Press Release

National Nurses Endorses Call for Policing Practices Reform In Wake of Michael Brown Shooting

National Nurses United

September 03, 2014

National Nurses United, the largest U.S. organization of nurses, has endorsed the call by dozens of Congressional, faith based, and community leaders for reform of policing practices in the wake of the Ferguson, Mo. shooting death of Michael Brown.

A letter to President Obama August 25 proposes racial bias training of law enforcement personnel across the U.S. under guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and improved diversity of law enforcement agencies in hiring and retention.

Signed by, among others, Congress members Elijah Cummings, Barbara Lee, and John Lewis, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and social equality activist Angela Blackwell, the letter also calls for national standards of investigation including community review boards following police shootings of unarmed individuals, and suspension of federal programs to transfer military equipment, including  military grade weapons and armored vehicles and aircraft to police agencies.

(Read the letter at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ad/public/static/letter/index.html)

The August police shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager in Ferguson, Mo., “has shed a light on a disturbing trend of practices that undermine human rights, Constitutional due process, and American democracy,” said NNU Co- President Deborah Burger, RN.

A witness to the Brown shooting reported that Ferguson police refused to allow a neighborhood nurse to administer CPR as the youth lay bleeding on the street, and said the police “didn’t even check to see if he was breathing,” behavior particularly disturbing to nurses, Burger noted

“As advocates for their patients, and practitioners of therapeutic healing and recovery, whether at the bedside, or in our communities, registered nurses and NNU are compelled to speak out.

“NNU supports the call for reforms to protect the health and security of all Americans, including the right to live in an environment free of fear of violence and discriminatory treatment based on race, ethnicity or national origin,” Burger said. 

A national problem and the need for national solutions

Michael Brown’s death tragically highlights the disparity of treatment in Ferguson, and a broader national pattern. 

In Ferguson, though African Americans comprise two-thirds of residents, they account for 93 percent of arrests and 86 percent of traffic stops.  Not coincidentally, 50 of 53 Ferguson police officers are white, as are five of six city council members and the city mayor.

Brown is one of at least five unarmed black men killed by police just in the past month, including victims in California, Ohio, and New York. In a 7-year period through 2012 white police officers killed an African-American nearly two times a week across the U.S., according to reports submitted to the FBI. As USA Today reported in mid August, “on average there were 96 such incidents among at least 400 police killings each year reported to the FBI by local police.”

A 2007 study of major U.S. cities found African-Americans made up a disproportionately large percentage of police shooting deaths in every one, with the greatest disparity, at least twice the percentage of their city population, in New York, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

Nationally, African Americans are arrested three times as often as whites, though they are just 12 percent of the U.S. population. African-Americans are three times more likely than whites to be subjected to force or threatened with force by police, Bureau of Justice data found in 2008. Black Americans are four times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana use, though both groups use marijuana equally, the New York Times reported last year.

Racial disparities in policing are not confined to African Americans.

Police shootings, arrests and stops of Latinos has also been increasing.

Nationally, Latinos are far more likely to be arrested during traffic stops, and far less likely than whites to be given a verbal or written warning for perceived infractions.

A full 84 percent of those targeted by New York’s notorious “stop and frisk” program were Latino or African-American. Similar data has been reported for other large cities, especially Los Angeles and Phoenix. In East Haven, Ct., federal investigators charged police in 2012 with obstruction of justice, excessive force, conspiracy and other crimes in treatment of Latinos.

News has also broken this summer regarding excessive use of police force against Latino migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. James Tomsheck, pushed out in June as internal affairs chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently said of 28 people killed by border agents and officers since 2010, at least a quarter of the fatalities were “highly suspect” with what he said was fabricated or distorted information.

Excessive police force also affects people with mental health problems. As many as half of the people killed nationally in police shootings may have been diagnosed with mental health illnesses, according to a 2012 investigation by Maine media. Race intersects with many of these incidents.

The propensity for abuse is escalated by the militarization of police forces, many of which have substantially increased the use of military grade weapons and armored vehicles and aircraft that have drawn greater public condemnation.

NNU notes that the combination of militarized police responses and discriminatory treatment also interferes more broadly with the public right to protest, as seen in the heavy handed crack down on participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement. It also poses a significant threat to working people and union members who use their right to engage in strikes and other work actions.

Finally, the escalating problems of disparity of police violence and treatment of African Americans and other minorities in particular, also damage public faith and trust in law enforcement that has broad consequences for democracy and public health and safety, NNU notes.

NNU also endorsed an August 25, 2014 letter, and its recommendations for policy changes, sent to President Obama signed by dozens of legislators and community and faith organization leaders.

The letter notes that “from policing to adjudication and incarceration, it is time for the country to counter the effects of systemic racial bias, which impairs the perceptions, judgment, and behavior of too many of our law enforcement personnel and obstructs the ability of our police departments and criminal justice institutions to protect and serve all communities in a fair and just manner.”

Recommendations of the letter included:

  • Training:  Racial bias training for law enforcement personnel in every department in the country, under guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).  
  • Accountability: National standards of investigation set by the DOJ, including the involvement of independent community police review boards, following police shootings of unarmed individuals. 
  • Diversity: Improved diversity of law enforcement agencies in hiring and retention, with monitoring guidelines for local departments. 
  • Demilitarization: Suspension of federal programs that transfer military equipment into the hands of local police departments, and establishment of guidelines to regulate and monitor the use of military equipment already distributed.
  • Oversight: Appointment of a federal official in the DOJ to promote compliance with revised guidelines, monitor egregious law enforcement activities, and adjudicating suspicious actions of local agencies that receive federal funding.

An Expectation for Change: All residents of the nation have a right to expect that their police departments will respect, serve and protect all people in the community regardless of age, race, ethnicity, national origin, physical and mental ability, gender, faith, or class. The Administration should establish a national commission to review existing police policies and practices and identify the best policies and practices that can prevent more Fergusons and vastly improve policing in communities across the nation.

Sources: