Black Lives Matter
The narrative behind this movement began on a hot night in Ferguson, Missouri. Subsequent investigation established that “hands up; don’t shoot” didn’t happen, and that the victim was not shot in the back. However, the narrative took off, and was reinforced by several subsequent incidents where police behavior was genuinely criminal. There is a real issue that the movement is attempting to address, but I think it is addressing the wrong issue. The real problem is the inappropriate use of force, especially deadly force, by police men and police women.
There are three underlying issues.
The first concerns the type of people who are attracted to police work. Most police recruits are people who want to right society’s wrongs and help those in need. Some are not. Given the chance, most people gravitate to jobs that suit their psychological makeup. That makeup may include dysfunctional and destructive elements. That’s why men who lust after young boys end up as priests and scout masters, and men who lust after your girls end up as OBGYNs for gymnastics organizations. Efforts are made to screen out those who would do harm, but the screens are never perfect. In many cases, the destructive element is subconscious or repressed for a long period. What’s worse, there is a tendency to cover up the ugly problem when it manifests itself, because those who did the screening are embarrassed. In any large police force, at least a small number of racists and/or sadists and/or fascists make it through the screen.
The second problem is the so-called Blue Wall. Cops stick together and cover for each other. Groups of people who experience high tension situations and physically dangerous work form intense emotional bonds and take great pride in covering each other’s backs. Many years ago, I read The New Centurions, which was written by Joseph Wambaugh, who had been an LA cop. The first chapter is about a call out to a domestic dispute. I don’t remember any of the details, but the depiction of the stark terror of the spiraling disaster remains with me to this day. The author clearly knew what he was writing about. Folks who endure this kind to danger on a regular basis, and daily face the ugliest of human dysfunction, are bound to form a brother/sisterhood that sets them apart from us civilians. Members of a sect will resist efforts to discipline their own.
Reformers attempt to penetrate the Blue Wall with civilian review boards. That is a waste of time, in my view. The commissioners will always be on the other side of the wall, and, over time, they are subject to regulatory capture. The police personnel have a genuinely effective method of pushing back. If they cut back enforcement efforts in middle class neighborhoods and business districts, a hue and cry will arise almost immediately. The only effective discipline must come from inside the institution. Oversight should be confined to the hiring and firing of the Chief.
The most important problem, and the key to solving the other problems, is the power of police unions. They have high degrees of participation and solidarity. They are almost always politically powerful. They are usually PR engines, constantly polishing the image of their members. They resist dismissal of almost any of their members, no matter the cause.
My bet is that almost all police chiefs know the identity of the bad apples in their basket. They are acutely aware of the ticking time bombs, because their reputations and jobs are on the line. A police chief should be held strictly accountable for unacceptable use of force by his/her officers. But responsibility does not work without authority. If local ordinances and collective bargaining agreements gave Chiefs the authority, with a modest level of due process protection, to fire cops who abused their power or misused their weapons, all lives would matter.
