions with the police, and what they have been told about the police. Therefore, when a community member mistrusts the police it may have to do with their lived experiences with the police, or the stories they have been told about the police. Procedure: 1. Explain to students that they will learn about the history of police and race both in the country, and here in Austin. Tell them that a major goal of engaging with this history is for them to understand the way this history may impact the way modern communities, specifically communities of color, view the police. In order to understand the way our lived experiences shape our views; the students will engage in an activity meant to encourage them to explore what has shaped their own views of police. 2. Distribute the handout entitled “Streams and Rivers: Influences of Your Views”1. Explain to students that they are to fill in the smaller streams with major factors that have influenced their views on police. Explain to the students that they may draw more streams if necessary. Draw the students’ attention to the fact that the factors should be specific enough that they will be individual to them. You can model one to two streams yourself on an overhead projector. 1 This handout is borrowed from CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS CURRICULUM, REPARATIONS WON: A CASE STUDY IN POLICE TORTURE, RACISM, AND THE MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE IN CHICAGO, 10 (2017). 5 3. Give the students 5-10 minutes to complete the activity silently and independently. Be sure to circle the classroom to help students if they are struggle with coming up with potential factors by prompting them with some examples like, “Did you know anyone that made you want to be a police officer?” or “What were you told about the police when you were young? How did that influence your decision to become a police officer?” 4. After it appears that most students have had the chance to fill out 3-4 factors on their handout, ask 3-4 students to share the factors that influenced their views of police. 5. Remind students that the large diversity in responses is a representation of how even in a room full of people who decided to become police officers there are a variety of factors that shaped their views on police. Also point out the way that specific instances in the students past played a role (if it seems that they did) in shaping their views on police. Push the students to consider how their views may have been different if they had not had those experiences, or if they had different, more negative, experiences. 6 Streams and Rivers: Influences on Your Views2 Just as a river is made up from many small streams joining together, our views are made up from many factors joining together to form an opinion about something. Some factors will have a greater impact than others, but all of our views come from these factors in one way or another. Some examples of factors that influence your views are:  Your personal experiences  Your personal values (think about what you think is right and wrong)  Your self-interest (what is helpful or harmful to you)  The experiences of your friends, family, or community  The news and media This list is not exhaustive, and you may think of other factors that shape your views. For this activity you are asked to think about the factors that shape your views on police. Each of you, by virtue of being at this training, has chosen to be a police officer. This means at some point you must have reflected on your views of the police to make the decision to join their ranks. This activity asks you to be specific in thinking about what those views are, and what caused you to have those views. On the drawing below, fill out each smaller stream (you can draw more streams if you’d like) with a factor that influenced your views of the police. Be sure to be specific. Don’t just say “my personal experiences”. Instead say something like, “I had a positive experience when a police officer helped me when I was 10 years old.” 2 This handout is borrowed from CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS CURRICULUM, REPARATIONS WON: A CASE STUDY IN POLICE TORTURE, RACISM, AND THE MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE IN CHICAGO, 10 (2017). 7 Part II: Resource Deprivation Game Introduction: Now that the students are grounded in what the course will be about, you want to have them feel, in a visceral way, the anxiety that some community members feel when they are “over policed”. This activity deals with a serious topic but should take place in a fun environment. The activity is meant to both cause an “a’ha” moment in the participants, and to get the students moving around because it immediately precedes an hour-long history lecture on very serious topics. Essential Question: How does it feel to play a game when one group of individuals is given fewer resources than another while also being held to a higher standard for following the rules? Enduring Understanding: It can be incredibly frustrating and defeating to belong to a group of people who are given less resources and have the rules enforced against them more stringently than the group they are asked to compete against. Procedure: 1. Students should be divided into three groups. One group will be in charge of handing out the materials and enforcing the rules of the game (the referees). The other two groups will compete against one another. One of these groups will be put at a serious advantage throughout the competition (group 2), and the other a serious disadvantage (group 3). It is important to make sure that each group receives the correct instructions for the game to have its desired effect. 2. Physically separate the three groups. Group 1 (the referees) should be at a table at the front of the room along with the materials necessary. Group 2 (the advantaged group) should be positioned a bit closer to the referees and the resources. Group 3 (the disadvantaged group) should be father away from the materials and separate from Group 2. 3. Let the students know that this is a competition between groups 2 & 3. The group that completes each activity fastest wins. Explain to the students that the game will work in the following way: a. There will be two rounds. Each group will read the instructions given to them at the beginning of the round. (2 minutes). 8 b. The students will then come to the table where group 1 is set up with the materials and request the materials they would like to complete the activity. (Only allow 2 minutes). c. They will then try to complete the activity assigned to them as quickly as possible. (Max time should be 5 minutes). d. The group that finishes first will receive a point. 4. After two rounds it should be apparent that Group 2 was given a serious advantage in the game. Provide time to facilitate a quick discussion about how Group 3 felt seeing Group 2 have distinct advantages, and to not have the same rules enforced against them. Try to guide the students to the realization that many groups in society feels this way on a daily basis. Due to their socio-economic circumstances it can often feel like the game is stacked against them. Furthermore, try to drive the conversation to a discussion about how rules aren’t inherently fair just because they are rules. This should provide for some interesting conversation around the idea of laws not always being fair, or at the very least being designed to help certain people and not others. a. Potential Guiding questions for the discussion: i. “How does it feel to have different resources when playing the same game?” ii. “Do you think the rules to the game were fair? Are the rules and laws of society always fair?” iii. “Was it frustrating to be playing a game with unfair rules?” iv. “How did it feel to not be given the resources you asked for?” v. “Did the referees feel bad about the way the game was structured?” Materials: 3 Scientific Calculators 2 Slide rules 1 jar filled with 10 dollars in quarters 1 jar filled with 10 dollars in nickels and dimes 1 jar filled with 10 dollars in pennies 9 Group 1 Instructions Activity #1 You have been assigned to be a “referee” during this game. These means you are in charge of two things: giving the materials to the other groups and enforcing the rules against them. For these activities the groups have different materials available to them and different rules that they must follow (keep this a secret). In the first activity the groups will be working to solve mathematical problems. When the groups come up to select their materials to use to complete the activity you are to give the calculators to group 2 only! Do not respond to group 3’s request to receive a calculator, and only offer them the slide rules. Do not engage with any complaints. Be firm in only giving them the slide rule. Remind the groups that they are only allowed to use the materials given to them. Once the game has started, it is your job to patrol the room to look for people using anything they are not supposed to be using to complete the activity. You are to only patrol group 3, because they are the only ones who have any incentive to cheat (group 2 already has calculators). Group 1 Instructions Activity #2 Just as in Activity #1, you are to act as referees. This time the two groups will be competing to see which group can sort coins into 10 stacks worth one dollar each. When the groups come up to select their materials only give either the jar of quarters or jar of nickels and dimes to group 2. Group 3 is only allowed to use the jar of pennies. As with the first activity do not give into group 3’s protests of this being unfair. If you want to say anything at all, just tell them you are just following orders. Once the activity begins, you will need to make sure that the students are actually making stacks of one dollar. Because it will be hard to tell with the pennies, you should focus almost all your attention on group 3 and leave group 2 alone. 10 Group 2 Instructions Activity #1 You have been assigned to compete in this game. These means you are trying to complete this activity as fast as possible using the materials that you get from group 1 at the front of the room. For this activity you are asked to solve math problems. At the front of the room there are slide rules and calculators. You get to decide which you choose but be sure to hurry as there are only a limited number of calculators, and the calculators will give a serious advantage to whichever team gets them. If everyone on your team isn’t able to get a calculator, have no fear, you are free to use your cell phone’s calculator. Good luck! And happy calculating! Group 2 Instructions Activity #2 Just as in Activity #1, you are competing against the other group to see who can complete the activity the quickest. This time you will be competing to see which group can sort coins into stacks 10 stacks worth one dollar each. At the front of the room, group 1 has jars with different coins in them. One jar has quarters, one jar has nickels and dimes, and the final jar has only pennies. You get to decide which jar you use, but hurry because there is only one jar of each type of coin! Good luck! And happy sorting! 11 Group 3 Instructions Activity #1 You have been assigned to compete in this game. These means you are trying to complete this activity as fast as possible using the materials that you can get from group 1 at the front of the room. For this activity you are asked to solve math problems. At the front of the room there are slide rules and calculators. You get to decide which you choose but be sure to hurry as there are only a limited number of calculators, and the calculators will give a serious advantage to whichever team gets them. The use of phones is strictly prohibited, and the referees will be roaming around the room to see if anyone is cheating! Good luck! And happy calculating! Group 3 Instructions Activity #2 Just as in Activity #1, you are competing against the other group to see who can complete the activity the quickest. This time you will be competing to see which group can sort coins into stacks 10 stacks worth one dollar each. At the front of the room, group 1 has jars with different coins in them. One jar has quarters, one jar has nickels and dimes, and the final jar has only pennies. You get to decide which jar you use, but hurry because there is only one jar of each type of coin! Good luck! And happy sorting! 12 Activity 1: Math Competition See who can solve all the problems the quickest! Raise your hands when you are finished. 13 Part III: Overview of the History of Police and Race Introduction: The instructor should read over the power point notes as they will provide most of the guidance for how to present the material to the students. This material covers a great deal of history. While the notes included with the PowerPoint do provide a lot of what the instructor will need to complete the activity, a “suggested reading” list is included at the end of these instructions. It would be greatly beneficial to the instructor to review this material. It is also important to understand that this PowerPoint is not meant to provide a comprehensive history of police and race in America, but instead focuses on broad strokes in order to paint the picture that a direct line can be drawn from slavery to mass incarceration. This is not to suggest that this is the only reading of history, but rather to point out that this is an important reading of history if the students are to understand the way some of the deep-seated beliefs about police in communities of color have come about. Essential Question: How does the historical role that police played in enforcing racial subjugation influence the way that modern communities of color view the police? Enduring Understanding: There is a direct link between historic racist policies and the police that were used to enforce them and modern mass incarceration. While the police was historically on the wrong side of this history, it now has the opportunity to change the narrative, and the first step in doing this is understanding its history. Procedure: 1. Read the slide notes of the “The History of Police and Race” closely before class to be prepared when to give students warning about sensitive material 2. Go through the presentation slowly and meaningfully. Allow students to ask questions but remind students that this is meant to be a broad history and they will be given the opportunity to engage with specific instances in history more in depth in the next segment of the class. Suggested Reading:  The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander  Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas by Sally E. Hadden  The Equal Justice Initiative Lynching Report 14 Talking Points: - Start by acknowledging that while the class is going to focus on troubling history, the point of this class is not to make the cadets feel bad for wanting to become police officers, or to impugn their character in anyway. However, it is important to understand this troubling history in order to understand the present. The goal is to make sure the students are conscious of the history and how it may cause people to view them. With this information they may be able to think of ways that they can work to both counteract this historical narrative and empathize with the communities they will be policing. - Emphasize that it is important to learn this history because whether or not it is new information to them, it will likely not be new information for the communities they are policing. Therefore, in order for them to come to community interactions at a more equal level they must learn this history. - Be sure to make clear that just because the students will learn that the origins of policing were rooted in racial subjugation, that does not necessarily explain the failings and misunderstandings of our own times, and it is important to also engage with these failings in their own right. However, the history may provide some insight into the historical reasons for the pattern of racially targeted law enforcement that persists today. 15 Goals of the slide: - Students should understand that while slave patrols were not official “police forces” they are often considered the precursor to policing in Southern America. - Students should understand that the historical origins of police was as a force to police people of color who had no power or authority in society. Talking Points: - By the late 18th and early 19th century many towns used a “watchmen” system of policing. These watchmen would stay in one post and wait to be summoned. Slave patrols, which existed during the same time, actual would go out and patrol areas.1 They would stop blacks they came across and demand to see a note from their owner explaining where they were going and why. If no note was presented, the slave patrollers had the authority to administer punishment, including whippings.2 The nature of actively patrolling, and stopping persons more closely mimics modern policing than the “watchmen” which is why, in the south, slave patrols are thought of as the true precursor to modern police forces.3 - Slave patrols mirrored typical police officers by being sworn officers of the state who were endowed with state authority to uphold their duty.4 - The main functions of the slave patrols were (1) to catch runaway slaves, (2) prevent slave insurrections, and (3) to enforce the “pass system of travel”. - This third category merits some explaining. The pass system was a system put into place to exert absolute control over slave's movement. If a slave wanted to leave the plantation worked, he would have to carry a note from his overseer with him that gave him permission to be off the plantation. These notes would be checked by slave patrols if they ever encountered a black person walking around. This would typically bring in two problems. First, sometimes the slave patroller 16 wouldn’t believe the note and would administer punishment (in most of the colonies/states this would include whipping). Second, there were many free blacks in the south. For obvious reasons, these individuals would not have notes from an overseer because they had no overseer. If a slave patrol stopped them and accused them of being a slave who was traveling without permission, they could be punished, and sometimes put back onto a plantation. - As an additional note, slave patrollers were often in charge of typical “law enforcement” duties as well. This had to do with two facts. First, southern whites largely had the sentiment that blacks were only capable of crime, and so it was natural that the force that oversaw interactions with southern blacks would also be in charge of “law enforcement” duties more generally.5 Second, in certain cities, like Richmond, Virginia for example, the people actually preferred slave patrols over police.6 17 Goals of the Slide: - Students should understand the transformation of slave patrols into formalized police forces and how the remnants of the slave patrol system influenced police forces. Talking Points: - The growth of urban centers in the south after the civil war is what led to the creation of formalized police forces. The slave patrols were not equipped to deal with the new increase in crime that came with urban density. Most of this density happened after the civil war with the increase in migration by newly freed blacks to urban centers.7 However, some urban crowding happened prior to end of the civil war, and likewise led to the creation of formal police departments.8 In these cases, the slave patrols often stayed in existence or even expanded.9 - With emancipation there was no longer any need for slave patrols. However, the mindset toward blacks in the country did not magically change overnight.10 The association between blacks and criminality was built up over many generations and was not something that would go away easily.11 Therefore, the mentality that was inherent in the slave patrol system, namely the fear of black uprising and black criminality, led many southerners to continue controlling black lives as they always had.12 In fact, the anxieties whites felt about wanting to exert control over blacks increased after the civil war.13 - This desire led to the implementation of the very same pass system that was used under slavery by the post-civil war police forces, and the movement of blacks was once again severely restricted.14 - These anxieties also led many southern whites want to continue using the same tactics they had under the slave patrol system. Namely roaming at night, and intimidating blacks. - Southern whites had three typical ways of acting on these desires15: 18 1. Developing agricultural associations that would refuse to sell land to blacks, and would refuse to try to incentivize any sharecroppers from switching farms by offering better pay or working conditions. 2. Establishing “Gun Clubs”. These gun clubs were essentially all white militias who practiced and trained with their guns publically in order to intimidate blacks. 3. Forming “vigilante groups” such as the Ku Klux Klan. These groups were often made up of veteran confederate soldiers, and former slave patrols. They would rob and loot the homes of blacks, and sometimes the intimidation would go so far as lynching.16 In some places sheriff’s deputies and local officials were members of the Klan.17 - In sum the formal police departments largely replaced the law enforcement functions of the slave patrols, while the intimidation and exertion of control over black lives was picked up by vigilante groups such as the KKK. 19 Goals of the slide: - Provide a brief background of the history of the Texas Police and the Austin Police Department Talking Points: Texas Rangers18: - The Texas Rangers were created in 1823. They were not officially recognized in legislation until 1874. - They are largely thought of as the very first state police agency. - Created when Stephen F. Austin sent a proclamation to Land Commissioner Baron de Bastrop and asked to employ 10 men to serve as rangers. - The rangers were primarily concerned with battling the Comanche Indian, and protecting the land that the settlers had taken from the Comanche. City Marshal19: - In Austin’s early history laws were enforced by a City Marshal and not a police department - One such law that the city marshal enforced was the slave curfew - This was an elected position as opposed to an appointed position - Austin’s first city marshal was elected in 1840, which was just after the city was officially founded (keep in mind this doesn’t mean that slave patrols weren’t active in Texas. They were.) Ordinance Establishing the Police department20: - The original force only had 4 officers on it. 20 - The force was increased to 7 in 1871 (which was also when the first two African American officers joined the police). - In 1919 the first woman joined the force. Creation of the Austin Police Department: - The department was created in 1924; this also changed the position of Chief of Police from an elected position to an appointed position. 21 Goals of the Slide: - Provide statistics for lynchings in the reconstruction period. - Discuss the broader effects that lynching had on black communities. - Describe the pivotal role that lynching played in establishing white supremacy in post-civil war America. Talking points: Framing the conversation: - It is important to begin by letting students know that this slide and the next will contain information that can be incredibly hard to hear, and that it may cause different emotional responses in different students. It is understandable that some may be uncomfortable with what they hear. Part of the purpose of the slides is to put us in the uncomfortable position of confronting our country’s violent history. It is important to understand this history because it still shapes race relations to this day. - It is also important to emphasize that these two slides are not nearly enough time to give the subject of lynching in America the amount of attention it deserves. Encourage students to read the Equal Justice Initiative’s report on lynching21 in order to have a more complete understanding of the devastating impact lynching had on America. Slide Points: - The lynchings this slide focuses on are what the Equal Justice Initiative refers to as “terror lynchings”. 22 - Terror lynchings are separate and apart from mob violence resulting in hangings. They are characterized by not being aimed at punishing someone, but rather at instilling fear into the entire black community. - These acts of terror were carried out with no punishment for the perpetrators, and in fact the lynchings were often attended by the entire white community, including police officers. - Even where police officers were not specifically in attendance, they implicitly sanctioned these terror lynchings by not attempting to intervene, and not subsequently investigating or arresting the perpetrators. - Lynchings were so effective at placing fear into black communities that they actually influenced the country’s demographics by causing southern blacks to move north in order to escape the violence. - It is important to note that this system of violence was indeed a system and not a series of one-off acts of violence. Understanding that the terror lynchings were a systematic method of exerting control over black populations allows us to better understand the structural racism that has continued forward into modern times. 22 23 Goal of the slide: - To demonstrate the large number of individuals who were impacted by terror lynchings - To demonstrate that while lynchings happened all over the country they were more highly concentrated in the south. 24 Goals of the slide: - Provide context for lynching in Texas by giving students some data of lynching in Texas. 25 Goals of the slide: - Focus specifically on the ways that police were complicit in lynchings. - Students should see how police complicity in lynchings was a direct result of broader sentiments of white southerners towards blacks during this period. - This slide should disrupt the narrative that police are neutral actors in American society and demonstrate how during this time period the police were often agents of white supremacy. - Students should also learn about some examples where police officers stood up and did the right thing to help prevent lynchings, and how these instances demonstrate the power they will have in their hands when they make choices going forward. Talking Points: - Law enforcement officers were not just impotent in their ability to stop these lynchings, rather in the 6 instances in Texas where an accusation was made regarding a white female relative of law enforcement, the law enforcement officers actively participated in and oversaw the lynchings. Several of these instances involved prolonged torture of the victims23. - These were not instances of “one bad cop”. In the case of the lynching of Henry Smith in 1893, who was accused of the rape and murder of the local sheriff’s daughter, the sheriff himself ordered the lynching. Despite the town only having a population of 8,000 more than 15,000 people attended the spectacle lynching. This shows that there was general acceptance of the violence by both regular citizens and law enforcement agencies in the region.24 - In 1920, less than 30 years after the lynching of Henry Smith, two brothers, Irving and Herman Arthur, worked on a white farm where they were abused regularly. When they tried to leave, the white farm owner shot at them. He later claimed that he was injured by the Arthur brothers. The 26 two men were arrested, jailed, and had their lynching posted about in the town. They were tortured and burned to death as a mob of 3,000 people watched. Afterwards, they had their bodies driven through the black community for hours. The police actively facilitated this lynching, despite later finding that the two men were guilty of no crime. What is more, is while the two brothers were brutally killed, their sisters were detained in the jail. While there, they were beaten, and gang raped by 20 white men.25 It is hard to believe that none of the men who attacked the sisters were city or jail officials. - The lynching of George Hughes in the 1930s demonstrated that the police had the power to stop lynchings when they wanted to. George Hughes was a sharecropper who was owed $6 by Drew Farlow. Farlow’s wife was the niece of a powerful law enforcement officer. Hughes went to Farlow’s house to collect the $6 but found only Farlow’s wife, who turned him away. Later Farlow’s wife alleged that Hughes returned an hour later to rape her, though the black community of Sherman was convinced that this was a story made up by her husband to get out of paying Hughes his $6.26 Hughes was never put on trial, instead a mob attempted to lynch him. The first time this happened the police successfully kept the mob at bay by firing shots into the air.27 However, two days later the police did no such thing when another mob showed up, burned Hughes to death, dragged his charred remains through the community and then displayed his remains in front of a Black church.28 - When police did intervene, they intervened with great success. Nearly 50% of threatened lynchings were prevented by police intervention.29 This demonstrates that police officers do indeed wield a great amount of power in society, and that when they choose to wield that power in the morally correct way, they can be a force for good. Unfortunately, too often during this time period the police did not choose to intervene in order to prevent lynchings, but rather turned a blind eye, or worse, actively participated in the lynchings.30 - The fact that historically police often chose the wrong course by participating in terrorizing southern blacks means that police to this day must live and deal with this legacy. This fear and mistrust are not something that go away easily. As police officers, it is important to understand this fear and mistrust because in some ways it still informs police and community relations to this day. 27 Goals of the Slide: - Students will understand how a system of laws aimed at placing free blacks back onto the very plantations from which they were just freed was put in place after reconstruction ended. - Students will understand how the black codes were the first step in using the criminal justice system to economically and politically dominate African Americans. Talking Points: - After the northern military forces left the south, in a time period known as “post-reconstruction,” southern whites used this opportunity to reinstate their white supremacy and subjugation of the newly freed blacks.31 - The goal of the southern whites was three-fold: the political domination of blacks, the economic domination of blacks, and the social domination of blacks.32 - These three goals were largely attained via the enacting of “black codes”. Black codes were laws enacted by southern governments that were aimed at controlling every aspect of black peoples’ lives. - Examples: - Vagrancy laws. Laws that required all blacks to be working. Because most of the employers who were available to blacks in the south were white plantation owners these laws required the freed slaves to return back to plantations. Vagrancy laws meant blacks always had to be employed, or else they faced being arrested and leased out to work on plantations. This gave the white plantation owners incredible bargaining power and meant that they could force blacks to work in deplorable conditions with no real option of finding different employment. 28 - Poll taxes. Laws that required blacks to pay a substantial amount of money to vote. These laws were often coupled with the purging of blacks from voter rolls, like Mississippi did in 1890.33 The passing of such laws disenfranchised black voters and put a major economic barrier on their ability to re-register to vote. These laws were passed in response to the large number of blacks who were elected to office after the passing of the 15th Amendment, which gave black men the right to vote. - Anti-miscegenation laws. Laws that barred the marriage of whites and blacks. These laws were clearly meant to control the social lives of blacks. They were rooted in the fear that many white southerners had about interracial sex. These same fears also led to many lynchings where a black man expressed any indication of wanting contact with a white woman.34 - Convict Leasing: - Convict leasing was the practice of selling prisoner labor to private interests. Many times, these private interests were the same plantations that the freedman worked on as slaves. This process was even more grim because now the men were not only put to work without any wages, but also the state was profiting of their labor by charging private interests to use the convicts.35 - Convict leasing relied on the clause of the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery and indentured slavery “except as punishment for crime”. - A disproportionate number of black convicts were leased out under this system as compared to white convicts.36 - Of the leased convicts who died while working, almost all of them were black.37 - This system incentivized, for obvious reasons, police to arrest blacks. This incentive led to a higher percentage of blacks being arrested, and in some instances a higher number of blacks being arrested despite black not representing a majority of the population.38 - The black workers faced conditions that were often far worse than what they had ever faced under slavery.39 - In many ways this system “legitimized excessive punishment and abuse of African Americans.”40 29 Goals of the Slide - To draw attention to some of the ways the information from the previous slide manifested itself in Texas. Talking Points: - Juneteenth is the name given to June 19, 1865, which officially marked the end of slavery in Texas. Texas was the last state in the United States to have legalized slavery. This was done by the reading of General Order No. 3 by a Union Major General. This order freed the 250,000 slaves that were living in Texas. However, General Order No. 3 also limited the newly freed slaves’ movement and freedom of assembly.41 - General Order No. 3 required that all black people be employed, and that they should either be at work or at home. This meant that the newly freed blacks were not allowed to assemble. The Order also gave the provost marshals (early law enforcement) the order of using “every means in their power” to enforce these provisions, demonstrating that the police were to play the role of enforcing this racial subjugation.42 - Austin was quick to follow the General Order and passed its own ordinances that resembled the instructions for controlling blacks described in General Order No. 3. 43 - Less than 10 days after emancipation reached Texas, the Austin City Council met to discuss expanding their police force.44 This demonstrates, rather explicitly, the fact that the police were originally expanded and strengthened in order to be a force to control black populations. - Vagrancy laws: 30 - The city of Austin passed its own vagrancy laws, and when these laws were violated imposed heavy fines. If these fines could not be paid then the “offender” could be leased out to the lowest bidder.45 - The State relied on this labor in its construction projects, including the construction of the State Capitol.46 - Anti-Miscegenation Laws - Travis County also enacted an anti-miscegenation law, which was in effect until the Supreme Court struck similar laws in other states down. - The first marriage certificate for an interracial coupled wasn’t issued in Travis County until 1967. 31 Goals of the Slide: - Provide a quick overview of the Jim Crow south and the lasting impressions that this era left on people of color with respect to police Talking Points: - Know that this slide is not meant to be an exhaustive history of the Jim Crow era. An entire unit could be dedicated to such a time period. Instead this slide is concerned specifically with giving a brief overview of what is meant by “Jim Crow” and to specifically talk about the sentiments that communities of color felt toward police during this time period. - The Jim Crow era in the south is typically thought of as the era in American history where legal segregation (de jure segregation) took its grip on the country. Many of these segregation laws were passed immediately after the end of Slavery, but really came into effect in the 1890s. - In 1896 the Supreme Court decided the case Plessy v. Ferguson which created the “separate but equal” doctrine that legalized segregation throughout the country. This doctrine stayed in effect until the Supreme Court overruled it in Brown v. Board of Education by holding that separate could never truly be equal. - The segregation of blacks and whites had an impact on every aspect of people’s lives. They were not able to travel in the same sections of buses, eat in the same restaurants, frequent the same pools, stay in the same hotels, or drink from the same water fountains. Because this segregation was enforced using laws, the police played a major role in enforcing the segregation. - Blacks and whites were arrested for doing things as trivial as talking to each other while walking down the street.47 32 - The police played such a role in enforcing this segregation that some blacks reported having a “morbid fear of policemen”.48 - Often lynching was used to enforce segregation, and this lynching caused many blacks to fear all whites.49 33 Goals of the Slide: - Provide a brief overview of the civil rights movement with a specific focus on the role the police played during this time period and the views that many communities of color had toward the police. - Students should understand that while not all cops were actively racist or in agreeance with the segregationist policies during this time, the role they played by and large was enforcing these laws that were rooted in a system of racism. Talking points: - As with the previous slide, it is important to emphasize that one slide is not nearly enough time to discuss the civil rights movements. Entire courses have been developed around this time period. While this topic deserves its own space, it is important to emphasize that the purpose of this discussion is to draw a line forward from the past in order to better understand modern police- community relations. The civil rights era is an important point on this line because it represents how the post-reconstruction reaction to freed blacks, and the onset of the Jim Crow era was actively resisted by communities of color, even as the states, often through the use of the police, clung desperately to the system. - This time period is defined by the protest movement that came out of it. These protests revolved around resisting the segregationist policies and laws of the country. Often the protests would erupt into violence and riots. Between 1964 and 1968 almost every major city in America had a riot.50 - These protestors were often met with violence by both white citizens and police officers. As depicted on the slide, police would often use dogs and fire hoses in order to subdue the protestors. 34 - These interactions caused many to describe the relationship between police and African Americans of the time as “abrasive”.51 - While this time period certainly deserves a more in depth conversation, reassure students that they will have time to engage with some of the more important moments of the civil rights movement for the city of Austin in the next activity. 35 Goals of the Slide (applies to the next three slides as well): - Students should understand the disparities in incarceration between whites and people of color, paying specific attention to the extreme disparity between blacks and all other racial and ethnic groups. - Students should understand that the United States has 25% of the worlds prisoners despite making up only 5% of the global population. - Students should understand that some scholars consider the mass incarceration of black people the “new Jim Crow” because it functions to separate black individuals, specifically black males, from the rest of society and to disenfranchise them Talking Points: - To begin this set of slides, the instructor should lay out what “mass incarceration” is by introducing the students to the statistics contained in the first infographic. This infographic demonstrates how the United States stands out by incarcerating more people per capita than any other country in the world. - The instructor should draw attention to the fact that 1 in 13 African Americans is unable to vote due to their status as a felon. The connection should be made for the students, if they do not make it themselves, to the way poll taxes in the post-reconstruction similarly served as a way of disenfranchising blacks. This is one reason why some scholars refer to mass incarceration as the “new Jim Crow.”52 - The second graph demonstrates that Texas out paces even the United States with its incarceration rates. This is particularly significant given the extremely large population of Texas (~28 million). If Texas were to implement major reforms that reduced its incarceration rates it could help to skew the nations statistics greatly. 36 - The third graph is rather self-explanatory, but the instructor should ask the students about what connection they can make to the arrest and conviction rates of the post-reconstruction era that were discussed earlier in the presentation. The instructor should try to guide the students to the realization that throughout the history they have learned so far, the unfounded stereotype of blacks has been that they are only capable of crime. Ask the students how they think that mentality that was explicitly articulated in the country’s early history may be impacting incarceration rates today. - The final chart should be shown to demonstrate how Texas generally conforms to the rest of the country by incarcerating more blacks, but students should be asked to share why they think the rates do not mirror the rest of the country for Latinos. 37 38 1 Stephen L. Carter, Opinion, Policing and Oppression Have a Long History, BLOOMBERG OPINION, Oct. 29, 2015, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2015-10-29/policing-and-oppression-have-a-long-history#footnote- 1446147495376. (hereinafter Policing and Oppression) 2 SALLY E. HADDEN, SLAVE PATROLS LAW AND VIOLENCE IN VIRGINIA AND THE COLONIES, 20 (2001) (hereinafter Slave Patrols). 3 Policing and Oppression, supra note 1. 4 Slave Patrols, supra note 2, at 77. 5 HOWARD RABINOWITZ, RACE RELATIONS IN THE URBAN SOUTH: 1865-1890, 42 (1978) (hereinafter Race Relations). 6 Policing and Oppression, supra note 1. 7 Race Relations, supra note 5, at 3 8 Slave Patrols, supra note 2. 9 Id. 10 Id. at 168. 11 Race Relations, supra note 5, at 42 12 Slave Patrols at 192 13 Id. at 168 14 Id. at 192 15 Id. at 205 16 Id. at 206 17 Id. at 210. 18 LARRY K. GAINES & VICTOR E. KAPPELER, POLICING IN AMERICA, 72 (7th ed. 2011). (hereinafter Policing in America). 19 BOB RESCOLA ET AL., AUSTIN HISTORY CENTER, AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT GUIDE, 3 (2018). 20 Id. 21EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE, LYNCHING IN AMERICA: CONFRONTING THE LEGACY OF RACIAL TERROR (3d ed., 2017). https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/ (hereinafter Lynching in America). 22 Hollie A. Teague, Black and Blue in North Texas: The Long Neglected History of Anti-Black Police Violence in North Texas, 1880-1930, 49(8) J. OF BLACK STUD. 756, 758 (2018). (hereinafter Black and Blue). 23 Id. at 764 39 24 Id. at 765 25 Lynching in America, supra note 20, at 36-37. 26 Black and Blue, supra note 21, at 766 27 Id. 28 Id. at 767 29 Id. at 768 30 Id. at 773 31 Lynching in America, supra note 20, at 22 32 Id. 33 Id. 34 Id. at 30 35 Race Relations, supra note 5, at 139 36 Id. at 150 (217/222 convicts hired out were black in 1879 Virginia; 1,526 leased convicts were black compared to 140 white in 1890 Georgia). 37 Id. 38 Id. at 43 39 Lynching in America, supra note 20, at 24. 40 Id. 41 KEVIN MICHAEL FOSTER, INSTITUTE FOR URBAN POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS, DESTRUCTION OF BLACK COMMUNITIES IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS, THE CASE OF AUSTIN, 1865-1928, 3 (2019). (hereinafter Destruction of Black Communities). 42 Id. 43 Id. 44 Id. 45 Id. 46 Id. 47 Lynching in America, supra note 20, at 25. 48 Black and Blue, supra note 21, at 763 49 Id. 50 Policing in America, supra note 17, at 81. 51 Id. at 82 52 MICHELLE ALEXANDER, THE NEW JIM CROW (2010). 40 Part IV: Flash Point Activity Introduction: This activity will ask students to engage with specific flash points between the police and communities of Austin from post-reconstruction up through recent history. Some of the stories involve tragedy, and almost all place the police in the role of the agitator. These stories may be hard for the students to deal with. This activity will ask the students to call into question their traditional notions of police as a force for good. While this may be hard for them to do, it is exactly the point of the activity. However, it is important for the instructor to understand that the students will have a diverse background, and the stories will impact the students in different ways. Some of the students may even have personal experience with the stories covered. The challenge will be for the instructor to encourage the students to engage fully with the material while also supporting them emotionally. Essential Question: What role did the police play in each of these “flash points,” and how would that role be a factor in a hypothetical community member’s views on police? Enduring Understanding: In Austin, the police and the community have had a long and trying history. There is a mistrust of the police, and that mistrust largely comes from the historical moments where certain groups of residents have not felt like the police have adequately represented their interests. Procedure: 1. Divide the class into 3 groups (ideally with 10 or less students). 2. Assign each group a time period (Re-entrenchment, Reconstruction/Jim Crow, or the 1970s). 3. Instruct students to read the packets silently and independently. Be sure to tell the students that they are not expected to read the newspaper articles in full, but that they are included only to demonstrate the way the events were perceived by the city. 4. Explain to the students that after reading the packets and discussing the “questions to consider” they are to make a poster and prepare a presentation explaining the materials they read about. 5. Be sure to circulate throughout the room to answer any questions that they students may have as they complete their posters. 41 6. While the students are presenting be sure to strictly limit each groups presentation time so that there is enough time for other students to ask questions, and for every group to present. Materials:  Enough copies of each Flash Point Packet for each student  2 poster boards for each group  Markers and Pens 42 The History of Race and Police: Post-Reconstruction/Jim Crow Era 1865- 1930 Immediately after the civil war, former slaves made a great deal of progress in the United States. With the northern army still occupying southern states, in an era known as “Reconstruction,” the southern states were forced to accept the fact that their former slaves were now free. This time period saw the passing of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution. These amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed citizenship to anyone born on American soil, and secured the right to vote to all men.1 This time period also saw many former slaves be elected to Congress and local office.2 Notably for the APD, the first two African American police officers were hired during this time period.3 This time of progress was not welcomed by southern whites. Many southern whites had grown accustomed to profiting off of free labor, and had largely internalized their beliefs about white superiority, in part at least, to justify the subjugation of an entire race of people.4 The words of the 13th amendment foreshadowed the eventual push back to this progress. The 13th amendment says, in its relevant portion, “[n]either slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime [. . .], shall exist within the United States.”5 Whether intentional or not, the southern states saw the clause “except as a punishment for crime” as a loop hole they were more than willing to exploit.6 After the northern forces left the south, there was a large scale introduction of what are now known as “black codes.”7 Black codes were laws that were passed and enforced with the specific intention of imprisoning former slaves and then putting them back to work on the very plantations they worked as slaves, only this time they were unpaid prisoners instead of unpaid slaves.8 One example of such “black codes” was vagrancy laws. These laws required that all blacks have employment as a sharecropper, or otherwise, typically for a white landowner. If they didn’t have employment, they could be arrested for vagrancy, put into prison, and then leased out to farms as free labor.9 Another example of such laws were “poll taxes.”10 These were charges that southern blacks would have to pay in order to vote. The cost of these poll taxes made voting cost prohibitive and thus disenfranchised many blacks. The police played a pivotal role in this new form of putting free blacks back into forced labor by enforcing these black codes, and arresting free blacks. This time period also marked the rise of lynchings as way to intimidate free blacks into accepting their inferior place in society, and to not exercising their freedoms.11 Police played a role in this as well by not attempting to prevent the lynchings, and by not arresting the murders. Sometimes the police even actively participated in the lynchings.12 From 1882-1962, 493 people were lynched in Texas, with 71% of them being African Americans despite only making up 17% of the population.13 This era is also marked by the advent of segregation, and the Jim Crow laws that were accepted as constitutional when the Plessy v. Ferguson case ruled that “separate but equal” treatment was constitutional under the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause.14 43 During this time period in Austin there were many flash points, and there were many freed blacks who were killed. For this activity we will focus on two major “flash points” in Austin’s history. Flash points to be covered: - The 1906 Street Car Boycott - The 1928 City Plan which laid out the way that Austin could effectively segregate the city by moving minorities into the eastern half of the city Instructions: 1. Read the following summaries of events and the corresponding news articles silently and independently 2. Answer and discuss the “Questions to Consider” as a group 3. Use the poster board and markers to make a poster to present to the rest of the class what you have learned 4. Decide who will present what points, but be sure to not leave out any of the “Flash Points” 44 FLASH POINT #1 Questions to Consider: 1. What did you think about the discussion of introducing a law to in order to prosecute individuals who were trying to recruit others to the streetcar boycott? Do you think if such a law were passed, the officers who were asked to enforce it would view their position in the system as just "doing their job”? If yes, should they have viewed it differently? 2. What was your reaction to the fact that the boycott stopped once the order went into place? Why do you think this happened? The 1906 Streetcar Boycott In early 1906, Austin joined many other southern cities by passing an ordinance segregating its electric street cars.15 The electric street cars were the main form of transportation here in Austin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many people used them to get to and from work. The ordinance ordered that there would be separate cars for black and white riders.16 It also gave the conductors police powers to enforce the ordinance. Any violation would result in a misdemeanor charge and a fine from anywhere between $10-100.17 This translates to roughly $250-2,500 in modern times.18 As a response to the ordinance, black community leaders organized a near complete boycott of the streetcars in the months leading up to its implementation.19 Reporting from the time shows that the boycott was joined with near ubiquity.20 One report showed that almost no African American passengers were riding the cars. Interestingly, in the same article the reporter discussed that police would be investigating African Americans who they deemed to be “intimidating” other African Americans into joining the boycott.21 Additionally, it was proposed that the city pass a separate ordinance making it illegal to for African Americans to prevent other African Americans from riding the street cars.22 It can be seen how easily such a law could be abused and used to arrest protestors. This demonstrates the police’s rather explicit role in maintaining the order proposed by the city officials. The protesters went so far as to try to establish their own alternative means of public transportation.23 Protest leaders used a network of carriages and wagons driven by African Americans for a reduced fair to provide transportation to protestors who didn’t want to, or could not walk.24 Interestingly, the boycott stopped when the ordinance took place.25 This is likely due not to an acceptance of the ordinance, but rather a realization that with their limited power in society the protest was not going to cause a change. The fact that the African Americans of Austin never accepted the ordinance as fair or just is exemplified by the countless subversions of the law throughout the early 20th century.26 One of the bigger instances of this subversion happened in 1925 when a local black woman, Willie Mae Cavaniss, was charged and fined for deliberately sitting too far forward in the street car. Additionally, in 1929 two black men were brought before a court and were found to have willfully and intentionally violated the streetcar ordinance.27 45 News Coverage: BOYCOTT ORDINANCE MAY BE INTRODUCED: <SPAN CLASS="HIT">NEGROES</SPAN> . The Austin Statesman (1902-1915); Apr 9, 1906; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. 8Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 46 BOYCOTT BY NEGRO RACE: VERY FEW COLORED PEOPLE ARE NOW PATRONIZING . The Austin Statesman (1902-1915); Apr 8, 1906; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. 5 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 47 FLASH POINT #2 Questions to Consider: 1. Why do you think city officials decided to build Highway I-35 where they did in the 1960s? 2. How do you think residents who have lived in East Austin since the 1960s feel about the construction of new, high-cost, luxury apartments on the East side? The 1928 City Plan Many people who arrive in Austin in modern times see the city divided by highway I-35 and understand that East Austin is where most minorities live, while the hills of West Austin are where most of the cities white residents live. Most also understand that East Austin is typically thought of as the poorer community of Austin. What most people do not understand is that this division wasn’t just an accident. In fact, it was the exact opposite. In 1928, the City Planning Commission released a document called A City Plan for Austin, Texas.28 This document was put together by the consulting firm Koch & Fowler Consulting Engineers and was meant to formally segregate the city.29 The plan functioned in two ways. First, the city was to take away land from blacks in West Austin in order to replace their housing with “more desirable” housing.30 Second, the city would build facilities in East Austin in order to incentivize the cities black and Latino populations into “self-segregating.”31 The plan called for the creation of a park for black and ethnic minority residents. This park is now Rosewood park. It additionally called for the building of a school for black and ethnic minority residents. While the language of the plan made it seem as if the city had the genuine interest of providing services to the black and Latino populations of Austin, in reality these services were far inferior to the services that white communities were to be provided under the plan.32 The investment in East Austin never came close to the levels of investment in the West Side of the city, that is until Whites began to move into the East Side.33 In some ways it is a misnomer to call the 1928 City Plan a “flash point.” The damage that was done by it wasn’t felt immediately. The real damage happened in the decades that followed. After the city successfully moved large groups of communities of color to East Austin, they proceeded to provide them with smaller parks, swimming pools with fewer hours, and unpaved roads.34 The real reason this is considered a “flash point” is because it delineates the time when Austin officials formally and systematically segregated the city, and the lines that were drawn can still be seen to this day. It is important to remember that when one enters East Austin, the lower property values, and higher rates of poverty are not accidents, but rather were intentional results of the 1928 City Plan. 48 News Coverage: CITY PLAN OUTLINED The Austin Statesman (1921-1973); Jan 4, 1928; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. 1Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 49 1 U.S. Const. amend. XIII, XIV, XV. 2 U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, Black Americans in Congress: An Introduction, BLACK AMERICANS IN CONGRESS, 1870–2007 (2008) https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and- Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Introduction/Introduction/. (hereinafter Black Americans in Congress). 3 BOB RESCOLA ET AL., AUSTIN HISTORY CENTER, AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT GUIDE, 3 (2018). 4 EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE, LYNCHING IN AMERICA: CONFRONTING THE LEGACY OF RACIAL TERROR, 22 (3d ed., 2017). https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/ (hereinafter Lynching in America). 5 U.S. Const. amend XIII. 6 Lynching in American, supra note 4, at 23. 7 Id. 8 SALLY E. HADDEN, SLAVE PATROLS LAW AND VIOLENCE IN VIRGINIA AND THE COLONIES, 193 (2001). (hereinafter Slave Patrols) 9 Lynching in American, supra note 4, at 22. 10 HOWARD RABINOWITZ, RACE RELATIONS IN THE URBAN SOUTH: 1865-1890, 324 (1978) (hereinafter Race Relations). 11 See generally Lynching in American, supra note 4. 12 Hollie A. Teague, Black and Blue in North Texas: The Long Neglected History of Anti-Black Police Violence in North Texas, 1880-1930, 49(8) J. OF BLACK STUD. 756, 765 (2018). (hereinafter Black and Blue). 13 Id. at 761. 14 See Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896). 15 Katie Humphrey, 1906 boycott of streetcars gave Austin’s blacks a voice, AUS. AM. STATESMAN. Jan. 21, 2008, at A1. 16 Id. 17 Id. 18 US INFLATION CALCULATOR, COINNEWS MEDIA GROUP LLC. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/. 19 Boycott Ordinance may be introduced, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Apr. 9, 1906, at 8. 20 Id.; Boycott by negro race, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Apr. 8, 1906, at 5. 21 Boycott Ordinance, supra note 19. 22 Id. 23 W.D. Shelley, Jim Crow Law Soon, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, May 27, 1906, at 9. 24 Katie Humphrey. 1906 boycott of streetcars gave Austin’s blacks a voice. AUS. AM. STATESMAN. Jan. 21, 2008. Pg. A1. 25 Id. 26 Jason J. McDonald, Confronting Jim Crow in the “Lone Star” capital: the contrasting strategies of African- American and ethnic-Mexican political leaders in Austin, Texas, 1910-1930, 22(1) Continuity and Change 143, 153 (2007). 27 Id. at 154. 28 KOCH & FOWLER CONSULTING ENGINEERS, A CITY PLAN FOR AUSTIN, TEXAS (1928). 29 KEVIN MICHAEL FOSTER, INSTITUTE FOR URBAN POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS, DESTRUCTION OF BLACK COMMUNITIES IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS, THE CASE OF AUSTIN, 1865-1928 (2019). 30 Id. 31 Id. 32 Id. 33 Id. 34 Id. 50 The History of Police and Race: Civil Rights The 1970s The 1970s were a time of radical change not only for Austin, but the entire United States. Civil Rights were no longer at the center of many people’s minds.1 The oil crisis and inflation made the job market incredibly competitive.2 Additionally, the end of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society,” which brought the country the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, brought in an era that was far more hostile to civil rights.3 There were no longer as many major civil rights groups or Black Power organizations, and both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.4 However, this did not mean that the protest movement and activism ceased to exist. Around the country, and specifically in the south, grassroots organizing by communities of color continued to flourish.5 Austin was no exception to this broader movement. The 1970s, like the decades before it, brought on several flash points between communities of color and the Austin Police Department. Importantly, this decade saw the rise of two major community groups that most people in the community today are still aware of: The Brown Berets, and The Black Citizen’s Task Force. The Brown Berets were an important civil rights group for the Latino community, and the Black Citizen’s Task Force was an important civil rights group for the black community. Both groups were very active in protesting the police during this time period. This decade was a very trying time for communities here in Austin. Many racial and ethnic minority groups felt they were being harassed instead of protected by the police. Additionally, many community groups became more organized in their resistance to what they felt was systemic opposition to their progress in the city. What follows is a brief overview of some of the flash points between the police and communities of color during this period time in Austin’s history. Setting the Scene: Police Chief(s): R.A. Miles, Frank Dyson6 Diversity of the Force: By 1970 APD had 324 total officers, with 14 of Hispanic Origin, 11 African Americans, and 1 Native American.7 Flash Points to be covered: - Police-Community Relations Task Force Report - The Murder of Jose Campos Torres by Houston Police Officers - The Death of Gril Couch at the hands of Austin Police Officers Instructions: 1. Read the following summaries of events and the corresponding news articles silently and independently 2. Answer and discuss the “Questions to Consider” as a group 51 3. Use the poster board and markers to make a poster to present to the rest of the class what you have learned 4. Decide who will present what points, but be sure to not leave out any of the “Flash Points” 52 FLASH POINT #1: Questions to Consider: 1. What were the key demands of the Police-Community Relations Task force report? Which demands stick out in particular, and why? 2. How did you feel about some of the community members statements during the testimony given at the 2nd community meeting for the Police-Community Relations? Police Task Force Report In November 1974, the city of Austin created a Police-Community Relations Task Force after immense pressure from community leaders following the killing of Tiburcio Soto in East Austin by an APD officer.8 The Task Force was made up of 17 people: nine members of the pre- existing Human Relations Commission, and eight persons named by individual city council members.9 Father Fred Bomar, Forrest McPhaul, Dr. John Warfield, Lt. Ernie Hinkle, H.C. Carter, Art Navarro, and notably Larry Jackson, a black activist, and Paul Hernandez, a member of the Brown Berets.10 The commission was created after the shooting of Tiburcio Soto on October 6, 1974. Tiburcio Soto was a Mexican-American who lived in East Austin.11 His death resulted after police were called to his house in response to reports of a fight.12 While the details of the interaction are likely lost to history, and who truly was at fault may never be known, all that the community needed to know in that moment was that he was killed by a police officer. Following the shooting, neighbors gathered, and tensions rose to the point of bottles and rocks being thrown at the police.13 The aftermath of the shooting left the city reeling. The Brown Berets and the Black Citizens Task Force hosted protests with more than 150 community members in attendance. Calls for a civilian oversight board were heard throughout the community.14 It is important to note that the Tiburcio Soto shooting wasn’t an isolated incident, but was rather the third police shooting of a Latino since 1968.15 It was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Eventually, tensions rose so high that the city decided on establishing the Police- Community Relations Task Force.16 While there was initial excitement, the Task Force ended with the two major community activists, Larry Jackson and Paul Hernandez, leaving because they felt they weren’t actually given the power to make meaningful reform.17 The city purposefully undermined the Task Force requests on several occasions. Ways the City Undermined the Task Force: - Task Force wasn’t actually allowed to handle citizen complaints brought before it. 18 - Chief Miles never provided the full cooperation needed for the Task Force to do a thorough review of the state of police-community relations.19 - When the Task Force asked for an extension to keep investigating the City Manager fired the four investigators that had been hired to assist the Task Force.20 53 - After the first community meeting, which was held in Rosewood Community Center and did not require sign-ins, had testimony from 9 community members, the City moved the hearing to downtown and required sign-ins, which resulted in nobody actually testifying to the Task Force.21 Notable Requests from the final task force report: - Establishment of civilian review board.22 - The removal of Police Chief Bob Miles.23 - The use of voice-actuated tape recorders by police officers.24 - The use of citations rather than arrests in more misdemeanor cases.25 54 News Coverage: Task Force Blasted As Activist ResignsThe Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); Jan 21, 1975; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 55 Task force 'firings' blasted The Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); May 15, 1975; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 56 Task force report The Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); Aug 20, 1975; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. 4Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 57 FLASH POINT #2 Questions to Consider 1. How would you feel if Jose Campos Torres was your family member? What do you think you would tell your children about the police if your brother was treated the way Jose Campos Torres was? 2. Do you think the people who heard about this instance might be hesitant to call the police in the future? Why or why not? The Murder of Jose Campos Torres by Houston Police Officers Jose Campos Torres was a 23-year-old Vietnam Veteran who was murdered by Houston Police Officers in 1977.26 His body was found on the shores of the Buffalo Bayou.27 On May 5, 1977, he was arrested at a bar in the heart of the Latino neighborhood of Houston.28 Instead of being taken to the station, the police officers took him to “The Hole,” which was an isolated location behind a warehouse.29 He was beaten so badly that when the officers eventually tried to book him at the city jail, officials refused and insisted that he be taken to the hospital.30 Campos Torres was never taken to the hospital. Instead he was taken back to “The Hole,” beaten again, and pushed from a 20 foot platform into the Bayou where he drowned to death.31 While six officers were involved with the beating only two were charged with the homicide.32 An all-white jury found the two officers guilty of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and sentenced them to a year probation and a $1 fine.33 While federal officials eventually found three additional officers guilty of violating Campos Torres’ civil rights, even 40 years later Campos Torres’ sister does not feel like justice was served.34 The Latino community of Texas also did not feel that justice was served. On the one-year anniversary of the Campos Torres murder, a major riot broke out in Moody Park, now known as the Moody Park Riot. During the riot, more than 40 people were arrested, and several police officers were hospitalized.35 The incident led to the creation of the Houston Police Department’s internal affairs department.36 It also led to a group of Latino attorneys from Texas seeking funds to set up a clearinghouse for complaints and allegations of police brutality in Texas.37 The effects of the murder were not just felt in Houston. In Austin, the Brown Berets, led largely by Paul Hernandez, staged a massive, 500 person rally at the state capitol.38 During this rally many speakers, including Hernandez, spoke of their mistrust of the police.39 In the months and years following the murder, community members would draw parallels between instances of police misconduct and the Campos Torres incident.40 While this event may seem to be old history at this point. It is still fresh on the minds of many community members, as is demonstrated from the fact that more than 40 years later the Campos Torres’ still holds “solidarity walks” on the anniversary of his killing.41 58 News Coverage: Police brutality charges draw 500 to Capitol rally LINDA KERR American-Statesman Staff The Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); Nov 13, 1977; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. B11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 59 No jail, fine given ex-officers The Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); Oct 8, 1977; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. A1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 60 FLASH POINT #3 Questions to Consider: 1. Do you think residents still trust the city to represent their desires after its repeated denials of their calls for a civilian review board? 2. What do you think the witnesses of the Gril Couch incident told their friends and families about the incident? 3. How do you think members of the community who know of the Gril Couch death reacted when they saw the footage of Eric Gardner’s killing in New York City? The Death of Gril Couch at the Hands of Austin Police Officers Gril Couch was a 41-year-old African American man who was died at the hands of two out-of-uniform police officers while dining in East Austin.42 Couch suffocated to death when his larynx collapsed after being placed in a chokehold by the two officers.43 The death was sent to a grand jury, which failed to indict either of the officers and ruled the death an accident.44 However, for many East Austin residents this was a miscarriage of justice, and brought on six weeks of protests against police brutality and calls for a citizen review board by the Brown Berets, and the Black Citizens Task Force.45 The incident took place on August 1, 1979 at a BBQ restaurant in East Austin.46 Couch was drunk and the two officers were on their lunch break.47 There was no indication that the men were police officers, and they never announced themselves to be officers throughout the entire exchange. Couch apparently lunged at one of the men. Afterwards, the police officer called to see if uniform police officers would come to arrest Couch.48 Before the uniform officers could arrive, Couch lunged at them again. It was then that the two officers, without announcing themselves as officers, began to wrestle Couch out of the establishment and onto the ground. During the altercation they put Couch in a chokehold.49 There were 18 witnesses to the incident. When interviewed, many of the witnesses said they watched the officers hold Gril in the choke hold for several minutes.50 When the uniform officer arrived, witnesses claimed they watched the officer place handcuffs on what they perceived as an already dead Couch. Couch was pronounced dead at the scene. The grand jury ruled it an accident, while the city coroner refused to say one way or another whether the death was a homicide or an accident.51 This did not satisfy community members because of the secrecy involved in the grand jury process, and their general mistrust of the police.52 The death of Couch further solidified the mistrust of the police. This is demonstrated by the fact that less than two weeks after the death, when another East Austin resident struggled with police, witnesses gathered not to assist the police officer with the arrest, but instead to ensure that the man wasn’t put into a choke hold. Some local residents even said, “People are suspicious of cops since the Couch incident.”53 61 News Coverage: Residents exert pressure: East Austinites demand review board in <span class="hit">Couch</span> d TERRY BOX American-Statesman Staff The Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); Aug 24, 1979; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. B1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 62 Civilian board needed to review police conduct Nobles, Henry The Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); Aug 16, 1979; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. A11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 63 Reactions varied to cop's altercation: Some scared, some won't talk, some didn't want to get involve LYNDA RICHARDSON American-Statesman Staff The Austin American Statesman (1973-1987); Aug 16, 1979; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Austin American Statesman pg. B1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 Stephen Tuck, 'We Are Taking Up Where the Movement of the 1960s Left Off’: The Proliferation and Power of African American Protest during the 1970s, 43(4) J. of Contemp. Hist. 637, 638-39 (2008). 2 DAVID HOROWITZ, JIMMY CARTER AND THE ENERGY CRISIS OF THE 1970S: THE" CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE" SPEECH OF JULY 15, 1979: A BRIEF HISTORY WITH DOCUMENTS (2005). 3 Tuck, supra note 1, at 640 4 Id. at 639 5 Id. at 640 6 BOB RESCOLA ET AL., AUSTIN HISTORY CENTER, AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT GUIDE (2018). 64 7 Id. at 4 8 AUSTIN POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS TASK FORCE, FINAL REPORT (1974) (hereinafter Final Report) 9 Police-community Task Force Named, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Oct. 25, 1974, at A15. 10 Final Report, supra note 8. 11 Mike Kelley, City task force began, may end in bitterness, AUS. AM. STATESMAN. May 25, 1975, at A1. 12 Id. at A6 13 Id. at A6 14 City Police Chief Miles Meets With Grand Jury, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Oct. 9, 1974, at 10. 15 Final Report, supra note 8. 16 Citizen-Task Force Approved, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Oct. 18, 1974, at 17. 17 Task Force Blasted As Activist Resigns. AUS. AM. STATESMAN. Jan. 21, 1975. Pg. 11. 18 Kelley, supra note 11, at A6. 19 Id. 20 Id. 21 Final Report, supra note 8. 22 The Task force report, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 20, 1975, at 4. 23 Id. 24 Id. 25 Id. 26 Marilusia Rincon, 40 years ago police killed Joe Campos Torres sparking massive Moody Park Riots, HUSTON CHRON. ONLINE. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Joe-Campos-Torres-Moody-Park-riots- 11135844.php 27 Id. 28 Id. 29 Christy Drennan, The hole: A quiet place where police go for various reasons – sometimes to talk with a suspect. HUSTON CHRON., May 14, 1977, at 1. 30 Rincon, supra note 26. 31 Id. 32 Id. 33 Id. 34 Id. 35 Robinson Block, Moody Park: From the Riots to the Future for the Northside Community, 9(3) HOUSTON HIST. MAG. 22 (Summer 2012). 36 Id. 37 Chicanos seek funds for agency to process brutality complaints, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Jul. 20, 1978, at B6. 38 Linda Kerr, Police brutality charges draw 500 to Capitol rally, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Nov. 13, 1977, at B11. 39 Id. 40 Glenn Garvin, Berets cry brutality, but the neighbors. . .,AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Nov. 12, 1977, at B1. 41 https://abc13.com/walk-honors-memory-of-man-killed-by-hpd-officers-on-cinco-de-mayo/3433659/ 42 Robert Schwab, Grand jury to probe death, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 2, 1979, at A1. 43 John C. Henry, Federal grand jury probing Couch’s death, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 29, 1979, at A1. 44 Schwab, supra note 42. 45 Terry Box, Residents exert pressure, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 24, 1979, at B1. 46 Schwab, supra note 42. 47 Id. 48 Id. 49 Id. 50 Id. 51 John C. Henry, Snell criticizes coroner, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Sep. 10, 1979, at B3. 52 Id. 53 Lynda Richardson, Reactions varied to cop’s altercation, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 16, 1979, at B1. 65 The History of Race and Police: Re-entrenchment 1980-2000 This era in history represents the attempted reversal of many of the progress made during the civil rights movement. Often attributed to Richard Nixon’s presidency1, for purposes of this course we will consider the true era of “re-entrenchment” to align with the Regan, Bush and Clinton presidencies.2 The era is most notably associated with the war on drugs, and the increase in “tough on crime” politicians that emerged on both sides of the political spectrum.3 It is also associated with the rise of mass incarceration. The prison population quadrupled from the 1970s to the 1990s, and doubled again between 1992 and 2000.4 A disproportionate amount of those incarcerated were minorities, specifically African Americans.5 By the 1990s, 1 in 3 black males would be incarcerated in their lifetime despite committing crimes at a similar rate to their white counterparts.6 This disproportionate incarceration also led to the removal of the right to vote for 7.44% of African Americans.7As discussed in the presentation about the general history of the police and race, this era is often referred to the era of mass incarceration. The policies that came out in this era, and the incarceration associated with them is sometimes referred to as the “new Jim Crow.”8 Needless to say, this was a trying time for the relationship between police officers and communities of color. Austin was no exception. This time period in Austin brought on several flash points between communities of color and the Austin Police Department. It is important to understand the frustration, and mistrust that has been born out of these interactions. Setting the Scene: Police Chief(s): Frank Dyson, Jim Everett, Elizabeth Watson (APD’s first female Chief), and Stan Knee Diversity of the Force: - By 1990 APD had 1,082 police officers. 11.3% were women, 9.8% were Black or African American, and 14.7% were Hispanic or Latino - By 2000 APD had 1,656 police officers. 11.8% were women, 10.8% were Black or African American, and 16.6% were Hispanic or Latino. 9 Flash Points to be Covered: - Anti-KKK Protesters beaten by police officers - “The Valentine’s Day Party Incident” - Evans Ekiye suffocated by police officers while in handcuffs 66 Instructions: 1. Read the following summaries of events and the corresponding news articles silently and independently 2. Answer and discuss the “Questions to Consider” as a group 3. Use the poster board and markers to make a poster to present to the rest of the class what you have learned 4. Decide who will present what points, but be sure to not leave out any of the “Flash Points” 67 FLASH POINT #1 Questions to Consider: 1. How do you think a person of color would view the fact that a person of color was beaten on the day of the Ku Klux Klan’s parade, while nothing happened to the Klan? 2. Whether or not Hernandez actually assaulted the police officer, how do you think the simple fact that he was beaten on camera during a Klan march affected community relations with the Chicano community? Anti- KKK Protesters Beaten by Police In January of 1983, the KKK planned a march on the Capitol here in Austin. There were roughly 70 Klan members in attendance.10 In response to the march, 2000 community members came out to protest the presence of the Klan.11 Notably among those was Brown Beret (an important civil rights group for the Latino community of East Austin) Paul Hernandez.12 There were around 400 police on the scene, and they were largely there to make sure that none of the Klan members were attacked, as they were greatly outnumbered by the counter-protesters.13 As the tensions rose, Paul Hernandez was surrounded by 10 police officers and beaten with their clubs.14 This was caught on footage and an investigation into whether any rights were violated followed.15 The officers’ accounts of the incident was that Hernandez assaulted one of them just prior to them reacting by striking him with their night sticks. Hernandez maintained that he acted no differently than the other white protesters who were not given any trouble by the police that day. He was eventually charged with assault.16 One Klan member was arrested that day for illegally carrying a firearm, but besides him no Klan’s members were assaulted.17 Community members were upset and thought that the beating of Hernandez was a miscarriage of justice. They also felt that the Klan was treated better than they were, and that overall it was the city’s fault for mismanaging the parade. Notably, the following year the Klan and counter-protestors returned.18 However, due to better planning and scheduling of the timing between the Klan and the counter-protestors there was no clash between the police and the Klan or the counter-protesters.19 68 Coverage in the News:The New York Times (only read the section in white): 69 FLASH POINT #2 Questions to consider: 1. How do you think a person who knew the circumstances around Evans Ekiye’s death felt when they heard about Eric Gardner’s death in New York City in 2014? 2. Leaving aside whether the officer’s use of force was reasonable or not, how do you think the community members who originally called in the domestic disturbance may react in the future when deciding whether to call the police? Evans Ekiye death while in police custody On December 5, 1984, 28 year old Evans Ekiye, a student from Nigeria, suffocated to death after four Austin Police Officers held him down while he was still in handcuffs.20 The police officers were responding to a domestic disturbance at the Ekiye’s residence. The officers initially grabbed Ekiye to determine if he was carrying a weapon.21 They then placed him in handcuffs and held him down on his mattress.22 At some point the officers decided to call the EMS because they recognized that Ekiye’s condition had become critical.23 However, all of them failed to administer CPR, even though two of them were trained in the life-saving practice.24 In fact, there was evidence that when the EMS arrived on the scene the officers were still holding Ekiye face down on the mattress.25 The attorney general conducted a special investigation and found that the police officers had acted negligently, but that they had not acted with the intent to kill the young man.26 The medical examiner ruled the killing an accident, and the grand jury failed to indict, though it is important to note that the details of the investigation are still not know due to the secretive nature of grand juries.27 All four police officers were reinstated to the force. 28 The Black Citizens Task Force responded to the death with sustained protests for 18 months.29 The main requests they asked for were the immediate firing of the police chief, and the implementation of a citizen review board.30 This event had serious repercussions on police- community relations in the months following it. Many citizens drew parallels between the Eikye death and future interactions between the police and community members.31 70 News Coverage: The Austin American Statesman – 06/08/1986 71 The Austin American Statesman – 08/06/1984 72 FLASH POINT #3 Questions to Consider: 1. How do you think the teenagers who filed the lawsuit and their families talk about police in the years following this incident? 2. What reaction do you have to the community member who said that he wasn’t at all surprised that the jury sided with the police? What does this person’s reaction tell you about community members’ faith in the criminal justice system? “The Valentine’s Day Party” Incident On February 11, 1995, Ira Bedford threw a Valentine’s Day party for his teen-age children in East Austin. There were roughly 60 children in attendance at the party, but Mr. Bedford was not the only adult there; the party was attended by several parent chaperones.32 As the party progressed Mr. Bedford had some unwelcome guests. Namely a gang member carrying a gun. Mr. Bedford called the police to come remove the gang member.33 It is at this point in the story where things become unclear. Community members say one thing and the police officers say another. According to many community members, the gang member was actually removed from the party prior to the police officers arriving on the scene. The police officers claimed that it was they who removed the party goer.34 Whether or not the gang member was removed by police seems to be irrelevant, but what comes next is relevant. The police officers stayed at the party after the gang member was removed. The police officers said it was to break up a fight between two adults, but many party goers insisted there was no fight.35 In the following moments a police officer was struck in the head with a blunt object. At this moment an “officer down” call went out over the radio and around 60 police officers ended up on the scene.36 Party goers were pepper sprayed, and had guns drawn on them by the police officers. While the officers deny it, 15 of the teenagers were willing to testify in federal court that at least some of them had guns placed to their head, and that the officers used racial epithets while yelling at them.37 A group of teenagers filed excessive force complaints and sued the Austin Police Department in federal court. The jury never reached the question of whether excessive force was used because the case was decided on procedural technicalities. The teenagers did not win their lawsuit, and ended up taking nothing, which only functioned to further sour relations between the police department and the community.38 While the facts are certainly disputed, and perhaps are lost to history forever, the sentiments that the community members felt in the aftermath of the incident leave no room for question about how they felt. There was a deep mistrust of police that was planted despite the police departments attempts to mend the relationship.39 Community members wrote editorials to the newspapers, and some even went so far as to take out mock ads in The Daily Texan urging people to not call the police. Even in hearing the final result of the federal trial, which was given 73 by a jury with no black members, many community members reacted by saying they expected they wouldn’t receive the justice they felt they deserved because, “[they] knew [the jury] were going to go with the police side, they’ve been doing this for years.”40 74 News Coverage: Mock Ad taken out in “The Daily Texan” 75 Residents react with ambivalence – The Austin American Statesmen – 1998. 76 1 See MICHELLE ALEXANDER, THE NEW JIM CROW (2010). 2 Greg Kirkorian, Federal and State Prison Populations Soared Under Clinton, Report Finds, LA TIMES, Feb. 19, 2001. latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-19-mn-27373-story.html. 3 See Alexander, supra note 1. 4 THE SENTENCING PROJECT, TRENDS IN U.S. CORRECTIONS, 1(2019). 5 Id. at 5. 6 Id. 7 Id. at 7. 8 See Alexander, supra note 1. 9 BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS SPECIAL REPORT, POLICE DEPARTMENTS IN LARGE CITIES, 1990-2000, 11 (2002). https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pdlc00.pdf. 10 Police brutality charges leveled after Klan rally, UNITED PRESS INT’L, Feb. 20, 1983. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/02/20/Police-brutality-charges-leveled-after-Klan-rally/4181414565200/ 11 Id. 12 Id. 13 Id. 14 Id. 15 Id. 16 Around the Nation; Inquiry Set in Violence Over Texas Klan Rally, NY TIMES, Feb. 22, 1983, at 12. 17 Id. 18 Tim Sheehy, Klan parade goes peacefully this year, UNITED PRESS INT’L, Apr. 14, 1984. 19 Id. 20 Ken Herman, Police ‘Negligent’ In Nigerian’s Death, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sep. 13, 1985. https://apnews.com/8aefe976baf73aa8927db6983944ddab 21 Id. 22 Id. 23 Id. 24 Id. 25 Id. 26 Id. 27 Cheryl Coggins Frink, Picket Ends, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Jun. 8, 1986. 28 Ken Herman. Police ‘Negligent’ In Nigerian’s Death. Associated Press. Sep. 13, 1985. https://apnews.com/8aefe976baf73aa8927db6983944ddab 29 Frink, supra note 27. 30 Id. 31 Police brutality charge needs serious attention (Editorial), AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 6, 1984, at A6. 32 Claire Osborn & Mike Todd, Residents say police abusive at party; Report of officer down sparks convergence on East Austin gathering, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Feb. 13, 1995, at B1. 33 Id. 34 Jim Phillips, Chief gives police account of East Austin confrontation, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Feb. 14, 1995. 35 Id. 36 Bob Banta, Police work to heal wounds left by Cedar Avenue incident, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Feb. 19, 1996, at A1. 37 Carol Wright. East Side Injustice (opinion). THE DAILY TEXAN. Apr. 7, 1995. 38 Chuck Lindell. Jury sides with Austin police. AUS. AM. STATESMAN. Mar. 31, 1998. 39 Bob Banta. A year after incident, Cedar Ave. residents still wary of police. AUS. AM. STATESMAN. Feb. 11, 1996. Pg. B1. 40 Nicole Monroe, Residents React with Ambivalence, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Mar. 31, 1998, at A9. 77 Part V: Final Reflection Introduction: The hope is that by this point in the class the students will have thoroughly made the connection that while their own views of police, which were shaped by factors from their own lives, caused them to want to join the police force, many community members do not have such a positive view of police, and that is because of the factors in their own lives. Students should understand both the broad history, and the specific instances of Austin’s history that contributes to these views. Some students may feel disheartened at this moment. Others may feel attacked. It is important as an instructor to ground the students before going into this final reflection that the purpose of presenting the previous information was not to make the students feel guilty. It was not to accuse the students of being bad people for wanting to be police officers. Rather, it was meant to make them even more effective police officers. If they are able to understand this country’s and this city’s history of police and race relations, then they will be able to approach community members with more empathy. Their ability to do this will hopefully begin the process of mending the relationship that has been strained by so many years of police officers not taking the time to do just this. Essential Question: How will the lived experiences and the history of the communities you are policing interaction's with the police shape the way you approach future interactions? Enduring Understanding: A police officer who is informed on the historic relationship between the police and communities of color will bring more empathy to their future interactions with community members. They will better understand where the community’s mistrust comes from, which is the first step on repairing the mistrust and moving forward. Procedure: 1. The instructor should take what is written in the introduction to this section seriously, and actually verbally explain to students that s/he understands that some of them may be feeling either guilty or attacked. Let the students know that this is not the purpose of the information, but rather that the information was meant to foster empathy for community members, which will in turn make them more effective police officers. The instructor should say that the hope of the course is that the students will bring this information forward with them into their careers, which is why they are about to be asked to reflect on the ways they will do this. 78 2. The instructor should distribute the handout labeled “Final Reflection”. The students should be given 5 to 10 minutes to silently write a response to the prompt. This writing exercise should be low stakes, and serve as a time for the students to honestly reflect on what they learned and how it will be useful for them moving forward. 3. Provide at least three students the opportunity to share out. If you notice that students still feel dejected or attacked by the material that has been covered try again to guide them back to the major message of the course: this information is meant to make them even more effective officers by allowing them to empathize with community member’s mistrust so that they may work to rebuild that trust. 4. Finish by facilitating a conversation about how the officers can use this information moving forward to foster better relationships with community members. a. Potential Questions: i. How can we show community members that we understand that there has been a long history of distrust between the community and the police, but that we want to work together to mend that relationship? ii. What can we do to make community members trust us more moving forward? iii. How can we use our power as police officers to make community members feel safe when we are around instead of fearful? 79 Final Response Instructions: Please silently and independently take the next 5 to 10 minutes to write a meaningful response to the prompt below. __________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ How will the lived experiences and the history of the communities you are policing interaction's with the police shape the way you approach future interactions? 80 References (Listed alphabetically) 1. Around the Nation; Inquiry Set in Violence Over Texas Klan Rally, NY TIMES, Feb. 22, 1983, at 12. 2. AUSTIN POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS TASK FORCE, FINAL REPORT (1974). 3. AVAAZ, IS THIS JUSTICE INFORMATIONAL GRAPHIC. 4. Bob Banta, Police work to heal wounds left by Cedar Avenue incident, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Feb. 19, 1996, at A1. 5. BOB RESCOLA ET AL., AUSTIN HISTORY CENTER, AUSTIN POLICE DEP’T GUIDE (2018). 6. Boycott by negro race, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Apr. 8, 1906. 7. Boycott Ordinance may be introduced, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Apr. 9, 1906. 8. BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS SPECIAL REPORT, POLICE DEPARTMENTS IN LARGE CITIES, 1990-2000, 11 (2002). https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pdlc00.pdf. 9. Cheryl Coggins Frink, Picket Ends, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Jun. 8, 1986. 10. CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS CURRICULUM, REPARATIONS WON: A CASE STUDY IN POLICE TORTURE, RACISM, AND THE MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE IN CHICAGO, 10 (2017). 11. Chicanos seek funds for agency to process brutality complaints, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Jul. 20, 1978, at B6. 12. Christy Drennan, The hole: A quiet place where police go for various reasons – sometimes to talk with a suspect. HUSTON CHRON., May 14, 1977 13. Citizen-Task Force Approved, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Oct. 18, 1974. 14. City Police Chief Miles Meets With Grand Jury, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Oct. 9, 1974. 15. Claire Osborn & Mike Todd, Residents say police abusive at party; Report of officer down sparks convergence on East Austin gathering, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Feb. 13, 1995, at B1. 16. DAVID HOROWITZ, JIMMY CARTER AND THE ENERGY CRISIS OF THE 1970S: THE" CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE" SPEECH OF JULY 15, 1979: A BRIEF HISTORY WITH DOCUMENTS (2005). 17. EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE, LYNCHING IN AMERICA: CONFRONTING THE LEGACY OF RACIAL TERROR (3d ed., 2017). https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/. 18. Glenn Garvin, Berets cry brutality, but the neighbors. . .,AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Nov. 12, 1977, at B1. 19. Greg Kirkorian, Federal and State Prison Populations Soared Under Clinton, Report Finds, LOS ANGELES TIMES, Feb. 19, 2001. latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-19-mn-27373- story.html. 20. Hollie A. Teague, Black and Blue in North Texas: The Long Neglected History of Anti-Black Police Violence in North Texas, 1880-1930, 49(8) J. OF BLACK STUD. 756 (2018). 21. HOWARD RABINOWITZ, RACE RELATIONS IN THE URBAN SOUTH: 1865-1890 (1978). 22. JAMES ALLEN, ED., ET AL., WITHOUT SANCTUARY: LYNCHING PHOTOGRAPHY IN AMERICA, 117-118 (2000). 81 23. Jason J. McDonald, Confronting Jim Crow in the “Lone Star” capital: the contrasting strategies of African-American and ethnic-Mexican political leaders in Austin, Texas, 1910- 1930, 22(1) Continuity and Change 143, 153 (2007). 24. Jim Phillips, Chief gives police account of East Austin confrontation, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Feb. 14, 1995. 25. John C. Henry, Federal grand jury probing Couch’s death, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 29, 1979, at A1. 26. John C. Henry, Snell criticizes coroner, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Sep. 10, 1979, at B3. 27. Katie Humphrey, 1906 boycott of streetcars gave Austin’s blacks a voice, AUS. AM. STATESMAN. Jan. 21, 2008. 28. Ken Herman, Police ‘Negligent’ In Nigerian’s Death, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sep. 13, 1985. https://apnews.com/8aefe976baf73aa8927db6983944ddab 29. KEVIN MICHAEL FOSTER, INSTITUTE FOR URBAN POLICY RESEARCH & ANALYSIS, DESTRUCTION OF BLACK COMMUNITIES IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS, THE CASE OF AUSTIN, 1865-1928 (2019). 30. KOCH & FOWLER CONSULTING ENGINEERS, A CITY PLAN FOR AUSTIN, TEXAS (1928). 31. LARRY K. GAINES & VICTOR E. KAPPELER, POLICING IN AMERICA (7th ed. 2011). 32. Linda Kerr, Police brutality charges draw 500 to Capitol rally, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Nov. 13, 1977, at B11. 33. Lynda Richardson, Reactions varied to cop’s altercation, AUS. AM. STATESMAN, Aug. 16, 1979, at B1. 34. Marilusia Rincon, 40 years ago police killed Joe Campos Torres sparking massive Moody Park Riots, HUSTON CHRON. 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