I have tried to mostly steer clear of the Ferguson/Eric Garner/Cleveland PD situations for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is the fact that I haven't been super-rational lately due to work stress. That said, it's getting to the point where there's so much shit out there that drives me so nuts, I can't hold it in anymore.
First off -The Blogfather, as he usually does, eloquently charted the landscape of the issue last week. Needless to say, it's worth a read.
Beyond that though, based on what's out there in the Facebook fever swamp, there's a couple of things that I feel that I need to point out.
1. A few people have argued that we just don't get it, because the police have an extremely hard and dangerous job. That is true, but it is not an excuse on its own for non-warranted lethal force.
OK, first things first - yes, they absolutely do. No question. Also, for the record, they don't get paid enough. All rational people can agree on these two points.
But, at some point that becomes an explanation, not an excuse. If anything, that is precisely why we should expect the men and women in those uniforms to conduct themselves to a standard that befits the massive responsibility that they have. I know myself, and I know that I would last roughly 0.2 seconds in that job before I thoroughly cracked. Oddly enough, I have found an alternate way to spend my working hours.
I find it hard to believe that we have entirely staffed these positions appropriately when you look at something like the Justice Department's review of the Cleveland PD. One or two incidents here or there could indeed be the suspect lying, or the media sensationalizing something (both being the go-to defenses by the police in these cases...it's page 1 of the playbook). But, a repeated pattern of behavior such as this stretches the credibility of those arguments like the Plastic Man's limbs.
Of course, the Cleveland PD must be given their chance to refute the findings of the investigation, and if they can prove that it is unfounded, then great, more power to them. The people of Cleveland deserve to know, one way or another.
That takes me back to the original premise of this bullet, though. The police have a difficult job, where they have to make snap decisions at a moment's notice and there is always the lingering threat of bodily harm and even death. No one is trying to downplay that.
But, let's take this to its logical conclusion. Soldiers have a difficult job as well, and death is even more of an ever-present. That still doesn't mean that, for example, the My Lai Massacre was not a war crime. The fact that our men were sent to a distant jungle to fight a war in a living hell for years on end for no discernible purpose is one of the great tragedies of our nation's entire history - but it does not and never will justify the wanton slaughter of unarmed noncombatants.
Likewise, there is no justification for choking a man who has not made any kind of threatening motion (yes, I've watched the video - he's just standing there). There is not and never will be a justification to taser someone once they've already been handcuffed. There is not and never will be a justification for pepper spraying defenseless kids in the eye when they're protesting peacefully (remember that gem?).
It is beyond question that the police must, at times, use lethal force to save the lives of themselves or others when they are faced with a them-or-me situation. But, as an example, the officers surrounding Eric Garner were never in danger. Not once.
2. The fact that a black guy totally killed a white person that one time does not outweigh centuries of institutional racism. For fuck's sake.
Fire up Facebook at any time this last week, and you'll surely have seen some variation of this one, usually with a hysterical "WHERE WAS AL SHARPTON THEN?" tacked onto the end of it.
There will, of course, always be isolated examples of tragedy no matter where you look. White killing white, black killing white, brown killing Asian, man killing woman, woman killing man, any permutation you care to name.
But, I have not yet seen the evidence of a long-standing, institutional, targeted campaign other than those in positions of authority killing black people. The link I just put there is useful mainly as a compilation point of recent situations where this has happened, none of which involved the victim perpetrating any kind of actual crime.
At the end of the day, Louis CK wasn't wrong about how fucking outstanding it is to be white in this country. I have, on occasion, been known to be walking alone, wearing a hoodie, and probably publicly intoxicated down the street at 4 AM. As you might imagine, I have not once been stopped by the police in those cases.
Actually, I have only had two experiences with the police in my entire decade here in the city. It is probably worth sharing, if only as a comparison point.
The fact is, the numbers speak for themselves as far as the differences in police behavior to different races goes. There is a deeper discussion to be had about socio-economic factors of the city's neighborhoods, and how crime is more likely to occur in some than in others. However, walking down the street isn't a crime. Selling loose cigarettes is of course technically a crime, but one that I find it hard to believe as being worthy of a police officer's time and attention. I imagine that the sun would go nova before I, being as ridiculously white as I am, would ever be stopped for these things. Anyone arguing otherwise does so in defiance of a veritable Mount Everest of evidence.
But, you know, a white woman was killed once in Central Park so it's totes even, y'all.
3. Why aren't the police first in line to fight against gun proliferation?
This one...this one is a bafflement. I have never seen an instance of turkeys voting for Thanksgiving than this.
Seriously, ask 100 police officers what their stance on gun control is, and I imagine you'll get back 85 or 90 NRA registration numbers.
But, why is that? The fact that they have a dangerous and sometimes lethal job is made indescribably more so by the ludicrous ease that bad guys can get their hands on guns, ammo, bulletproof vests, etc.
I honestly don't know the statistics here, but I can't imagine that the guns that kill police officers tend to be legally purchased through approved channels. Call it a hunch.
4. The victim card
This is the crux of it...the whole ballgame, right here.
The thing is, at a basic level I believe that most people want to like the police. There is a tremendous amount of satisfaction that comes in a feeling of safety, in a feeling that you can trust those brave and hardy souls tasked with our protection. By way of full disclosure, my father and brother are both police officers. A good friend from back home who gave me a place to stay for almost a year when I had nowhere to go is a police officer. The guys who let a high school kid join them for their team's hockey practices and gave him a jersey to boot are all police officers (I still have that precinct's shirt and wear it from time to time).
On the whole, these are good men and women who do a thankless job for shit pay, and sometimes die for that privilege. I keep stressing this because it is important to note that none of this is indiscriminate police-bashing.
But, these are humans who do this job, and humans are fallible. Some, like the officer who murdered Eric Garner, have a bit of previous with this sort of thing.
I can't help but think how far it would go with the communities that they serve if the police ever, EVER, admitted to making a mistake. I mean, fucking EVER.
A week ago, four St. Louis Rams players make one gesture on television to protest Ferguson. The St. Louis police lose their minds. 10,000 people protest the Garner situation, and Commissioner Bratton pours oil on the fire with an arrogant statement about how it will peter out.The Cleveland PD shoots a 12-year old kid, and in turn files a lawsuit over how harshly they're treated.
Even kids in Marketing 101 at the local state college can do outreach better than that.
Once again, I stress that the police have a massively difficult job with a very real threat of bodily harm. But, the flip side of that coin is that the police have guns, and tasers, and the power to use them. The police have significant power of life and death, not to mention the ongoing liberty, of the people that they serve. Quite literally, our lives and our freedom are in their hands. Correspondingly, we have the right to question how that is utilized, and we damn sure have the right to feel confident in the men and women who are entrusted with that power.
It is not remotely helpful that, at the first sign of being questioned, the police brass immediately opt for fight-or-flight. It is not remotely helpful that the "evil sensationalist media" card is played damn near 100% of the time, thus making it harder to tell in those cases where there is far too much of that for a sane person's liking. It is not remotely helpful that you create an Us vs. Them mentality, when all too often our friends and neighbors are lumped in with Them. It is not remotely helpful that they roll in with tanks and military weapons for situations that don't come close to calling for it, with an increasingly militarized mindset, when we live in the safest times that our country has ever known. It's said a lot, but when you have nothing but hammers, everything starts to look like a nail.
Of course, I realize that the communities they serve have to meet the police halfway here. We ought to work together to find ways to reduce the number of frivolous complaints against officers that have acted correctly. Surely, a large PD or two could hire a few data analysts to look for exactly those patterns. We should have civilian liaisons to our PDs of all sizes, and they should be well versed in the police's side of the story. For their part, the PDs themselves should do a lot more for their officers as far as PTSD counseling and treatment, and there absolutely ought to be a culture change there so that officers in treatment for the same don't get ostracized by their peers.
But, it's going to be hard for anything like that to gain any traction when unarmed kids keep getting gunned down, when already-subdued suspects keep getting brutalized, when no mistake is ever admitted to.
Besides that, a few truths have to be understood.
First off -The Blogfather, as he usually does, eloquently charted the landscape of the issue last week. Needless to say, it's worth a read.
Beyond that though, based on what's out there in the Facebook fever swamp, there's a couple of things that I feel that I need to point out.
1. A few people have argued that we just don't get it, because the police have an extremely hard and dangerous job. That is true, but it is not an excuse on its own for non-warranted lethal force.
OK, first things first - yes, they absolutely do. No question. Also, for the record, they don't get paid enough. All rational people can agree on these two points.
But, at some point that becomes an explanation, not an excuse. If anything, that is precisely why we should expect the men and women in those uniforms to conduct themselves to a standard that befits the massive responsibility that they have. I know myself, and I know that I would last roughly 0.2 seconds in that job before I thoroughly cracked. Oddly enough, I have found an alternate way to spend my working hours.
I find it hard to believe that we have entirely staffed these positions appropriately when you look at something like the Justice Department's review of the Cleveland PD. One or two incidents here or there could indeed be the suspect lying, or the media sensationalizing something (both being the go-to defenses by the police in these cases...it's page 1 of the playbook). But, a repeated pattern of behavior such as this stretches the credibility of those arguments like the Plastic Man's limbs.
Among the findings:
- The Cleveland Police department engages in a pattern of using excessive force in violation of citizens' Constitutional rights.
- Officers were quick to pull their guns, often escalating situations, and fired their guns at people who did not pose an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury.
- There were incidents where officers punched and Tasered suspects already subdued or in handcuffs – sometimes as punishment. And they used Tasers too readily.
- The report also cited the city for failing to adequately investigate and discipline the officers involved in using excessive force. They said that investigators conducting reviews admitted that their goal was to paint the accused officers in the most positive light.
Of course, the Cleveland PD must be given their chance to refute the findings of the investigation, and if they can prove that it is unfounded, then great, more power to them. The people of Cleveland deserve to know, one way or another.
That takes me back to the original premise of this bullet, though. The police have a difficult job, where they have to make snap decisions at a moment's notice and there is always the lingering threat of bodily harm and even death. No one is trying to downplay that.
But, let's take this to its logical conclusion. Soldiers have a difficult job as well, and death is even more of an ever-present. That still doesn't mean that, for example, the My Lai Massacre was not a war crime. The fact that our men were sent to a distant jungle to fight a war in a living hell for years on end for no discernible purpose is one of the great tragedies of our nation's entire history - but it does not and never will justify the wanton slaughter of unarmed noncombatants.
Likewise, there is no justification for choking a man who has not made any kind of threatening motion (yes, I've watched the video - he's just standing there). There is not and never will be a justification to taser someone once they've already been handcuffed. There is not and never will be a justification for pepper spraying defenseless kids in the eye when they're protesting peacefully (remember that gem?).
It is beyond question that the police must, at times, use lethal force to save the lives of themselves or others when they are faced with a them-or-me situation. But, as an example, the officers surrounding Eric Garner were never in danger. Not once.
2. The fact that a black guy totally killed a white person that one time does not outweigh centuries of institutional racism. For fuck's sake.
Fire up Facebook at any time this last week, and you'll surely have seen some variation of this one, usually with a hysterical "WHERE WAS AL SHARPTON THEN?" tacked onto the end of it.
There will, of course, always be isolated examples of tragedy no matter where you look. White killing white, black killing white, brown killing Asian, man killing woman, woman killing man, any permutation you care to name.
But, I have not yet seen the evidence of a long-standing, institutional, targeted campaign other than those in positions of authority killing black people. The link I just put there is useful mainly as a compilation point of recent situations where this has happened, none of which involved the victim perpetrating any kind of actual crime.
At the end of the day, Louis CK wasn't wrong about how fucking outstanding it is to be white in this country. I have, on occasion, been known to be walking alone, wearing a hoodie, and probably publicly intoxicated down the street at 4 AM. As you might imagine, I have not once been stopped by the police in those cases.
Actually, I have only had two experiences with the police in my entire decade here in the city. It is probably worth sharing, if only as a comparison point.
- Walking down 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, coming home from the Hellmouth Bodega. I have in my hands two small paper bags, containing one tall boy of Shite Domestic Swill each (Original Coors, if you must know - it's a guilty pleasure). A police car drives by, stops, and the officer asks me if I'm drinking in public. I tip forward the bags to show him that they're unopened, say "No sir, they're not unopened", and they drive off. Yes, it probably helped that I was polite, but that's kind of not the point. Being disrespectful is not a crime - had I said "No, fuckface, it's not open", there is still absolutely no excuse for them to do anything other than drive away.
- Not long after I moved to this neighborhood, I first experienced the police doing bag checks at Atlantic Avenue. Please note that I am NOT against this practice - it is absolutely defensible as a measure for keeping our subway safe. And, I get that I live in a major hub, and this sort of thing should be expected more often. I'm with you that far. But, given that this was the first time I had encountered this, I didn't know what the protocol was. I was wearing a backpack as I was heading off to soccer, so I dutifully walked over and put my bag on the table. The officer looked at me like I had 12 heads, literally SNEERED at me like I was wasting his time, and sarcastically said "Yeah, maybe next time...get out of here." Again, let's be clear - he thought it was PATENTLY RIDICULOUS that I would submit to the bag check. Somehow, I decline to believe that he'd have been so cavalier if my skin weren't so...translucent.
The fact is, the numbers speak for themselves as far as the differences in police behavior to different races goes. There is a deeper discussion to be had about socio-economic factors of the city's neighborhoods, and how crime is more likely to occur in some than in others. However, walking down the street isn't a crime. Selling loose cigarettes is of course technically a crime, but one that I find it hard to believe as being worthy of a police officer's time and attention. I imagine that the sun would go nova before I, being as ridiculously white as I am, would ever be stopped for these things. Anyone arguing otherwise does so in defiance of a veritable Mount Everest of evidence.
But, you know, a white woman was killed once in Central Park so it's totes even, y'all.
3. Why aren't the police first in line to fight against gun proliferation?
This one...this one is a bafflement. I have never seen an instance of turkeys voting for Thanksgiving than this.
Seriously, ask 100 police officers what their stance on gun control is, and I imagine you'll get back 85 or 90 NRA registration numbers.
But, why is that? The fact that they have a dangerous and sometimes lethal job is made indescribably more so by the ludicrous ease that bad guys can get their hands on guns, ammo, bulletproof vests, etc.
I honestly don't know the statistics here, but I can't imagine that the guns that kill police officers tend to be legally purchased through approved channels. Call it a hunch.
4. The victim card
This is the crux of it...the whole ballgame, right here.
The thing is, at a basic level I believe that most people want to like the police. There is a tremendous amount of satisfaction that comes in a feeling of safety, in a feeling that you can trust those brave and hardy souls tasked with our protection. By way of full disclosure, my father and brother are both police officers. A good friend from back home who gave me a place to stay for almost a year when I had nowhere to go is a police officer. The guys who let a high school kid join them for their team's hockey practices and gave him a jersey to boot are all police officers (I still have that precinct's shirt and wear it from time to time).
On the whole, these are good men and women who do a thankless job for shit pay, and sometimes die for that privilege. I keep stressing this because it is important to note that none of this is indiscriminate police-bashing.
But, these are humans who do this job, and humans are fallible. Some, like the officer who murdered Eric Garner, have a bit of previous with this sort of thing.
I can't help but think how far it would go with the communities that they serve if the police ever, EVER, admitted to making a mistake. I mean, fucking EVER.
A week ago, four St. Louis Rams players make one gesture on television to protest Ferguson. The St. Louis police lose their minds. 10,000 people protest the Garner situation, and Commissioner Bratton pours oil on the fire with an arrogant statement about how it will peter out.The Cleveland PD shoots a 12-year old kid, and in turn files a lawsuit over how harshly they're treated.
Even kids in Marketing 101 at the local state college can do outreach better than that.
Once again, I stress that the police have a massively difficult job with a very real threat of bodily harm. But, the flip side of that coin is that the police have guns, and tasers, and the power to use them. The police have significant power of life and death, not to mention the ongoing liberty, of the people that they serve. Quite literally, our lives and our freedom are in their hands. Correspondingly, we have the right to question how that is utilized, and we damn sure have the right to feel confident in the men and women who are entrusted with that power.
It is not remotely helpful that, at the first sign of being questioned, the police brass immediately opt for fight-or-flight. It is not remotely helpful that the "evil sensationalist media" card is played damn near 100% of the time, thus making it harder to tell in those cases where there is far too much of that for a sane person's liking. It is not remotely helpful that you create an Us vs. Them mentality, when all too often our friends and neighbors are lumped in with Them. It is not remotely helpful that they roll in with tanks and military weapons for situations that don't come close to calling for it, with an increasingly militarized mindset, when we live in the safest times that our country has ever known. It's said a lot, but when you have nothing but hammers, everything starts to look like a nail.
Of course, I realize that the communities they serve have to meet the police halfway here. We ought to work together to find ways to reduce the number of frivolous complaints against officers that have acted correctly. Surely, a large PD or two could hire a few data analysts to look for exactly those patterns. We should have civilian liaisons to our PDs of all sizes, and they should be well versed in the police's side of the story. For their part, the PDs themselves should do a lot more for their officers as far as PTSD counseling and treatment, and there absolutely ought to be a culture change there so that officers in treatment for the same don't get ostracized by their peers.
But, it's going to be hard for anything like that to gain any traction when unarmed kids keep getting gunned down, when already-subdued suspects keep getting brutalized, when no mistake is ever admitted to.
Besides that, a few truths have to be understood.
- Being black is not suspicious activity.
- Wearing baggy jeans and hoodies is not probable cause.
- Resisting arrest non-lethally is a crime, but not a capital one.
- You can't blame a community for crying foul when laws are applied differently to them then they are to others - the loose cigarette principle.
- Most importantly, lethal force is a fucking LAST RESORT. End of story.
