RACISM, POLICE VIOLENCE AND PUBLIC

HEALTHJasmine D. Graves, MPH

NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

HISTORICAL

CONTEXT

1935 - 2015

US Timeline of Civil Uprisings

1935

HARLEM, NY

1992

LOS ANGELES, CA2015

BALTIMORE, MD

2014 FERGUSON,

MO

1965

WATTS, CA

CRIMINALIZATION OF BLACKNESS

• Dehumanization of people of

African Descent

• Chattel property

• 3/5 of a Human

• Established Slave Codes

SLAVERY1619 - 1865

• Development of Black Codes

• Sharecropping

• Mass Lynchings

RECONSTRUCTION

1865 - 1877

• Codified Racial Segregation in Law

• Developed Institutionalized practices for de

jure segregation

• Depictions of Black Caricatures

• Mass Lynchings

JIM CROW PERIOD

1890 - 1965

• Civil Rights Acts

• Advent of Globalization.

• Systematic Dismantling of Black Power

Movement

• Mass Police Killing

CIVIL RIGHTS

1965 - 1980

• Mass Incarceration

- War on Drugs

- War on Gangs

• Disproportionate Police

Surveillance

- Stop and Frisk

- Operation Clean Halls

• Mass Police Killings

PRESENT DAY

1980 – Present

Public Displays of Black Death

NEO LYNCHING

IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

Direct Effects

• Individual

− Serious injury

− Premature mortality as measured in Years of Life

Lost

• Family

− Homicide survivors

− Emotional and psychological trauma

• Neighborhood

− Vicarious trauma

• Broader Community

− Incites fear

− Chronic stress

Health Implications of Police Violence

Indirect Effects

• Need to explore ways in which police violence

adversely impacts the social determinants of

health

− Example: Outdoor physical activity, heavy

police surveillance in schools and

residential areas

• Police Violence creates distrust in government

− May begin to create broader distrust in

agencies beyond police department

Health Implications of Police Violence

ENVISIONING A PATH FORWARD

• APHA Recommendations (1998)− Local, state and federal health personnel should collect

stats on the incidence and health consequences of police

violence

− Need funding for CDC research on disproportionate

impact of police violence on people of color

− Establish independent community review boards to

consider complaints of police bruatlity

• Explicitly name structural racism as a fundamental cause

of health inequity

• Support and extend other disciplines’ efforts to address

police violence by documenting its nature and prevalence

SHIFTING PUBLIC HEALTH FRAMEWORKS

B OOK E R INF O

THANK YOU