A Stop Black Deaths in Custody rally in Perth, April 2021, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Photo credit AAP
The imminent听听of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 murder of George Floyd will be closely watched around the world. While the crime happened in the United States, its听听has been truly international.
In New 茄子视频app官网and Australia, the June 25 sentencing offers an opportunity to take stock of racial disparities in their own criminal justice systems. They may be geographically distant, but we shouldn鈥檛 imagine the underlying cultural problems are exclusive to the US.
Floyd鈥檚 death was not just brutal and outrageous, but also distressingly routine. While some high-profile police killings of Black people have made the news and triggered protests and rioting, countless others have gone without the same coverage or impact.
For every听听(suffocated in 2014 by the NYPD while saying 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe鈥) or听听(who died of a broken spine after his arrest in Baltimore in 2015), there have been multiple other cases.
The conviction of Chauvin is therefore to be welcomed, not least because it shows such prosecutions can be successful. But it鈥檚 also important to remember that US policing itself has not necessarily changed very much, despite the past year鈥檚 protests and ongoing advocacy for reform.
At heart, the police remains a brutal institution. Some US police forces can be traced back to听, established to chase down escaped slaves or quell revolts. The culture of an institution built by one race for the subjugation of another is hard to change without some kind of radical reinvention.
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Policing in a post-colonial era
Again, this is not something confined exclusively to the US. The police forces of New 茄子视频app官网and Australia were established as component parts of a colonial project that clearly harmed and disadvantaged their respective Indigenous populations.
This foundational fact is reflected in the reality of policing today. Police forces built to enable colonial subjugation will not change simply because sections of modern society have developed a more progressive racial outlook.
Even if you argue the history of colonial policing does not actively inform contemporary police cultures in Australia and New Zealand, there is no denying the outcomes for Indigenous people in their criminal justice systems are lamentable.
It is now just over 30 years since the landmark report of Australia鈥檚听. In that time, 474 Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander people听. That equates to more than one such death each month.
In New Zealand, M膩ori are听听than P膩keh膩 to be at the receiving end of police violence. If the outcomes are not fatal as often as in Australia, deaths in custody still reflect a serious racial disparity.
In 2012, the Independent Police Complaints Authority听听from the previous decade. Almost half were M膩ori. If this is a small sample, it still mirrors the disproportionately听: M膩ori听听of the country鈥檚 population but 52% of prisoners.
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A long way to go
These discrepancies are hard to explain away. There is clearly a race problem in criminal justice in Australia and New Zealand, just as there is in the US.
The conviction and sentencing of Derek Chauvin may signal change, but it will take time. President Joe Biden supports proposed laws around police misconduct and racial profiling, but听听by the slow pace of reform.
Calls to 鈥溾 in the US, and growing disquiet at the increasingly paramilitary nature of US policing, may not yet have direct echoes in Australia and New Zealand.
But if and when George Floyd鈥檚 killer is sent to jail himself, we should take the opportunity to reflect on how far our own criminal justice systems have to go.
The Black Lives Matter movement demonstrates there is a global appetite for meaningful change to policing practices, as the protests in Australia and New 茄子视频app官网highlighted.
This year, New 茄子视频app官网has begun a government process of听听for the dehumanising 鈥渄awn raids鈥 of the 1970s, when Pasifika people deemed to be overstaying their visas were dragged from their homes by police and deported.
The history of colonial policing is something we are still processing 鈥 moving beyond those colonial (and often racist) mindsets towards a system that values rights, accountability and the rule of law. The moment is ripe for reform.
This article was originally published on The Conversation听.听
