How do we think about institutional racism in the American police force?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: How do we think about institutional racism in the American police force?
Position‹2 of 3›: 'The police are not the issue!': The police should not be blamed for the problems of a racialized society
Argument‹4 of 7›: The police are being victimized

Public outcry victimizes the police. Research shows that police institutions are not racist. A study by Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr. found no evidence of racial discrimination in shootings. Reports that suggest otherwise do not account for crime rates and civilian behavior during police interactions.

The argument

With the recent wave of the Black Lives Matter movement following the deaths of people like George Floyd, many activists and politicians are concluding that police institutions are racist. However, these people are merely taking advantage of the current situation to push their agenda. Race relations between police and black communities have ebbed and flowed over the decades. Systemic racism does not exist within police institutions. As Attorney General William Barr stated, “I frankly think that we generally have the vast, overwhelming majority of police are good people. I think that there are instances of bad cops. And I think we have to be careful about automatically assuming that the actions of an individual necessarily mean that their organization is rotten.” The police are being victimized by politicians, activists, and many in public for doing their job of protecting our society.

Premises

[P1]Proponents argue that systemic racism does not exist within police institutions and that the vast majority of officers are good people, with only isolated instances of bad individual cops. [P2] Activists and politicians are said to be exploiting events like George Floyd's death to push an agenda, wrongly blaming the whole institution for individual actions. [C] Therefore, the police are being victimised for doing their job and should not be blamed for the problems of a racialised society.

Counter-arguments

The public recognition of systemic racism within police institutions is the first step toward ending racially motivated police violence. Numerous policy departments recognize this reality and have implemented programs to help officers eliminate any implicit biases they have. With the ubiquity of smartphones, ignoring the problem of police violence has become impossible. Police are not victims; the men and women who die at the hands of police are.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise answers a claim that was not made. "Systemic" describes how rules, incentives, training and review processes shape outcomes, not what proportion of officers are ill-intentioned, so the observation that the overwhelming majority are good people is consistent with the claim it is offered against. A statement by an attorney general is a position, not evidence for one. [Rejecting P2] Attributing a motive is not an argument about the facts: that campaigners have an agenda leaves entirely open whether the pattern they describe exists. The premise also treats criticism of an institution as victimisation of the people in it, a move that would place any publicly accountable body beyond examination.