Americans who have long turned away from the spectacle of too many police in too many places brutalizing the people they're ostensibly there to "protect and serve" have been forced by the simple introduction of cell phone cameras to confront a pervasive problem. Here's a revealing supercut of recent police actions that cross the line:
— jordan (@JordanUhl) May 31, 2020
State- sanctioned rioting by any definition.
Jamelle Bouie points out this is part of "larger disputes roiling this nation":
None of this quells disorder. Everything from the militaristic posture to the attacks themselves does more to inflame and agitate protesters than it does to calm the situation and bring order to the streets. In effect, rioting police have done as much to stoke unrest and destabilize the situation as those responsible for damaged buildings and burning cars. But where rioting protesters can be held to account for destruction and violence, rioting police have the imprimatur of the state.
What we’ve seen from rioting police, in other words, is an assertion of power and impunity. In the face of mass anger over police brutality, they’ve effectively said So what? In the face of demands for change and reform — in short, in the face of accountability to the public they’re supposed to serve — they’ve bucked their more conciliatory colleagues with a firm No. In which case, if we want to understand the behavior of the past two weeks, we can’t just treat it as an explosion of wanton violence; we have to treat it as an attack on civil society and democratic accountability, one rooted in a dispute over who has the right to hold the police to account. [snip]
Trump explicitly rejects the legitimacy of nonwhites as political actors, having launched his political career on the need for more and greater racial control of Muslims and Hispanic immigrants. Even without his tough-guy posturing, Trump is someone who embodies the political and social order the police have so often been called to defend.
There have also been stories about police around the country, individually and as departments, ostensibly showing common cause with the protesters by kneeling, marching and otherwise showing respect and understanding. That's to be applauded and welcomed. But it's the shocking videos of police who are exercising their authority in a brutal and unaccountable manner that's perhaps forming the emerging public perception of police brutality and the need for radical reforms. (We say "perhaps" because shocking videos of police brutality and overreaction going back several years can be seen with a simple Google search.)Which is all to say that the nightly clashes between protesters and the police are, to an extent, a microcosm of larger disputes roiling this nation: the pressures and conflicts of a diversifying country; the struggle to escape an exclusive past for a more inclusive future; and our constant battle over who truly counts — who can act as a full and equal member of this society — and who does not. (our emphasis)
While more and more police are being disciplined or arrested (now including the two Buffalo cops who pushed a 75- year- old white man, causing him to hit his head on the pavement), so far justice is fitful and uneven. At the same time, impunity for such actions is being demanded by some politicized, right- wing police organization heads (e.g., Trump- loving Minneapolis police union fascist Bob Kroll and the smarmy head of Buffalo's PBA John Evans, who precipitated the resignation of the special unit involved in the assault by saying the union couldn't provide legal support for officers during the protests).
Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), a former police chief, recently wrote about the damage brutalizing (and now rioting) police are doing to themselves and the communities they serve:
When an officer engages in stupid, heartless and reckless behavior, their actions can either take a life or change a life forever. Bad decisions can bring irrevocable harm to the profession and tear down the relationships and trust between the police and the communities they serve. Remember, law enforcement needs that trust just as the public does. [snip]
As a nation, we must conduct a serious review of hiring standards and practices, diversity, training, use-of-force policies, pay and benefits (remember, you get what you pay for), early warning programs, and recruit training programs. Remember, officers who train police recruits are setting the standard for what is acceptable and unacceptable on the street. [snip]
As law enforcement officers, we took an oath to protect and serve. And those who forgot — or who never understood that oath in the first place — must go. That includes those who would stand by as they witness misconduct by a fellow officer. (our emphasis)One only need look as far as the cell phone video of Derek Chauvin and the massive and continuing fallout to understand the irrevocable harm done to a man, a family, a community, and a nation by one person's heartless (but, sadly, not uncommon) behavior.
BONUS: Good analysis here of the malign role of police unions (e.g., the International Union of Police Associations/ AFL-CIO, whose president Sam Cabral is a racist Trump supporter).
BONUS II: In case you were wondering about the police culture in Buffalo, check this and this out and wonder no more.
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