[dropcap size=big]O[/dropcap]n Wednesday, NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton testified in front of the New York State Senate, suggesting tougher penalties for resisting arrest. Bratton stated that he disapproves of district attorneys dropping resisting arrest charges and that he plans to pressure these DA’s to take the charge more seriously. As reported by The Liberty Beat, this could be problematic, as numbers suggest that resisting arrest is a charge used only by the most abusive police. According to a 2014 report by WNYC, only 5% of NYPD officers bring in 40% of resisting arrest cases.
Making resisting arrest into a felony would be just another tool placed into the hands of police officers. As has come to light many times over the course of recent history, police are granted wide leeway in doing what they believe to be in the best interest of public safety. Grand Juries remain hesitant to prosecute unless there is an indisputable amount of evidence suggesting wrongdoing. Even as more rebellious streaks come and go in society, a general adherence to police conduct remains consistent across generations.
The deck continues to be stacked in favor of the police as we move closer to what eerily resembles a police state. Legislators criminalize more every day, as it becomes more difficult for any one person, no matter age, gender or color, to claim absolute innocence. With so many laws on the books, police are given free rein to enforce whichever laws they wish upon whomever they wish. Perhaps it is not even consciously that police find themselves discriminating between one person and another. However, they are human, and like any one of us, naturally have biases. It is the creation of so many nuanced and sometimes incomprehensible rules that give authority for officers to pick and choose.
The creation of a felony for resisting arrest would merely be a case of “the poor getting poorer.” Those who are already being targeted by police would only receive such treatment to a higher degree. If, for example, a young black man in Brooklyn felt he was being wrongly targeted and racially profiled by police, and upon arrest, impulsively attempted to resist, he would at that moment become a felon. Even if any prior suspicion was misguided, and his beliefs of prejudice were found to be true, it would not matter. In a perverse way, resisting arrest could become a “safety net” of sorts for the NYPD: if all else fails, they could always point to this newly branded felony.
As governments increase the number of crimes and further the sentences prescribed to them, they are threatening the lifeblood of liberty for so many Americans who are not as fortunate. Those who grow up in the wrong neighborhoods will be even more subjugated from the rest of society as they see their hopes of the American dream slip further away. Instead of over-criminalization and excessive punishment, we should instead focus on healing the roots of the problems.
If we concentrate on teaching why it is that certain acts are wrong, and furthermore concentrate on only enacting laws against those acts which take away liberty from others, we can create more respect and understanding for enforcement. By focusing on rehabilitation, we can more easily ensure a more just and caring society. It should not be the goal of law enforcement to catch as many people in their sins as possible; it should instead be the goal to assist those who have taken a wrong path, and to also protect those who have been wronged. Once we move to a model more in this vein, we can look forward to better results than what we have seen in recent years.
