If you believe that life is a circle -moving from birth to death – it will come as no surprise to you that policing in America today– replete with all its problems and exacerbated by police killing black men — started in Colonial days before the 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, and constructed an extraordinary and exclusionary Constitution which promised freedom, justice and the right to happiness to all …even if it didn’t mean all.
In those 13 colonies slavery was a constant. The laborers purchased from slave traders sailing to and from Africa, were needed for the cotton fields and the farming plantations. The men and women on these slave ships were considered property and they were bought and sold accordingly. Each of them, including their children, had a price and that price could be negotiated as one would for a bale of hay, a horse or a cow.
When it happened that slaves ran away, their owners considered this a loss of money as well as a loss of workers.
And so they hired men to chase the runaways…to hunt them down, find them and return them unharmed because no one wanted to deal with damaged property.
And so from these “simple beginnings” race and policing were joined. Then it wasn’t about crime or about serving and protecting, it was only a matter of business.
And so what was “business” has grown to become deadly for all concerned.
It has also become a special torment for this nation – one which has driven many to extremes of thought and action…extremes that have done nothing to solve the problem.
We have written previously of race in America; of the idea that race is essentially an American caste system…once born of color a person is never naturally accepted as an equal in America but must struggle endlessly for a chance, an opportunity only because of the color of their skin; that the few who escape because of their intense determination to do so are overwhelmed by those who escape by premature death either from violence or the realities of very poor healthcare.
This is about something else. This is about our system of law enforcement and what changes might be made to end where we are now. This is about getting to the fundamental promise that law enforcement exists to serve and protect ALL Americans equally and fairly — as it does not do today.
ATTITUDES
There is no room here for even a brief history of the growth of policing in America…even in big city America places like New York and Chicago.
Today there are 18,000 police departments in America, each with their own standards and practices. Yet all follow the military model…with drill instructors screaming commands, military salutes, the primary recognition that rank matters, authority matters, command matters.
A policeman asking you for your license and registration might sound like a polite request because of its tone. and the fact that you are white, but it is essentially a command. The difference in tone between asking a white and black person is clearly noticeable by observing attitudes in play.
It is important to remember that the main police complaint about trouble on a traffic stop is that the policeman’s orders were not followed immediately and without resistance.
There is no police department in America quite like the family business that has been the NYPD. While slowly growing diversity has begun to alter that reality, it is still a fact that generations of families entering police work is quite unlike any other family business we know.
It is no surprise that attitudes follow and weave through the centuries as they do the generations of grandfathers, fathers, sons and daughters, uncles and cousins like a tight thread holding it all together.
And those attitudes which have their basis in institutional racism have been and remain: Us versus Them.
Few guns were found but a lot of illegal drugs were. The program wasn’t working, was causing a great deal of anger and anguish in those communities and yet it took five years to end the effort. Both Bloomberg and Kelly have admitted mistakes…but damage was done.
Attitudes which go on for years harden and become more difficult to deal with. Anger and anguish become loathing and that loathing ruins any attempt at a successful community effort to bring both sides together.
Loathing builds walls higher and thicker. Bad apples on both sides take advantage of situations as they arise.
Black Lives Matter peaceful protests become opportunities for looters and destructive forces. Derek Chauvin not only kills but displays his kill the way Southern mobs first mutilated the Negroes they lynched and then left them hanging for all to see.
PANIC IN THE STREETS
Statistics accepted as fact reveals that 99% of all police never take their gun from its holster in the line of duty during a 30 year career. While the news seems to make that number unbelievable, it is a fact.
This is also a fact: The most dangerous instances of violence in situations not declared a crime are traffic stops.
(The second and third instances are domestic disputes and dealing with emotionally disturbed individuals.)
When a cop stops a black driver for what is believed to be a traffic violation, an entire series of attitudes begin to build. The cop believes the driver may be holding drugs and a hidden gun. The black man, no matter how he is dressed, believes the cop is going to drag him out of his car and may find reason to harm him…maybe even kill him.
Both may be right.
Both may be wrong.
But the attitudes are working and any reluctance or question on the part of the driver to hand over his license and registration might trigger a cascade of feelings that produce panic.
Let’s look at panic.
Experts say that no one is immune to the effects of the sudden, intense and overwhelming spikes of adrenaline and other chemicals released in a situation that could become a matter of life or death. Even experienced officers have no idea what may happen. Drivers have only the experience of being black to feel that level of fear.
In a 2008 book “Meditations on Violence” author Sgt, Rory Miller, a corrections officer and instructor, writes
“There is a cascade of physical symptoms which is the product of a “chemical cocktail’ that pours into the bloodstream and wrecks fine motor skills, robs the sense of their acuity and scrambles the brain’s ability to think logically.
“The hands may sweat and shake, and limbs may feel cold and clumsy…fine motor skills you use to tie your shoes or write a note degrade to the point where the simplest tasks become difficult…
“the eyes lose their peripheral vision, there may be temporary hearing loss…the brain wildly distorts perceptions and memory. Time slows down and some people may freeze in place or flee in desperation while actually believing they have stood still.
“officers stunned by a looping behavior syndrome may repeat the same commands again and again even if they have been obeyed…or they may make demands that make no sense.”
This is panic and it is being experienced by both the cop and the driver…both fearful of the other…bot expecting and trying to avoid the consequences of beliefs that may simply not be true.
All of this exists because of the racial attitudes that both have lived with during their lives. This truth is not an excuse it is simply the reason that we are where we are.
For years the NYPD carried six-shot revolvers. Then as the criminals began to use automatic weapons, the Police felt out-gunned; once the revolver was emptied they had to reload one bullet at a time. And so they introduced a semi-automatic pistol…one which could fire 17 shots with one pull of the trigger.
Then Commissioner Ray Kelly was opposed to its introduction fearing a “Shooting Contagion” an out of control weapon response. The Police Union fought him and won.
NYPD statistics from 1994 to 2000 showed that officers hit their target on the street from a range of 0 to two yards, just 38% of the time. At 3 to 7 yards they missed 83% time. Sgt. Miller wrote “skilled technique degrades under stress, it degrades a lot.”
And all of this because of a non-criminal traffic stop.
And all of this based on the deep-seated reality of racism.
And so we look for change and we hear the cry of “Defund the Police: from some…and get rid of the Police from others and those of us who know better recognize that slogans from activists don’t solve problems, ideas and programs that go deep to change attitudes and practices solve problems.
There are those who believe that the only way to solve a discrimination that goes back beyond the very beginning of America, is to develop a discrimination to battle it. That view seems to come from people who might have been “liberal” in an earlier generation but call themselves “progressives” in this generation.
But we believe that one discrimination does not solve another…it just develops a whole new set of problems and alienates a whole new group of people.
POLICY MAKES PROGRESS
There are no perfect answers to a centuries old problem…one that has hardened into a caste system which is its own answer.
No. If we mean that all lives matter then we should work endlessly to see that one day that belief will come true.
In this life and death situation which has Police and black people in the middle of a “Fog of War” change must take place without make believe.
We know this that the training of Police in America is woefully behind every other major industrial nation in the World.
While police rookies in America may spend four months in training at a Police Academy (where cops with excessive enforcement problems are often their trainers — and then perhaps twice a year for one day in re-training if budgets permit, European nations have Police universities with three to four years of training. Can there be any doubt about that difference in regard to an ability and readiness to deal with potentially difficult moments.
And yes attempting to train a police officer to a level of fear during skilled simulations might be somewhat beyond possible, what does it say to us when we learn that police rookies spend five hours in de-escalation training and 58 hours in firearms training.
And so it’s time to look again at budgets for law enforcement and find a way to greatly increase the training and retraining of our police at least to standards that exist in other major countries.
No need to reinvent the wheel. Just try to use an existing wheel that works better.
And what about making changes in the way Police handle traffic stops.
Think about that and you soon see pictures of policemen, guns drawn, ordering a black man out of his car so that they might search it…done without warrant or even specific clues. And then you see pictures of guns fired and more headlines.
Now know this: The strategy of investigatory stops has not affected crime rates anywhere in America according to a recent study by the Policing Project at New York University’s School of Law. But it has certainly served to alienate and harm those unjustifiably targeted for inspection.
The simple fact is that technology can make traffic stops by armed police a thing of the past if policy adjustments were made right now.
There are no police stationed at toll booths to catch those who decide to skip paying the fare.
Cameras do the work. Cameras catch speeders near school zones every day.
Cameras catch traffic violations on busy streets and highways every day. Tickets are issued to all. There is no violence. No fear. No panic. No madness.
Racial injustice will not end with changing the policies and training that make a necessary police force work well.
For all we know racial injustice might not end until Americans are forced to abandon Earth along with others in the World and head into another domain to sustain the life of humans.
But humans are violent everywhere and have always been.
Wanting to change racism and the violent nature of humans may be beyond the human mind but making a more effective police force so that they and ALL the citizens they commit to protect and serve is well within our capacity.
We have the ability to do so.
Do we have the will?
“Do we have the will?”
Do we have enough revenue to fund it?