George Floyd and the Connection to Houston: A Call for Local Reform

to breathe.

Though the murder of Mr. Floyd happened in Minneapolis, the video footage quickly circulated and its impact reverberated throughout the country, sparking a national conversation on race, policing, and the nature of public safety. Houston Police Department (HPD)1 Chief Art Acevedo was an active participant in these conversations, appearing on national television and responding to calls to defund police departments and reinvest in communities.2

Chief Acevedo’s discussions with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, however, were not the only thing connecting Houston

lis, Mr. Floyd lived in Houston’s Third Ward, where he played football at Jack Yates High School, made music with the Screwed Up Click, and was known throughout the community for mentorA Call for ing youth.3 Despite being an asset to the Third Ward community, it appears that Mr. Floyd was targeted by police during his time in Houston. Shortly after Chief

Local Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced that she was probing a 2004 arrest of Mr. Floyd by HPD Officer Gerald Goines.4 Goines, an HPD officer for over 20 years, presently faces

Reform murder charges for a January 2019 noknock raid that resulted in HPD killing two innocent civilians.5 The District Attorney’s probe of Mr. Floyd’s arrest was part of a larger review of Officer Goines’s cases, which has already resulted in the indictment of additional HPD officers,6 the examination of other cases handled by Officer Goines,7 and a heavily redacted internal HPD audit of its own narcotics unit that one criminologist asserted showed “an operation completely out of control.”8 On May 25, 2020, the Minneapolis Police murdered George Floyd. The bystanderrecorded video footage of the killing showed Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s back for eight minutes ‘‘ The national conversation on race and policing...and 46 seconds as Mr. Floyd Without the video of protested that he was unable gave police depart- the Minneapolis Police ments and elected leaders...an opportunity to listen...”

is unlikely that his case would have become a national story. In Houston,

Acevedo’s national media appearances, killing George Floyd, it similar videos of police

killings have been hard to come by, despite no shortage of police killings; in the six weeks prior to Mr. Floyd’s murder, HPD killed six9 citizens and has since refused to release any of the

body-cam footage publicly.10 While Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Chief Acevedo agree that transparency is im-

portant, they assert that they are “trying to strike a very delicate balance” between transparency and the wishes of the family members of the deceased citizens.11

local reform efforts in the aftermath of the Killing of George floyd The national conversation on race and policing, along with George Floyd’s connection to Houston’s Third Ward, gave police departments and elected leaders in the Houston area an opportunity to listen to the tens of thousands of local residents who took to the streets in protest of police violence and Mr. Floyd’s death.

Mayor Turner immediately issued an executive order banning chokeholds and requiring officers to intervene if they see another officer engaging in wrongdoing, among other policy changes. Chief Acevedo hailed the order as a “watershed moment”; however, many of the policy prescriptions were already codified as part of HPD policy.12 The city of Prairie View, under the direction of Police Chief Kenny Lopez, followed suit with a similar executive order in July, though the Prairie View policy changes go further by also prohibiting the use of tear gas by police.13

The same day of his executive order, Mayor Turner signed a reduced city budget that nonetheless increased HPD’s annual budget to nearly one billion dollars, while publicly opposing proposals for minor reforms, such as cutting 199 vacant positions from the police department.14 Mayor Turner pledged “this is not the end” to the local discussion on policing practices15 and has subsequently established a local task force to review HPD policies; however, broader engagement with the public is needed.16

Where do We Go from Here? While the dialogue on race and policing continues to grow, the lack of progress in achieving meaningful police reform in the Houston area is discouraging, though not unexpected. Crafting and implementing real public safety measures will require substantive, ongoing discussions between elected officials, law enforcement, and the communities they serve. That conversation should also include a discussion of the role that the law plays in excusing police violence. As one study put it, “the rules of policing are not so much ‘top down’ (with the law or courts governing the police) but ‘bottom up’ (with police experimentation driving the law).”17

Legal deference to police practices has also helped build a legal framework that makes holding police accountable for their misconduct nearly impossible. Consider the numerous opportunities for police violence to be transformed into legally justifiable force throughout the process: when internal affairs dismisses a civilian complaint as insignificant; when a prosecutor refuses to file charges against the police; when a grand jury refuses to indict; and when the use of force is deemed reasonable and therefore justified in either a criminal or civil process. Qualified immunity provides police an almost insurmountable defense to civil rights claims. Police union contracts protect police power and insulate police violence from review and consequence. Moreover, indemnification practices mean that police do not

Any meaningful conversation on policing must acknowledge that the history of policing in the United States (and particularly in Texas) is a history of uninterrupted racial violence. The slave patrols of the antebellum years19 gave way to the enforcement of Black codes and the convict leasing system,20 which helped lay the groundwork for the system of mass incarceration that exists today. This fact is rarely mentioned in police reform conversations, nor are law enforcement and elected officials pressed on explicit steps that they’ve taken to address the historical racism of the institution of police.

Absent a discussion of the history of policing in the United States, reform efforts can and will tend to focus on the actions of individual officers and produce superficial reforms, such as implicit bias training, which trains individual officers to be more aware of their own internal biases without looking at the historical biases of the institutions they serve. Rather than attempting to root out the “bad apple” officers, local efforts to transform policing should instead focus on weakening the structural and legal framework that continues to protect individuals committing acts of racialized violence. A great first step in that direction for Houston would be releasing the videos of the most recent HPD killings, which would show the public that the city and its police department are committed to transparency, accountability, and improvement.

Elected officials must also listen to community voices, including calls from the community to shift funding to programs that prioritize public health, safety, and wellness. Rather than demanding evidence from communities as to why the police fail to make them feel safe, elected officials must demand that police departments justify their budgets by providing specific evidence as to how their practices (and the practices of the criminal justice system in general) make communities safer. The collateral consequences of an arrest can last a lifetime, increasing the likelihood of future justice system involvement (at taxpayer expense), while an arrest itself fails to address the underlying causes of individual behaviors that lead to police interaction. Change is long overdue.

Conclusion The path forward locally must include an acknowledgment of the historical, racialized nature of policing in Texas and a thorough examination of whether the police have adequately accounted for that history in their practices and procedures. Lastly, there must be a full and independent evaluation of whether HPD’s policing practices are actually keeping people safe, as well as an evaluation of the collateral impact that policing is having on certain communities, all on the taxpayers’ dime. It is an enormous task, but it is also a necessary one if we are to ensure that all Americans are considered equal under the law.

Jay Jenkins is the Harris County Project Attorney at the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, where he works with local communities to develop more effective strategies for public safety.

1. The Editorial Board of The Houston Lawyer reached out to the Houston Police Department (“HPD”) in an attempt to obtain a different viewpoint on the issues discussed in this article, but HPD was unable to provide a statement prior to the print deadline. 2. See, e.g., The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (CNN 8 television broadcast June 8, 2020), transcript available at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2006/08/ sitroom.02.html. 3. Rick Jervis, “George Floyd Changed the World”: Public

Viewing in Houston Honors the Man Behind the Social Justice Movement, USA TODAY, June 9, 2020, https://www. usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/08/georgefloyd-third-ward-presence-athlete-police-history/ 3154912001/. 4. Nick Powell, Harris County DA Probing Disgraced Ex-

Cop’s 2004 Arrest of George Floyd, HOUS. CHRON., June 13, 2020, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/ houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-DAprobing-disgraced-ex-cop-s-15338574.php. 5. St. John Barned-Smith & Keri Blakinger, Former HPD Officer Charged with Murder in Botched Raid at Harding Street

House, HOUS. CHRON., Aug. 23, 2019, https://www. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/ article/Former-HPD-officer-charged-with-murder-inbotched-14373874.php. 6. St. John Barned-Smith, Ogg Announces Charges Against

Former HPD Narcotics Supervisors in Connection with Fatal Drug Raid, HOUS. CHRON., July 1, 2020, https://www.

houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/ article/Ogg-announces-new-charges-against-Houston-15380722.php?. 7. Richard A. Oppel, Jr., A Police Officer’s Word Convicted

Them. Now He’s Charged with Murder, N.Y. TIMES,

Feb. 26, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/us/ houston-convictions-goines.html. 8. St. John Barned-Smith, “An Operation Completely Out of

Control”: Damning HPD Narcotics Audit Reveals Hundreds of Errors, HOUS. CHRON., July 2, 2020, https://www. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/ article/HPD-narcotics-audit-shows-sloppiness-lackof-15381193.php. 9. The Editorial Board of The Houston Lawyer notes that between the time the author submitted this article and publication, HPD released footage from one of the six shootings and terminated the employment of four of the officers who were involved in the shooting. Nicole Hensley & Anna Bauman, “I Cannot Defend That”: 4 Officers

Fired as HPD Releases Footage of Fatal Shooting of Nicolas

Chavez, HOUS. CHRON., Sep. 10, 2010, https://www. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/ article/hpd-police-video-nicolas-chavez-shootingbody-cam-15556648.php. 10. Editorial, Houston Police Have Killed 6 Men. We Need to See the Videos, Chief Acevedo, HOUS. CHRON., May 29, 2020, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/ editorials/article/Editorial-Houston-police-have-killed6-men-We-15302437.php. 11. Ciara Rouege & Chris Costa, HPD Chief Acevedo Says

Officer-Involved Shooting Videos Aren’t Being Released to

Protect Victims’ Families from More Pain, KHOU-11, June 6, 2020, https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/ houston-police-not-releasing-officer-involved-shootingvideos-to-protect-families/285-7173f204-3a63-486fb8b4-6409d9e88e8e. 12. Dylan McGuinness, Turner Signs Order on Use-of-Force

Policies, No-Knock Raids, HOUS. CHRON., June 10, 2020, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Turner-signs-order-on-useof-force-policies-15331411.php#photo-19534680. 13. Erica Simon, Prairie View Adopts Police Reform Policies

Following George Floyd’s Death, KTRK ABC 13 HOUS. (July 15, 2020), https://abc13.com/amp/prairie-viewchief-kenny-lopez-george-floyd-law-enforcement/ 6319234/. 14. Dylan McGuinness & Jasper Scherer, Houston OKs $5.1 Billion Budget that Increases Police Spending Despite

Calls to ‘Defund’ HPD, HOUS. CHRON., June 10, 2020, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/ article/Houston-passes-5-1B-budget-that-avoidssteep-15330947.php (emphasis added). 15. McGuinness, supra note 12. 16. Paul DeBenedetto & Emma Hansen, Mayor Turner

Announces Task Force to Review Houston Police Practices, HOUS. PUB. MEDIA (June 25, 2020), https:// www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/ 2020/06/25/376860/mayor-turner-announces-taskforce-to-review-houston-police-practices/amp/. In contrast, the Austin City Council, in apparent response to calls for reform, unanimously adopted a budget that cut $150 million from the Austin Police Department and immediately reallocated over $20 million to programs for supportive housing, mental health services, and violence prevention, amongst other things, in an effort to improve community health and safety. Meg O’Connor,

Austin Cuts Its Police Budget by About A Third, THE AP-

PEAL (Aug. 13, 2020), https://theappeal.org/austintexas-city-council-cuts-police-budget-by-150-million/. 17. Amna A. Akbar, An Abolitionist Horizon for Police (Reform), 108 CALIF. L. REV. 101, 110 (2020) (forthcoming). 18. Id. at 111. 19. Mario Marcel Salas, Slave Patrols in San Antonio, SAN

ANTONIO OBSERVER, Feb. 26, 2019, https://www. saobserver.com/single-post/2019/02/26/Slave-Patrolsin-San-Antonio. 20. Donald R. Walker, Convict Lease System, TEX. STATE HIS-

TORICAL ASS’N, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ online/articles/jnc01 (last visited Aug. 24, 2020).

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law school faculty South Texas College of Law Houston Thurgood Marshall School of Law University of Houston Law Center

Government agencies Harris County Attorney’s Office Harris County District Attorney’s Office Harris County Domestic Relations Office Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Texas Port of Houston Authority of Harris County, Texas 1st Court of Appeals 14th Court of Appeals