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POLICE BRUTALITY   WILSON

"The Negro patrolman is himself stricter with Negroes than with white offenders by his own standards, the actions of white patrolmen against Negro offenders do not appear to be unduly severe."

The interplay between the white police and the black suspect is a mutual expectation of violence. What begins as a mere questioning or an arrest for a misdemeanor may suddenly turn into violence, death, a charge of assault against the black, a counter-charge of brutality against the white. The white policeman all too quickly uses his gun or his club, feeling that his honor or reputation is at stake. In the case of the black policeman and the black offender, the policeman must prove that he is nott partial to blacks, thus he too, is quick with the club and with his trigger finger.

In times of major revolts, the fear, the anger, the contempt, the ill-disguised brutality on the part of the police combine to produce an arrest procedure for blacks that was described by a white Detroit minister as "barbaric": wholesale indiscriminate shooting in cities like Newark evoked cries of "genocide," and there are several mysterious killings similar to Detroit's "Algiers incident" where three young black men, one-half mile from the scene of any sniper fire, were found slain.

police brutality is often hard to prove

Despite the fact that the police admit and frequently demonstrate their unequal treatment for Negroes, the charge of police brutality is difficult to sustain in court. The difficulty involved in proving brutality arises from the fact that the law, as currently interpreted, authorizes the policeman to interpret the need and use of whatever force seems necessary "to effect an arrest."  The policeman is also permitted great leeway in performance of his job and may be legally excused for exercising bad judgment in his job performance.  If a policeman is accused of brutality his case is investigated by the local police department and finally he is brought before a jury of people with similar prejudices, persons who frequently cannot accept the notion that Negroes are mistreated.  Thus in Los Angeles, for example, of 192 charges of police use of excessive force the department found that in fully 72 instances, its men were guilty of a lesser charge, "conduct unbecoming an officer."  

A number of white witnesses is hardly sufficient to have the individual policeman punished.  The New York Times carried a story, March 10, 1964, of a 19-year-old Negro who filed charges of brutality

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Transcription Notes:
"police brutality is often hard to prove" is in bold and Italics. The New York Times is in Italics.