Political Divisions Drive Police Brutality Cases

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Police hold a perimeter near the White House as demonstrators gather to protest police brutality in the morning hours of May 31, 2020, in Washington, D.C.

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Now, six years after Ferguson, civil rights lawyers say there may be new connections developing between the courts and popular opinion on police. Black Lives Matter protests have been polarizing, they say, and are hardening political divisions about law enforcement on both sides.

The latest Ipsos/NPR poll out Sept. 3 backs this up: Three out of four Democrats support recent protests in the wake of the Kenosha, Wis., shooting of Jacob Blake, while fewer than 1 in 10 Republicans do.

Lawyers say that if such divisions extend to legal disputes over police behavior, that can mean stark differences around the country — in terms of localities’ inclination to settle cases, and of local jurors’ willingness to hold police officers accountable.

Dave O’Brien, an Iowa lawyer who exclusively represents civil rights plaintiffs, spoke with NPR just after losing a jury trial in a police brutality case in Sioux City, a conservative town in a conservative state.

It was a case he expected to win. And while he says he doesn’t want to read too much into a single case, he blames the loss on a community backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement.

«I’ve previously had a lot of success with true-blue conservative (jurors) – somebody who believes in individual liberty and not allowing the government to take advantage of an individual, O’Brien says. «Those people, I love on my juries. But my reading of this case was that as a result of Black Lives Matter, the backlash has pushed them towards a pro-police stance that they previously didn’t take.

O’Brien says that he used to be able to convince conservative gun owners to cherish the civil rights he was fighting for in police brutality cases, just as they value their right to bear arms. But something has changed.

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A protester stands face to face with police during demonstrations against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., on August 25, 2020.

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In this summer of protests, William O. Wagstaff III, a New York civil rights attorney, says he routinely convenes groups of people of different demographic backgrounds to react to the facts of particular cases. He says he doesn’t want to make «outdated assumptions about them.

«I have noticed a shift in perspectives from people I would previously consider to be liberal and sympathetic to issues of racial inequalities in policing, Wagstaff says, «because they believe the rallying cry for accountability has gone too far.

For families of those killed by police to file suit, they must first believe they can fight city hall, and find a lawyer who agrees. And if local politics seem pro-police, families may be discouraged from filing a suit at all. In fact, about half the deaths NPR reviewed did not result in a lawsuit.

To Sherene Mayner, the town of Paris, Texas, where her son, Garrett McKinney, was killed by police in 2015, seemed pro-police and wary of outsiders — as some there called her son after his death.

Mayner, who works as a Realtor in Austin, says her son suffered from schizophrenia and physically attacked the officer after being tased. She says the small-town climate in Paris inhibited her from asking questions about Garrett’s death.

She fights back tears as she recounts that months later, the Highway Patrol officer who shot Garrett during a struggle was awarded a Purple Heart by the Texas Department of Public Safety in connection with the shooting.
«He just shot my son, and no one called me to say, ‘I’m sorry,' she says, remembering seeing a photo of the officer, Timothy Keele, displaying his award.

«That always bothered me, she says, «He got this award, and he’s all smiling and grinning when he’s getting this award, and I’m like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.'

So far, Mayner has not filed a lawsuit in the shooting.