Professor Frank Rudy Cooper discusses his article, “Cop Fragility and Blue Lives Matter.” Professor Cooper discusses how after the rise of Black Lives Matter protests and reform efforts, police responded with a varied and detailed list of their own grievances. Blue Lives Matter emerged as a way to reframe police reform efforts by shifting the focus to a “war on cops” and police victimization. Drawing on Robin di Angelo’s White Fragility framework, Prof. Cooper shows how police fragility emerged around “bad apples” and “depolicing.” How we move forward to have difficult conversations and effect some reform is not easy, but Prof. Cooper traces a map which we might follow to some reform success.
Frank Rudy Cooper is the William S. Boyd Professor of Law and Director, Program on Race, Gender & Policing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
