ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the problem of violence in U.S. Black communities as an outcome of both under-policing and over-policing and asks what can be done to reconcile the resulting crisis in police legitimacy. It begins by exploring the history of abusive law enforcement practices toward minority communities, anchored in legal oppression from slavery to Jim Crow. It then examines the contribution of general police incivility, intrusive tactics like stop and frisk, and racial bias in deadly force encounters, to the prevalence of mental illness and intergenerational trauma in the Black community, endemic levels of violent crime, and the erosion of community trust and confidence. The chapter juxtaposes calls to defund, abolish, or reform the police, and police-led initiatives to end violence against the pressing need for systemic change to end structural racism in the United States.
