Police brutality has been an increasing and critical issue among marginalized groups including people of color, minorities, and the transgender community. This issue has been prevalent since before the Los Angeles riots and has persisted up until the present taking millions of lives. Police brutality has affected millions of communities throughout the nation causing fear, lack of safety, vulnerability, outrage, and despair. In many instances, such as the Michael Brown murder, people in the community respond with outrage and a need to seek vengeance or as some may put it “justice.” However, this was not the case in Seattle where a police officer used excess force and murdered Native American John T. Williams.
In this extraordinary case John T. William’s brother, Rick Williams, chose to put aside all his anger, frustrations, and grief aside to openly reject violence and retribution of any form. Rick Williams chose to handle the situation with peace, respect, and a need for change between the community and the police force. The way to approach this tense situation was ultimately a Restorative Circle process which drastically changed the community.
The Restorative Circle work around the John T. Williams case brought to light the needs and requests of everyone involved in the situation from Rick Williams to the community to the Seattle Police Department members in a safe environment where they could openly express their concerns. This allowed for the community to gain understanding and prospective of the overlapping and seemingly complex issues at hand which allowed for a safe space where action planning was formed among the people in the restorative circle. The actions included police members to undergo and review training regarding force, form mutual respect among all members of the community including Native Americans, and allowed for a review of the internal complaint process. All of these agreements were created in order to improve the lives of the members of the community and the Seattle police officers as well. As stated in the article, “The Restorative Circle transformed [the] conflict into an opportunity for healing, increased understanding, critical analysis of policy and practice, and lasting change.”
The Restorative Justice process done in Seattle should be replicated among all types of justice systems across the nations. This would allow for open dialogue between police officers and communities, healing, understanding, and real change within the communities. Even after such a tragic incident, the Williams family and the Native American community accepted and embraced the Police Command Officers even inviting them as honored guests during memorial events for John T. Williams. This even led for the Williams family and the community to heal through art and create a totem pole in honor of John T. Williams.
If only this type of approach was applied in cases such as the Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Rodney King, Tamir Rice, and millions of other instances of police brutality, the situations would not have escalated and communities would not be left with feelings of resentment or the need for retaliation.
The police are meant to protect the community, to make the community feel safe and understood. If the community feels distrust or increased tensions in regards to police officers, then Restorative Justice processes need to take place. There needs to be a change in the way we handle situations and openly discuss issues affecting our communities. We need to teach communities and officers to respect each other especially people of color and minorities which often face the most police brutality and be held accountable. We need incorporate teaching that allows for officers to understand the culture of people including minorities, as well as those with mental illnesses, and humanize people who make mistakes. We need the Restorative Justice process to become mainstream to heal, reconcile, restore, and transform the nation.
