My first Uber lift was in South Carolina. My driver was from Sudan
originally, but had emigrated to the US 20 years ago. Being the curious
sort, I asked him about his life in Sudan and why he moved. He said
that he left when his country had crumbled too far, past the point where a
reasonable person could have a reasonable expectation of personal safety,
when all institutions had become corrupted making business increasingly
difficult. So he left.
Detecting a hitch in his delivery when he spoke of coming to the US, I
asked him how he felt about the US now, 20 years later. "To be
honest," he said, "the same things I saw in Sudan that led me to
leave are happening here now. That saddens me greatly, because where else is
there to go?"
It’s time to face some uncomfortable ideas about the state of civilization
in the United States. This country is no longer the beacon of freedom
illuminating a better way for the world. Why not? Because it has ceased to be
civilized.
The recent spate of police brutality videos and the complete lack of a
useful or even sane response by the police unions is shaping my writing here.
But it goes well beyond those incidents and extends into all corners of the
lives of US citizens now, as police abuse is only one symptom of a much
deeper problem.
What do we mean by "civilized?" Well, take a look at its
official definition and see if you note any descriptors that are lacking in
present day US culture:
Civilized adjective
1. Cultured, educated, sophisticated, enlightened, humane
All truly civilized countries must deplore
torture.
2. Polite, mannerly, tolerant, gracious, courteous, affable, well-behaved, well-mannered
(Source)
A civilized society, then, is one that is humane at its core, that knows
right from wrong, and which does not need to conduct lengthy ‘internal
reviews’ to discover if videotaped brutality is indeed showing illegal abuse.
Let’s begin by examining a few recent cases of brutality, so many of which
now exist that I have to narrow the field substantially in the interest of
brevity. I'm going to skip over the one where an unarmed black man was
shot five times in the back and coldly murdered by the officer in South
Carolina, because that has already (and rightly) received a lot of media
attention.
So, the first case I'd like to discuss comes to us from San Bernardino CA
where a man being served with a warrant for suspicion of identity theft
started to flee. Much to the dismay of the police, the last leg of his
otherwise humorous escape plan involved a horse, forcing the cops to huff
across the hot, dry desert on foot.
The video eventually shows the fugitive falling off his horse, throwing
himself flat on the ground in total submission, and then putting his own
hands behind his back. Two officers then approach and, in full view of the
news chopper camera circling overhead, proceed to violently kick him in the
face and groin, pistol whip him with a taser, pile-drive him with their
elbows, and then move aside to make room for the other nine officers that
also join in the violent 2 minute long beating:
Aerial footage showed the man falling off the horse he was suspected of
stealing during the pursuit in San Bernardino County Thursday afternoon.
He then appeared to be stunned with a Taser by a sheriff's deputy and fall
to the ground with his arms outstretched. Two deputies
immediately descended on him and appeared to punch him in the head and knee
him in the groin, according to the footage, reviewed several times
by NBC4.
The group surrounding the man grew to 11 sheriff's deputies.
In the two minutes after the man was stunned with a Taser, it appeared deputies
kicked him 17 times, punched him 37 times and struck him with batons four
times. Thirteen blows appeared to be to the head. The horse stood
idly nearby.
The man did not appear to move from his position lying on the
ground for more than 45 minutes. He did not appear to receive medical
attention while deputies stood around him during that time.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told NBC4 he was launching an
internal investigation into the actions of the deputies.
"I'm not sure if there was a struggle with the suspect,"
McMahon said. "It appears there was in the early parts of the video.
What happens afterwards, I'm not sure of, but we will investigate it
thoroughly."
(Source)
Note the lack of civilized responses there from beginning to the
end. A yielding, non-resisting suspect was repeatedly pounded by 11
officers using means that would land you or me in hot water (justifiably) on
“assault with a dangerous weapon” charges if we did the same.
Then the beaten man was left on the ground afterwards without any medical
attention for 45 minutes. The physical abuse nor the later disdain for the
suspect's condition aren't behaviors you find in a civilized society.
Successfully apprehending a 'suspected criminal' does not give you free
license to mete out a brutal beat-down, at least not if your humanity is
intact. But with these officers, that appears to be precisely what happened.
The fact that it did is indicative of a culture in distress.
In the next part of this sad drama, the county sheriff had the audacity to
say (in an obvious attempt at damage control) that he was ‘not sure’ if a
struggle had happened with the suspect, but that it appeared that there had
been one. Apparently, the sheriff needs some training in evidence
review (or a new pair of glasses) because there’s no struggle there at all,
which is plainly obvious in the video:
Then the sheriff concludes with “what happens afterward, I’m not sure
of,…” Again, anybody who viewed the video is very certain
of what happened afterwards because it’s completely obvious: the deputies
kicked the crap out of a non-resisting suspect.
So obvious that less than 2 weeks after the beating, San Bernadino county
hastily agreed to a $650,000 settlement in attempt to very
rapidly put the whole thing behind them.
The only legitimate response from the sheriff, to show that the rule of
law applies and that he and his deputies have morals and are part of a
civilized society, would have been to say something along the lines of, “Assaulting
a compliant and non-resisting suspect is never OK, and it is against our
internal policies and training as well as the law. In the interest of
complete transparency and fairness, both real and perceived, we’ve asked for
an external review which will include citizen participation. Whether
laws are broken by citizens of the police, our department believes 100% in
equal application of the law because anything else erodes the basic
perception of fairness upon which a civilized society rests.”
Of course, nothing of the sort was said here. Nor is it ever said in other
brutality cases, where instead we see the ranks close around the accused
cop(s), which unfortunately communicates the impression that one of the perks
of being a law enforcement officer is being able to dodge the consequences of
the same laws they administer daily.
Here are a few more cases, all demonstrating the same unequal application
of the laws:
In this next case, an unarmed, fleeing black male suspect was tackled and
pinned on the ground by at least two officers. He then was shot in the back
by a 73 year-old reserve deputy who apparently couldn't tell the difference
between a revolver and a taser. A 73 year-old whose main qualification for
being on the scene seems to have been his prior generous donations to the
police department.
Tulsa Police Chase And Shoot Eric Courtney Harris
The above video is disturbing for many reasons, but especially because
while Eric Harris is dying he says “Oh man, I can’t breathe” to which one of
the officer who happens to have his knee firmly on Eris’s head says “Fuck
your breath!”
Recall that one of the words used to describe civilized is
"humane". Think about how far out of touch with your own humanity
you have to be to say that to a dying person. Even if the officer didn't know
Harris was dying at the time, he at least knew that he had been shot.
In another case, a man approaches a car blocking the street and asks for
it to be moved. The violent manner of the officer's response would be a
case of road rage if it involved another civilian and be prosecuted as a
serious crime with multiple charges.
Man Asks Cop Nicely to Stop Blocking Traffic, So the Cop Beat Him
and Stomped his Head
Sept 11, 2014
Sacramento, CA — A Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy is on paid
vacation after a video surfaced showing him stomping on a man’s face and
hitting him with his flashlight after tasering him.
Undersheriff Jaime Lewis says that they are investigating themselves after
viewing the video.
“There are portions of that video that clearly have caused me
concern,” Lewis said. “And that is exactly what has caused the
department to initiate an investigation, so we can get to the bottom of it.”
The man being beaten in the video is 51-year-old John Madison Reyes, who
said the incident started when he asked the deputy, whose car was blocking
the road, to move.
“I asked him kindly to move the car,” Reyes
said. “He glared at me and stared at me. And then, I
said an expletive, ‘You need to move the car because I can’t get through.’”
"Let's face it, had the subject complied with the officer's
directives from the initial contact and beyond, we wouldn't be sitting here
talking about this today," Lewis said.
(Source)
What seems to have happened in the above story is simply that the cop
didn't like his authority being challenged, even in a very minor way, and he
over-reacted.
The recipient of the beating, Mr. Reyes, was charged with resisting
arrest. How is that even possible? It seems like there needs to
be something you are being arrested for to resist in the first place.
Something for which the officer has probable cause in the first place
which you then resist? How can the only charge be
‘resisting arrest’?
Sadly, many times after a confrontation has become physically violent the
one and only charge applied is ‘resisting arrest.’
Of course, that’s a mighty convenient charge for some police who escalate
a situation first, and then resort to using the charge of resisting
arrest because, in the end, that’s the only charge they have. And while
it’s not wise to resist arrest, there are hundreds of cases where people
claim they weren’t resisting at all, merely trying to protect their heads and
faces from heavy blows, while the police were beating them yelling “Stop
resisting arrest!” like it was a magic incantation.
As in this case:
Brutal LAPD arrest caught on video; Department investigating cops
seen bodyslamming nurse twice during cell phone traffic stop
The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating two officers who were
allegedly caught on surveillance camera slamming a nurse on the
ground twice — and then fist bumping afterward — during a recent traffic
stop.
The two officers pulled over Michelle Jordan, 34, of Sunland, Aug. 21, for
allegedly talking on her cell phone while driving in Tujunga, in
northeast Los Angeles, the department said.
Jordan pulled into the parking lot of a Del Taco restaurant and got out of
her car to confront the officers, cops said.
The taco joint's surveillance video appears to show the officers,
both men, yanking the 5-foot-4 inch registered nurse from the open driver's
seat and then slamming her on the ground to cuff her.
The duo then yank Jordan to her feet and bring her to the patrol car,
where they pat her down.
Moments later, one of the cops slams the married mom to the ground
a second time.
After placing her in the cruiser's backseat, the two appear to
share a celebratory fist-pound.
Jordan was booked for resisting arrest and later released.
(Source)
The pictures of the damage to this woman's face are disturbing.
Think about what it would be like to be pulled over for a minor
infraction, be yanked from your car, thrown to the ground, handcuffed, stood
up, and then violently body slammed a second time. While she may have
been using words that these officers found to be less than respectful of
their authority, in a civilized society grown men do not violently assault
the unarmed -- especially handcuffed women. That's just sadistic
and has no place in a decent society.
In another case from Baltimore police broke the leg of a man they were
arresting, Freddie Gray, cuffed him, and instead of getting him medical help
dragged him to a van obviously alive and screaming in pain from the broken
leg. By the time that van ride was over, the man was delivered to a local
hospital with
a broken neck, his spine 80% severed, and he died a short while later.
His “crime?” He allegedly “fled unprovoked upon noticing police
presence," which, by the way, is not actually a crime, something the
Baltimore police were forced to acknowledge in the aftermath of the incident.
The police spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez initially stated
that there was “no evidence” of any use of excessive force. I would
counter that any time you shatter a person’s neck after they are cuffed during
a van ride, that’s "excessive", by definition.
Again, the initial response by the police, which began as silence followed
by the filing of an initial report that said Mr. Gray was "arrested
without incident or force" reveals just how broken our enforcement
system and culture really are.
In another recent case a mentally ill woman in Idaho was shot
dead by police within 15 seconds of their arrival. She had a knife,
the police got out of their vehicle, walked straight towards her and when she
did not immediately comply with their commands, they opened fire.
Something Is Very Wrong
The statistic that wraps all of this up for me is
this one: Police in the US killed more people in March 2015 (111)
than the UK police have since the year 1900 to present day (69). Just think
about that one for a minute. More people killed by US police in
a month than the UK police have killed in
more than one hundred and fifteen years.
How can this be? In the UK they’ve got hooligans and yobs, immigrants and
poor people. They’ve got drunks and mentally unbalanced people too. And yet
they somehow don’t kill people in the fulfillment of their duties as public
safety officers.
In this video you’ll see a mentally deranged man
outside of Buckingham palace threatening people while wielding knives. He was
successfully apprehended alive by a patient and methodical UK police force
that did not aggrivate, but instead waited for an opening to make their move,
which they did quite successfully using a taser instead of guns.
The problem, it seems, is that the US police have been trained to be
highly confrontational and to escalate, rather than defuse, any
situation.
Police in the US have shot an individual’s highly
trained service dog after showing up at the wrong address, and even a
family’s pet
pot-bellied pig simply because they ‘felt threatened.’
So the one-two punch here is that cops are trained to be highly
confrontational and then to react with force -- oftentimes deadly force --
when they ‘feel threatened.’ See the problem here? It’s pretty easy to
end up feeling threatened when you are creating threatening situations.
That’s a recipe for exactly the sort of over-reactive uses of force that
are giving us the problems we see today.
An Occupying Force
If you saw the images coming out of Ferguson recently, you may have
noticed that the law-enforcement presence did not so much look like police,
but an occupying military. Snipers perched on roofs viewing the crowds
through their scopes, tear gas and rubber bullets constantly in use, Humvees,
the latest acoustic anti-personnel devices, and officers outfitted with
‘battle rattle’ that even made one
Afghanistan vet jealous for its magnificent excess compared to what
soldiers were issued in one of the most dangerous regions of the world.
How is it that a small mid-western city arrayed more hardware against its
own citizens than you might find in an active Middle East war zone? Who
really thought that necessary and why?
Exactly how and when did policing and crowd control in the US slip into a
set of methods that match those used by occupying forces -- like those of
Isreal -- who subjugate whole populations?
It turns out, by going to Israel and learning Israeli methods of crowd
'control.'
Israel-trained police “occupy” Missouri after killing of black
youth
Feb 8, 2015
Since the killing of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police in
Missouri last weekend, the people of Ferguson have been subjected to a
military-style crackdown by a squadron of local police departments dressed
like combat soldiers. This has prompted residents to liken the
conditions on the ground in Ferguson to the Israeli military occupation of
Palestine.
And who can blame them?
The dystopian scenes of paramilitary units in camouflage rampaging
through the streets of Ferguson, pointing assault rifles at unarmed residents
and launching tear gas into people’s front yards from behind armored
personnel carriers (APCs), could easily be mistaken for a Tuesday afternoon
in the occupied West Bank.
And it’s no coincidence.
At least two of the four law enforcement agencies that
were deployed in Ferguson up until Thursday evening — the St. Louis
County Police Department and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police
Department — received training from Israeli security forces in recent
years.
(Source)
If the tactics and gear of the police in Ferguson looked military that’s
because they were. The purpose of APC’s and m4 assault rifles is to go into
dangerous battles and kill the other side first so you can survive.
I believe that one’s training and mindset are critical determinants of
what happens next. It should really not surprise anyone that a
militarized mindset accompanied by specialized training and hardware has led
to scenes like the one we saw in Ferguson, among many other places over the
past several years.
I wanted to find out if the assertion of the above article was true. Had
US police agencies really trained with the Israelis?
The answer is yes, beginning over a decade ago. Note that US police have
been training for a domestic terrorist threat that has been almost completely
non-existent, well below the statistical threshold that would seem to justify
such advanced training and tactics:
U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation: Joint Police & Law
Enforcement Training
Sept 2013
In 2002, Los Angeles Police Department detective Ralph
Morten visited Israel to receive training and advice on preparing
security arrangements for large public gatherings. From
lessons learned on his trip, Det. Morten prepared a new Homicide Bomber
Prevention Protocol and was better able to secure the Academy Awards
presentation.
In January 2003, thirty-three senior U.S. law enforcement
officials - from Washington, Chicago, Kansas
City, Boston and Philadelphia - traveled to Israel to
attend a meeting on "Law Enforcement in the Era of Global
Terror." The workshops helped build skills in identifying
terrorist cells, enlisting public support for the fight against terrorism and
coping with the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
“We went to the country that's been dealing with the issue for 30 years,” Boston Police
Commissioner Paul F. Evans said. “The police are the front line in
the battle against terrorism. We were there to learn from them - their
response, their efforts to deter it. They touched all the bases.”
“I think it's invaluable,” said Washington, DC Police
Chief Charles Ramsey about the instruction he received in Israel. “They
have so much more experience in dealing with this than we do in the United
States.”
Also, in 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
established a special Office of International Affairs to institutionalize the
relationship between Israeli and American security officials. “I
think we can learn a lot from other countries, particularly Israel, which
unfortunately has a long history of preparing for and responding to terrorist
attacks,” said Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) about the special office.
(Source)
Here’s the thing: your chances of dying of ‘terrorism’ on US soil are
dwarfed by the chances of dying from practically every other cause of death
in the US. Terrorism simply is not a gigantic and imminent existential
threat that requires special hardware and training relationships with nations
that practice the tactics and strategies of occupation.
Terrorism is not such a common thing that we need to define our entire
crowd control methods around it, but a rare thing, and is really what’s left
over after a few individuals feel like every other option of redress has been
stripped away. Which is why it’s practically unheard of in the US, and
most other civilized countries.
But domestic US law enforcement agencies have been training and outfitting
themselves as if it’s a top threat. Why is that?
There are not very many reassuring answers to that question. One is
that our law enforcement agencies lack the ability to discern actual threats
from imaginary ones. Another is that they envision a time when some
portion of the civilian population feels as if it has lost all hope and
options for a better future, and starts resorting to terrorist acts.
Either way, very poor answers.
A Dangerous Job?
One mitigating factor is to note that police have a stressful, dangerous
and low paying job. Erring on the side of personal safety makes sense
when looked at this way.
In terms of dangerousness, however, law enforcement doesn't even crack the
top-ten list of most dangerous professions:
(Source)
The death rate for sworn officers is 11.1 per 100,000 (2013 data) for
job-related injuries. Fishing is ten times more dangerous. And even the 11.1
rate includes some deaths which were not the result of violent actions
committed during an arrest, but things that tend to happen among a force more
than a million strong (green circles).
(Source)
Even if we assumed that half of the reported job-related deaths were
homicides, that would make policing about as dangerous as living in an
average city (5.5 per 100,000) but seven-fold less dangerous than simply
living in Baltimore (35 per 100,000).
So a stressful job yes. An important job, definitely. But not as dangerous
as many other occupations, which is relevant context to this story.
Good Policing
I would be remiss to not also point out other examples of great police
work. We need to illuminate both what’s wrong and what’s right.
One of my favorite examples shows Norwegian police handling a belligerent
drunk:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=66d_1394803929
Be sure to watch at least the first full minute, and note that this drunk
is yelling, cursing, kicking, and generally ‘resisting’ and yet the police
involved never rise to the bait, handle him with good manners and like he’s a
human being the entire time. Well done!
This next clip shows a policeman in Ohio refusing to shoot a man wanted on
a double murder charge even though he really probably should have and would
have been completely justified in doing so:
The man wanted to be shot and killed by the officer who, despite being
rushed, and having the man put his hands in his pockets after being warned
not to, and even being knocked to the ground at one point, refused to shoot.
That restraint was quite remarkable and showed someone willing to place
his own life in danger before committing to take another’s. He said
afterwards thathe “wanted to be absolutely sure” before pulling the
trigger that it was absolutely necessary.
I do wonder if the two tours the former marine took before becoming an
officer had anything to do with his unwillingness to take another life?
How To Fix This
Well I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in
understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated
it.
~ Charlie Munger
I think the solution to reducing episodes of police assaults on citizens
is contained within the Charlie Munger quote above. The incentives have
to be aligned.
My solution is simply this: every time a police department loses an
excessive force or wrongful death case and has to pay out money, that money
should come from their local police union’s pension fund. And by law,
these losses cannot be refilled with taxpayer funds.
Every single time a judgment is made against that department and the union
pension is reduced, the retired and currently-serving officers will have to
decide for themselves if they should keep the indicted officer or officers on
the force who lost the pension all that money. Or decide if training and
policies need to be adjusted.
I guarantee you that with the incentive to train and behave properly and
lawfully now resting with the police itself, rapid behavior and training
modification would result.
Moreover, I see no reason why the citizens of any given municipality
should be on the hook for repeated violations by any public servant or
office.
For some of the most abusive departments, the amounts are far from
trivial.
U.S. cities pay out millions to settle police lawsuits
Oct 1, 2014
The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this
year that the city has paid out nearly half a billion dollars
in settlements over the past decade, and spent $84.6 million in fees,
settlements, and awards last year.
Bloomberg News reported that in 2011, Los
Angeles paid out $54 million, while New York paid out a whopping $735
million, although those figures include negligence and
other claims unrelated to police abuse.
Oakland Police Beat reported in April that the city
had paid out $74 million to settle 417 lawsuits since 1990.
And last month, Minneapolis Public Radio put
that city’s payout at $21 million since 2003.
(Source)
Just align the incentives and watch what happens next. The problem
is, the incentives are just completely wrong right now, and taxpayers are
footing the bill for repeated and expensive police behaviors.
That needs to stop if we want to see real change.
Conclusion
The police serve a very important role in society and I want them to be as
effective as possible. They are there to uphold the law and protect the
peace, which are extremely important functions. Unfortunately there are
far too many cases where the police have acted as judge, jury and executioner
to suggest that there are just a few bad apples.
Instead there’s a pervasive atmosphere of hostility and force escalation
better suited to war zones than maintaining civilian order. The lines
have been drawn in many police departments: it’s us vs. them.
Trust in many departments has been utterly shattered within some
communities because the police hold themselves to a different standard than
they do the populace. Police commit brazen acts of brutality and get
away with it, largely because they self-investigate and/or because the local
District Attorney office is unwilling to press charges.
But the recent cases of police brutality are simply a symptom of a
much larger problem. Society in the US is breaking down, civility has been
lost, and the country is rapidly becoming uncivilized.
This extends within and across all of the most important
institutions. Congress is known to work for corporations first and
foremost. Democracy itself is bought and sold by the highest bidders. The
Federal Reserve protects big banks from the costs of their misdeeds and
enriches the already stupidly rich as a side benefit.
DEA agents are caught in Columbia having
sex parties with underage girls and drugs, and the worst punishment
handed out is a 10 day suspension without pay. Nobody is even fired,
let alone jailed.
"Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity".
~ Tacitus, Annals, Book XI Ch. 26
The FBI has just admitted that they had been consistently (and certainly
knowingly) overstating
forensic lab analysis in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95%
of cases over a period of several decades. The cases included 32 that
resulted in death sentences. Many people were wrongly convicted, but
nobody from the FBI will face any charges and many of the states involved
have (so far) decided they won’t be looking into any of the cases to right
the wrongs. The wrongful convictions will stand, an injustice that is
incompatible with the concept of being civilized.
The Department of Justice has utterly failed
to hold any banks or bankers criminally responsible for any acts despite
levying a few billions in fines for crimes that probably netted the banks tens
of billions in profits. For some, crime does pay.
I could go on, but why bother? The pattern is easy enough to see.
The US has lost its way. Fairness, justice, and knowing right from wrong
seem to all be lost concepts and the trend has only gotten worse over the
past several years. Without moral bearings, what’s left?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing.”
Edmund
Burke
Either the people of the US stand up and resist these accumulating
injustices or they will get exactly the sort of government, and law
enforcement, they deserve.
In the meantime, the challenge for each afflicted institution is to begin
to recognize right from wrong, and in the case of law enforcement agencies,
stop pretending like every single one of your million+ officers is a good
egg. We all know hiring is imperfect and mistakes get made. Own
up to them and let those who make serious mistakes experience the consequences.
Rebuild our trust in your necessary and important institution by
clearly demonstrating that you know right from wrong wherever it occurs and
whoever commits the deed.
If we don't do this, if we allow the current trajectory to build more
momentum, the loss of civilized behavior will reach a tipping point from
which it will be very hard to return without much hardship, and likely,
bloodshed.
In Part 2: Preparing For The Coming Breakdown, we analyze
how the boom in prosperity seen over the much of the 20th century is
evaporating, and as the pie begins to shrink, the means by which the players
compete for their slices becomes increasingly brutish and violent.
Ask yourself this: If tensions are this bad now, while relatively
abundant resources exist, how bad do you think they’ll get during the next
economic downturn or financial crisis?
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free
executive summary, enrollment required for full access)
