Responsibility to Protect

After the death of George Floyd, I found myself wondering what I could have done, had I been present, to save Mr Floyd.  It is a tough question.  Then my friend Mel Duncan wrote a brilliant, but challenging, answer (below), for himself and for the world. 

Mel is a co-founder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce, an international group of several hundred highly trained in the art of unarmed civilian protection.  They have placed teams in Guatemala, South Caucasus, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Lebanon/Syria in the past, and currently in the Philippines and Myanmar, among other places.  When he is home, he lives in Minneapolis. 

“The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.”  Chief Sitting Bull

Responsibility to Protect

Mel Duncan

A few years ago I was walking along West 15th street near Loring Park when a panicked young Native American man ran by me and into the street.  Immediately a Minneapolis Police squad car pulled next to me.  One officer jumped out, tackled the young man in the middle of the street and started pounding his face into the pavement.  I walked into the street telling the officer that he was using excessive force and that I had his badge number.  The other officer quickly escorted me back to the curb while informing me that I would be arrested for interfering with the arrest.  I stood yelling while the beating continued for the next few minutes. 

As I stood on the curb at 38th and Chicago the other night, I recalled that incident.  What if I had refused to leave the middle of 15th street?  I might have been clubbed or tased or arrested.  But would the young man have been spared the beating?

As I looked at the eight feet between the curb and the spot where George Floyd was murdered, I wondered what if the people on the curb, when their yelling went unheeded, had refused former Officer Thao’s demands to stay away?  I am not blaming anyone but imagine if someone had stepped nonviolently into the street and lay down as closely to Mr. Floyd as possible?   They probably would have been sprayed or clubbed and/or arrested, but would that act of civil disobedience have created enough of a diversion to get former Officer Chauvin to remove his knee?  What if two people had lain in the street?  What about three?

For the past 20 years I have helped create Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP), an international nongovernmental organization with Special Consultative Status at the UN.  Our specially trained unarmed protection teams are invited by civil society to areas of violent conflict to protect civilians and work with local groups to protect themselves and prevent further violence.  NP’s peacekeepers have saved thousands of lives in South Sudan, Iraq and Sri Lanka among other places. 

In addition to being nonviolent, we work on a nonpartisan basis that means we protect people from assaults by rebel groups as well as violence perpetrated by the government.  Strategically we use a series of nonviolent methods that have proven to be effective in some very violent situations including state based violence.

Several applications of what is called unarmed civilian protection could apply in Minneapolis but let me focus on one.  What if people were trained to directly and nonviolently intervene when they encounter police brutality?

We cannot wait any longer for reforms and police training.  If a government cannot or will not protect its citizens then civilians have a responsibility to protect. I am not advocating for armed vigilantes.  Such violence will promote more violence.  And as NP has demonstrated in war zones, disciplined nonviolent interventions are more effective.

When encountering police brutality there are effective steps that one can take to intervene. In such interventions, straight white people will encounter far less risk than people of color or others who are marginalized. 

Depending on the severity of the abuse, these steps have to be taken very quickly or even skipped: 1.  Center oneself.  This could include a deep breath or quick prayer.  2.  Assess the situation.  What is the danger?  Who’s in danger?  3.  Delegate.  Ask others to video and report.  4.  Recognize the humanity of all involved.  5.  Try to de-escalate the violence.  6.  Create a distraction for the police.  7.  Nonviolently place your body between the perpetrator and the victim or get as close to the victim as possible.  This usually means quickly going to the pavement.  Invite others to join you.

People can be trained to take on this responsibility.  Granted, they wouldn’t be everywhere but they could stop some of the violence.  And such disciplined actions can ignite people’s imaginations.  It is but one tool in a new approach for real community safety and protection.  Interveners risk injury and arrest, but as Congressman John Lewis observed, “Sometimes you have to put yourself in harm’s way.  You may stir up some violence but you will not engage in the violence.” And you could save a life.   

9 June 2020

Pace e bene

Lorin