Black Live Matter in an Age of Political Change: Perceptions of Police Violence and Prospects for Social Peace

• In Event: The Prospects for Human Justice and Species Survival in an Era of Political Transformation

Abstract

In recent years, disproportionate levels of police violence against African Americans has become a flashpoint in the national discourse about police accountability. Police violence in the United States is not a new phenomenon. The police killings of African Americans like Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Rekia Boyd, Aiyana Jones, and Miriam Carrey illustrate a disturbing pattern, and an “unbroken stream of racist violence” in the United States. Persistent news reports of police violence, the spontaneous and subsequent rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the protests that have occurred in response to the clear devaluation of Black lives in the U.S. criminal justice system, invite a debate about the prospects for reducing police violence and strategies, and developing tactics for social change in the new political age. Using a grounded theory approach, I examine the responses of participants in two focus groups in the greater Philadelphia, PA regarding their attitudes towards law enforcement, police violence, and strategies and tactics for social change. The paper explores how aware participants are of police violence; how intersecting identities may influence attitudes towards police violence and strategies for social change; and how to develop strategies of social change to prevent police violence.

Author

• Viola Sawyer, Northern Arizona University