By now, you've probably seen the above video of a Seattle police officer kicking a suspect in the head while making ethnic slurs last month. The officer apologized Friday.
These videos of officers and violence surface with alarming frequency, but they don't show anything new. Police officers have inherently physical and violent jobs, and the balance of power is almost always tipped toward them in any given situation. That they sometimes abuse it shouldn't surprise anyone.
What's new is the level of proof we sometimes have for claims that would have previously been dismissed. And officers like this one, and the one who's charged with murdering Oscar Grant in Oakland, Calif., last year, will face repercussions. But the system as a whole is still inclined to believe officers over the people with whom they come into contact. Jurors in the trial over the Grant murder will be allowed to hear about some of Grant's arrest history, a judge ruled last week. Attorneys for the former officer, Johannes Mehserle, argued that it was relevant to this trial that Grant had fled from police before.
Many jurors are more sympathetic to officers than they are to someone with an arrest history, and it's hard to see how testimony about Grant's arrest history will help bring justice. As with the Sean Bell trial in New York, that kind of evidence in the Mehserle trial could just muddy the waters. The actions seem clearly wrong in the video, and it's not clear how any type of information will make those actions seem less wrong. But officers are better at giving testimony than average people, and that can sway a jury.
-- Monica Potts
