Clifford Jackson

The killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown vividly illustrate that police brutality and violence is an endemic part of this country.

The belief in the pervasive lawlessness of a police occupation in black communities has been echoed by Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton and NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico. This has been demonstrated throughout the history of the United States.

Tens of thousands of black people since the 1866 birth of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tenn. have been lynched, burned alive, beaten to death and mutilated by whites. Many times, this occurred as part of a Sunday afternoon spectacle where crowds full of white families were entertained to this savagery. Many of the members of the Klan were also members of law enforcement in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia, as well as in Ohio, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania. Also many police officers who were not officially members of the Klan would stand by and allowed these racist mobs to engage in their barbaric behavior. More than 600 recorded race riots, where whites would inflict this carnage on blacks, happened from the 1860s to the 1960s, many times supported by the police. This history of violence by whites has been reflected habitually by the police in their behavior especially in black communities: Rodney King, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Stewart and many others are high-profile cases. It was demonstrated in the killing of Kenneth Chamberlain in White Plains; police forced entry into Chamberlain's home, using a racial epithet.

Indeed the Harlem Riots of 1943 and 1964 were precipitated by police shootings of unarmed black men. There have been over 30 unarmed men of color who have been shot down by the police since 2012. Police killings of civilians reached 409 in 2013, that is unparallel in the "Western world."

The killing of Michael Brown is a continuation of this racist preconception that many white cops bring to communities of color. I experienced it with the Larchmont police department many years ago when it came to my weekly martial arts workout at a local park; I was stopped and questioned by police five times within a span of two weeks.

Police are an expression of the larger community and the racism and preconceptions that they have towards communities of color are an extension of the racism and phobias that exist in this society. New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said recently, "we must end the racism, corruption and brutality of the NYPD."

There are many police officers who come to serve their community without racial animus and try to practice proper law enforcement. However, all too often there are police officers who are not properly trained, who do not look to reasonably deal with communities of color.

In the 1960s, we had hundreds of race riots, "rebellions" in urban centers across the country. A major reason for that was the inhumane and brutal treatment of black people by police departments from Boston to Alabama. The 1980 riots in Miami's "Liberty City" and the 1992 L.A. riots involving the Rodney King verdict were again expressed in Ferguson, Mo. People must pay attention to this history of brutality and criminalization of the humanity of black people.

The writer is a Larchmont resident.