Reforming America’s police is a necessary but painful process

By Jon Fasman: Washington correspondent, The Economist

ON AUGUST 9TH 2014 Michael Brown, a young unarmed black man, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. The circumstances of Brown’s death remain disputed. Some claim he had his hands raised in surrender; Mr Wilson said that Brown punched him, charged at him, tried to grab his gun and reached towards his waistband, as if to pull out a gun of his own. Weeks of protests in Ferguson followed. And although a Justice Department investigation cleared Mr Wilson, police officers were all required to adopt body-worn cameras (bodycams).

On May 25th 2020 Derek Chauvin, a police officer in Minneapolis, knelt on the neck of George Floyd—an unarmed, handcuffed black man—for nearly nine minutes, asphyxiating him. The footage of Floyd’s death sparked weeks of protests, and shifted national opinion on police reform. Protestors urged politicians to “defund the police” and, though those calls have died down, some Democratic governors and legislators have enacted policies to increase police oversight and transparency. The coming year will determine how widespread change will be.