时代周刊:美国警局将为黑人敞开大门(1)(在线收听

THE NEW RECRUITS

新的征募

Law-enforcement agencies are struggling to get people of color to join police forces. So one HBCU launched its own academy

执法机构正努力让有色人种加入警察职业。因此,HBCU(美国传统黑人大学)成立了自己的学院

By Melissa Chan

作者:梅丽莎·陈

When Tyrese Davis got accepted into Lincoln University's police academy, the first of its kind at a historically Black college or university, his instinct was to keep it a secret.

当泰瑞斯·戴维斯被林肯大学警察学院(传统黑人学院或大学的第一个警察学院)录取时,他的本能是保守这个秘密。

Davis, 22, prides himself on being the first man in his family to go to college, so the acceptance on Jan. 6 was monumental.

22岁的戴维斯是家里第一个上大学的人,他以此而自豪,所以1月6日的录取对他来说意义非凡。

It meant he was one step closer to building a future for himself amid the economic tumult of the pandemic.

这意味着,在疫情带来的经济动荡中,他离构筑自己的未来又近了一步。

But it came after months of civil unrest following the death of George Floyd in police custody, and on the very day insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol, where police would turn out to have been on both sides of the law.

但这是在乔治·弗洛伊德在被警方拘留期间死亡后的数月内乱之后发生的。就在同一天,叛乱分子袭击了美国国会大厦,在那里警察本应站在法律的中立立场。

As a Black man from Baltimore, where anger remains raw over Freddie Gray's 2015 death while under arrest, Davis worried about backlash from his community.

作为一名来自巴尔的摩的黑人,2015年的弗雷迪·格雷被捕期间死亡事件仍让人愤怒,所以戴维斯担心自己所在的社区会集体反对。

"I didn't want to let it be known that I was joining a law-enforcement academy," he says. "I didn't want to be frowned upon."

“我不想让别人知道我即将加入执法学院,”他说。“我不想被他们反对。”

So on Jan. 19, when the academy opened in Jefferson City, Mo., where Davis lives on campus, he didn't share the news with his hometown friends, even though he was making history as part of the first police class at an HBCU.

所以,1月19日,学院在密苏里州杰斐逊市(戴维斯住在杰斐逊市)开学时,尽管作为HBCU第一堂警察课的一分子的他正在创造历史,但他并没有和家乡的朋友们分享这一消息。

But more than a week later, when he learned that authorities in Rochester, N.Y., had handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a 9-year-old Black girl—the latest

但一个多星期后,当他得知纽约州罗彻斯特市当局曾给一个9岁的黑人女孩戴上手铐并对其喷胡椒喷雾剂时

in a string of high-profile use-of-force incidents—Davis got fed up with hiding his dreams from friends and began posting photos of himself on Facebook wearing body armor and training at the gun range.

(这是一系列高调使用武力事件中的最新一起),戴维斯厌倦了向朋友隐藏自己的梦想,他开始在脸书上分享自己穿着防弹衣和在射击场上训练的照片。

"It's my career, not their career," he says. "I want them to realize that I'm going to make a change. That's what we need right now."

“这是我的事业,不是他们的事业,”他说。“我想让他们意识到,我要做出改变。这就是我们现在所需要的。”

Research suggests he's right. Throughout history, police forces in the U.S. have been predominantly white and male.

研究表明他是对的。纵观历史,美国的警察队伍一直以白人和男性为主。

In 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, about 72% of local police officers were white and nearly 88% were male, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

根据司法统计局(BJS)的数据,2016年,大约72%的当地警察是白人,近88%是男性。

About 64% were both white and male, and about 11% were Black—a profile largely unchanged since 1997.

其中64%是白人男性,11%是黑人,这一数据自1997年以来基本没有变化。

A study published in February in the journal Science found that Hispanic and Black officers use force less frequently than white officers,

今年2月发表在《科学》杂志上的一项研究发现,西班牙裔和黑人警察使用武力的频率低于白人警察,

especially against Black people, evidence that diversity can improve police treatment of communities of color.

尤其是针对黑人,这表明种族多样性可以改善警察对有色人种社区的待遇。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/sdzk/539849.html