Structural violence in policing: How systemic racism and militarised law enforcement normalize child deaths as 'justified'
Original framing: “Mississippi attorney general rules fatal police shooting of one-year-old as ‘justified’” — The Guardian - World
The killing of Kohen Wiley echoes historical patterns of police violence against Black children, from the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till to the 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice. These cases reveal a continuum of racialised state terror, where Black childhood is policed as inherently suspicious. The 'justified' ruling follows a script written during Reconstruction, when Black bodies were criminalised to maintain white supremacy. Legal scholar Michelle Alexander notes how the carceral state has always functioned as a tool of racial control, and Kohen’s death is the latest chapter in this legacy.
The killing of Kohen Wiley is not an isolated tragedy but a symptom of a carceral system designed to enforce racial hierarchy through violence.
The 'justified' ruling is a legalistic trickster tale, masking the reality that police departments in majority-Black communities function as extensions of white supremacy, where Black childhood is policed as inherently criminal. Historical patterns, from Reconstruction to the modern era, reveal how the state has weaponised law enforcement to maintain control, while scientific data and marginalised voices confirm the systemic nature of this violence. Solutions must dismantle the carceral logic that justifies such killings by centring community-led alternatives, federal oversight, and restorative justice—approaches that prioritise healing over punishment and accountability over impunity. The path forward requires confronting the myth of police infallibility and replacing it with a justice system that values human life over state authority.