Recently the Department of Justice (DOJ) released an extensive report examining the police practices in Baltimore, Maryland. In particular, it examined police practices relative to black citizens in Baltimore. In my opinion, it was an accurate and damning report that revealed systematic and systemic over-policing to the point of tyranny. While refusing to use harsh language, remember it was at its core a product of our political system, he did paint a picture of the police acting as an army of occupation in black neighbourhoods.
The PDF of the "Investigation of the Baltimore Police Department" can be found here. Most media outlets devoted time best measured in seconds to covering the most important points of the report and in most of the cases I observed, white-washed it (I use the term intentionally) to avoid being seen as being overly critical of the police. The Young Turks did a more thorough job in analysing the report and were willing to be more critical. If you are so inclined their report can be found here.
Most reporting touched on 3 issues that I would like to briefly address before getting to my main point.
- Civilian oversight: Many outlets praised the idea of civilian oversight as a potential solution for holding police more accountable for their failures and transgressions in the line of duty. I would remind you that, in theory, civilian oversight already exists and has existed to little effect for decades. Civilian oversight takes the form of mayors and city counsels. As an example, Baltimore has been under the leadership of a black, female mayor for the past 9 years (Rawlings-Blake [2010 - present], Dixon [2007 - 2010]). Furthermore it has been under a democratic mayor since 1967. It very clear that civilian oversight is problematic at best. I will also remind you that one of the key instruments of police abuse and abuse, in general, within the American justice system is the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury is a panel of civilians who consistently protect police officers and departments from accountability. These civilian oversight groups have appeared again and again in the news by virtue of their refusal to indict police offices for wrongful death, manslaughter, and even murder. Civilian oversight will always be political and those selected will never be autonomous and they will certainly never have more power than currently resides with city mayors and city counsels.
- Police training: The DOJ report mentions the quality of police training, or lack there of. Many are drawn to this as a simplistic solution for a complex problem. The problems that currently infest American policing are the result of decades of selection. Promotions go to those who play the game, bend the rules, and protect their own. Those who join the police and are unwilling to become part of the brutal, authoritarian police culture often leave in search of more honourable work, leaving behind a higher and higher density of behaviourally challenged police officers. The behavioural disabilities that now plague American police departments cannot be trained away. Not to mention the formidable resistance that will come in the form of police unions. Plus, it would only take one or two outbreaks of the Blue-flu to scare Americans back into their dysfunctional relationship, the same way that a battered spouse returns to the 'safety' of their abuser.
- Data analysis: This is perhaps the most superficial of the solutions. It suggests that if only we understood the situation better, everything would be fine. More data is all that is needed. The silliness of this position is beyond remark. There is no shortage of information concerning what the police are doing, both correctly and incorrectly. There is no shortage of studies that have objectively evaluated the effectiveness of every police program. Cities spend millions of dollars commissioning reports that are then tossed in the trash because they conflict with a political objective or objectives. More data is not a solution, not until we have already put into practice what we already know.
The Core of Police Intolerance of Citizens
Every analysis of the DOJ report I observed failed to ultimately identify the core problem. In part this failure is because it is perhaps a painful admission and in part they just don't understand what lies beneath it all. Police have many functions in society and most people are aware and give thought to only the most obvious, which turn out to mainly be the secondary functions. Of course, this is the part that the police use in their propaganda. "To Serve and Protect" -- these are the words that Americans most often associate with the role of police in American society. The catch criminals and bring them to justice. These are the actions that are depicted on American TV. Dragnet, Columbo, Ironsides, NYPD Blue, Dirty Harry, Cagney and Lacey, and Starsky and Hutch. With the possible exception of Dirty Harry, these Hollywood police represented the best of American sacrifice for society. However, the image of the clean-cut friendly, smiling officers on CHIPs has now been replaced by skinheads clad in helmets, face masks, and body armour.
If serving and protecting is not the primary role of police in society, what is? Let's be very clear, the primary objective of every police department around the world is to protect the rights, property, and influence of the establishment. Protect them from what, is of course, the next logical question. From the labour class. The police are the coercive arm of establishment or state power (if you prefer). They are used to force compliance with state dictates, edicts, laws, and policies. Don't for one second think that a "state" is an autonomous entity. Those dictates, edicts, laws, and polices are written by people for the benefit of the establishment. It is those same laws, etc., that have laid the foundation for the various inequalities that exist throughout society today. The police are the enforcers of these laws and polices, and therefore are the enforcers of the unequal distribution of wealth, liberty, and prosperity that confronts America.
The Enforcers of Poverty
While the DOJ report did not put a fine point on it, they did recognize that the Baltimore Police aggressively targeted protesters engage in fully protected speech under the 1st Amendment to the US constitution. The following excerpts are taken from CNN.
Retaliation for activities protected by the First Amendment
DOJ investigators found that officers "routinely infringe" upon First Amendment rights in the following ways:
• Unlawfully stopping and arresting people for cursing at officers, even though it's not illegal to use vulgar or offensive language as long as they are not "fighting words"• Retaliating with excessive force against people in cases of protected speech• Interfering with people who record police activity, including a time in which officers seized the phone of a man who recorded his friend being arrested and deleted all the videos on his phone, even personal videos of his son
Let's not forget that the word "force" in Police Force, is not an accidental usage.
Use of constitutionally excessive force
After reviewing all deadly force cases from January 2010 to May 1, and a random sample of more than 800 than nondeadly force cases, the DOJ concluded that BPD engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force. Insufficient training and lack of oversight of those incidents perpetuate the pattern, leading to several recurring issues:
• Use of overly aggressive tactics that escalate encounters and increase tensions and failure to de-escalate encounters when appropriate to do so
• Frequently resorting to physical force when a person does not immediately respond to verbal commands, even if the subject poses no imminent threat to the officer or others
• Due to a lack of training and improper tactics, BPD officers end up in needlessly violent confrontations with people with mental health disabilities
• Failure to use widely accepted tactics for dealing with juveniles, treating them the same way as adults, leading to unnecessary conflict
• Use of excessive force against people already restrained and under officers' control
What this shows is that the police, and not just the Baltimore Police, view citizens as a threat. They are a threat to the power of the establishment. In particular they are most threatened by those who have the most to gain by equalizing the power and wealth distribution in America. This gives them the license to be overtly racist in their dealings with minorities.
Discrimination against African-Americans
BPD stops African-American drivers and pedestrians at disproportionate rates, subjecting them to greater rates of searches than whites, the report said, creating racial disparities at every stage of law enforcement actions, from stop to arrest.
"These racial disparities, along with evidence suggesting intentional discrimination, erode the community trust that is critical to effective policing," the report said.
Among the investigation's findings:
• African-Americans accounted for 95% of 410 individuals stopped at least 10 times from 2010 to 2016The three passages above should be considered some of the most damning things you could say about a democratic society. Yet, no such harsh interpretation is applied. If these descriptions were about the governments of Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China, Turkey, Yemen, Iraq or Iran, we would simply shrug our shoulders and say "what do you expect." However, these descriptions are from the Department of Justice of the United States of America and they are directed at a major metropolitan police department. The outrage that America has fallen to this level under a democratic president, or any president, should be palpable. Instead, there is silence.
• One African-American man in his 50s was stopped 30 times in less than four years; none of the stops resulted in a citation or criminal charge
• African-Americans accounted for 82% of all BPD vehicle stops though they make up 60% of the driving age population in the city and 27% percent of the driving age population in the greater metropolitan area
• BPD officers found contraband twice as often when searching white individuals compared to African-Americans during vehicle stops and 50% more often during pedestrian stops
Poverty will put more and more citizens in conflict with the police.
As long as the police are the internal military of the establishment, they will continue to be in conflict with democratic principles and continue to be a threat to citizens seeking justice and equality under the law. Regrettably, the DOJ report does absolutely nothing to address the Blue cancer that is eating away at the fabric of American society.
America's existing criminal justice system, police, and prison industrial complex are incompatible with the ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.
UPDATE (12/8/2016)
Obama, certainly one of the most Law-and-Order presidents in American history, was a leader in militarising local police. His policies flew under the radar until the Ferguson police couldn't resist the temptation roll their armoured vehicles into black neighbourhoods. As might be expected, US citizens were revolted by the grotesque show of power. In response, Obama reduced the supply of military weapons slightly. That appears to be coming to an end and Obama considers reopening the supply gates to local police forces. A militarized police force has a single purpose, and it has nothing to do with shoplifters, car-jackers, or buglers; and everything to do with putting down protests, stifling free speech, and protecting the establishment.
The Real News Network did a nice piece on this topic.
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