Expert compares Antioch police officers’ behavior toward Black suspects to lynching

A RACE STUDIES EXPERT has compared text messages among Antioch police about Black murder suspects to the racist animalization and encouragement of violence typical of lynchings going back to the era of slavery.

Claire Jean Kim, a University of California, Irvine professor of political science and Asian American Studies science who focuses on comparative race studies, testified Sept. 15 in court in the case of four Black murder suspects challenging their arrests based on the arresting officers being among 10 Antioch and Pittsburg officers indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in August for civil rights violations.