We have a pandemic of poor policing practices on our hands, and lives are at risk

There's a pandemic in this country, and I'm not talking about COVID-19. Americans are experiencing policing practices that are abusive and aggressive at best and deadly at their worst.

Even when situations aren't escalated by so-called suspects, lives are at risk. Even when someone complies, they are treated like hardened criminals.

Two new and outrageous videos surfaced over the weekend, one out of Florida, the other Arkansas,  where law enforcement officers clearly overstepped the bounds of decency during a traffic stop and an arrest.

But as my Southern mother often said: What's done in the dark will eventually be brought to the light.

'Shut up about the why'

In the first case, a pregnant woman was literally concerned about the dark. Ebony Washington was driving from Gainesville to Jacksonville with her three children earlier this month when a Bradford County Sheriff’s deputy attempted to pull her over for speeding.

Rather than immediately stop on the side of a rural Florida highway at night, Washington turned on her hazard lights and drove slowly until she found a well-lit gas station. This is what women, in particular, are told to do – often by law enforcement officers – for their safety.

The deputy, Jason DeSue, who has since resigned, held the woman at gunpoint, threatened her life twice before handcuffing her and then continued to verbally abuse her.

“Pull the vehicle over, or I’ll put you into the ground,” DeSue said, according to body and dash camera footage. “You make any movement, that will be your last mistake you're gonna make. Do not move.”

The Bradford County Sheriff's Office said they pulled the dash camera video after seeing another video of the encounter on social media. (Washington had asked her daughter, inside the car, to record the encounter.)

“I’m trying to tell you the only reason why I didn’t stop,” Washington calmly tries to explain, per the dashcam. “I’m a very educated woman with a Master’s degree. ... I was only ... because it’s dark out and I have three kids with me. I’m pregnant, and I did not want them to feel uncomfortable.”

“Shut up about the why!” DeSue yells at one point. “I don’t care about the why.”

Another horrific display of police brutality

Three Arkansas law enforcement officers were suspended Sunday following a widely circulated video that shows a man being held down on the ground and violently beaten.

According to police, a report indicated that a man was making threats to a convenience store employee in Mulberry, Arksansas, on Sunday morning. Mulberry is about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock.

Police said that when officers confronted Randal Worcester, 27, he pushed a deputy to the ground and punched the back of his head, leading to the arrest seen in the video. An arrest for allegedly assaulting an officer is reasonable; a brutal pummeling of this man by three officers is not.

The video shows three law enforcement officers on top of the man, punching him in the head and kneeing him several times. One of the officers points at the person recording the incident and orders her to stop videotaping.

Trust is tough, so we record and pray

It's nearly impossible to trust law enforcement officers when it seems at every turn, we bear witness to how some people are mistreated, beaten, berated and disrespected while in their custody.

At what point do the "few bad apples" in law enforcement indicate that the entire tree is diseased? This, too, is a pandemic that has taken too many lives.

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Not only do Americans have the right and obligation to demand accountability and transparency from agencies to swiftly release dash and bodycam footage, but as a community, we also will continue to record videos when we witness questionable behavior from law enforcement officers.

We will record, insist upon answers, advocate for reform and pray that we live to tell about it. Because what's done in the dark will eventually be brought to the light.

National columnist/deputy opinion editor Suzette Hackney is a member of USA TODAY’S Editorial Board. Contact her at shackney@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @suzyscribe

More from Suzette Hackney:

Jayland Walker left his gun in the car. Then Akron police shot him dozens of times.

Lack of details around search of Trump's home is maddening. It's also the process.

An HBCU civil rights wrong fixed 65 years later, and the hope it offers

This column is part of a series by USA TODAY Opinion about police accountability and building safer communities. The project began in 2021 by examining qualified immunity and continues in 2022 by examining various ways to improve law enforcement. The project is made possible in part by a grant from Stand Together, which does not provide editorial input.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arkansas police beating, Florida traffic stop part of brutal pandemic