In the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting by police, we’re all asking the same question, as the Globe puts it: “Why hasn’t the Mass. Legislature sent a police accountability bill to the governor?”
We support the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks players (e.g.) striking during the playoffs for justice in Kenosha. But people are out protesting police violence, not merely because it’s a bad thing to shoot black people in the back; but because of a stubborn police culture which casts – to put it benignly – a blind eye on racism, thuggery, and even murder. This is true in Kenosha (where cops thanked the young man with the AR-15, before he went on his rampage); in New York City; and in Massachusetts, where police unions are fighting even our very limited reform bills.
If police unions had wanted to play a constructive role in building trust with the communities they serve, thereby burnishing their reputations as public servants, they could have done so. They could have led with humane wisdom and connection, with “there but for the grace of God go I”. They could have helped lead reform efforts. Instead the police unions are running the old playbook of political intimidation. No doubt, every state rep and senator is hearing it from their local law enforcement officers. (Maybe they’re also getting calls from the folks with Black Lives Matter signs on their lawns, now-ubiquitous from Dorchester to Dover. Maybe.)
Police traditionally have enjoyed great esteem with voters, and so it’s not surprising that even now their unions act as if they’re invincible and unaccountable, forever. It is actually not good practice to force every advantage, to take every last penny on the negotiating table just because you can. In the case of public employees — teachers, bus drivers, cops — there is always an invisible third party at the negotiating table: The voting public. It might actually be better in the long run to make some concessions to the public conscience; to acknowledge shortcomings; and become partners in their own reform. They’ve been asked to do so, and they are replying with an unmistakable no. This response ironically confirms the necessity of moving on with or without their consent.
As the Maya Angelou quote goes, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Don’t police unions want to protect their own reputations, their brand? Isn’t that a part of their own political power that they’d do well to protect? This intransigence exposes an insular, entitled, aggressive culture among police — which surely doesn’t actively discourage racism. You don’t need to think that every cop is a racist thug to think that, if one were a racist thug, working in most police departments would be a sweet job.
As you’ve read about here at length, here’s Arlington Lt. Pedrini’s conclusion to his violence-endorsing, dehumanizing, xenophobic rant to his friends at the Mass. Patrolman’s Association.:
In closing, be safe out there, watch each other’s backs, and continue to get the job done. There really is a silent majority out there that supports us and our mission. Don’t let them down.
Was he right about that “silent majority”, who still think cops walk on water? It’s probably less true today than when he wrote it in 2018. But the unions’ position hasn’t changed.
The culture of impunity in police unions bleeds into other areas: Witness the egregious case of the former head of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Union, now accused of sexually abusing five children. Or the Mass. State Police union chief, indicted on racketeering and fraud for personal expenses on the union’s dime. Or the Somerville police union embezzlement case. It’s a pattern — one that can even victimize police themselves.
If police work is to deserve the esteem that it has traditionally received, it has to be accountable. Because of Black Lives Matter, our political culture is finally if haltingly expanding its definition of whom police work is supposed to “protect and serve”. The police are the legitimate power of violence of the government: Too powerful, destructive, and deadly to go unrestrained; too awful to be allowed to perpetuate our accursed racist inheritance.
How about we ignore the political threats, and just get this very mild legislation passed and signed?
SomervilleTom says
I wish and hope it is that easy.
The full force of the federal government is currently being used to paint a disgusting and disgustingly false picture of America under siege, with armies of black thugs attacking law-abiding citizens nightly and being actively encouraged by socialist “liberals” who seek to destroy America.
It appears that the Hatch Act means absolutely nothing. Fox News is all too happy to paint the rest of the mainstream media as corrupt “fake news” propaganda outlets participating in the Democratic plot to destroy America. A comfortable majority of American voters get most of their news from Fox. The ratings of MSNBC in general and Rachel Maddow in particular have been plummeting since the spring when the network and its most visible anchor decided to make hysteria about Covid their primary message.
My wife and I were in Newburyport last weekend for a very enjoyable socially-distanced al fresco lunch with our children at a lovely river-view restaurant. The river was occupied by a “Donald Trump Flotilla” — the result was that the downtown riverwalk was filled with Trumpists who refused to wear masks while flagrantly ignoring social distancing measures. So far as we could see, Newburyport police made NO effort to enforce masking and social distancing measures. We avoided the mobs while making our way to the restaurant far enough away to remain safe.
I fear that Donald Trump and the Trumpists are successfully leveraging the reaction to this police thuggery the same way as Nixon and Agnew in 1972. Even more disturbing, the strategy is the same as that used by Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s, with the substitution of “blacks”, “Democrats”, and “Liberals” for Jews.
I understand that Massachusetts is not Wisconsin. Nevertheless, last Saturday’s Trumpist mobs in Newburyport were just as revolting and just as loud as any in any red state.
A social cancer is raging among us, and Massachusetts is not immune.
Christopher says
Is it just me or are these incidents getting worse and even less defensible? It seems before there was at least a chance one could say in good faith that the cop thought he saw a weapon and had to make a split-second decision. Now we have cops kneeling on someone’s neck, or shooting someone in their own home, or shooting someone in the back, clearly instances of not being a threat. There are in fact times when restraining a suspect really is required, but there are ways to do that which are safe for both restrainer and restrainee. In the schools I work in certain teachers, usually special needs, have been restraint-trained because every once in a while a student lashes out physically creating a danger to himself and others. Surely cops should be likewise trained.
Regarding Kenosha have I just not been paying attention or have we heard nothing from their new Democratic Governor? If I were he, I’d take over the Kenosha PD, especially after the Chief made victim-blaming comments about that vigilante. I hope Joe Biden’s ad makers are busy turning the tables on Trump’s law and order narrative and pointing out that Trump’s America is what brought us this breakdown.
SomervilleTom says
I think we’re just seeing more media coverage. Responsible people in the black community have been describing incidents like this for decades. Until now, they’ve been ignored.
I’m reminded of the sudden sensitivity to outrageous treatment of women. The mistreatment has been going on for decades — mainstream America is finally starting to realize that it isn’t acceptable.
Sadly, police violence and its subsequent whitewashing started long before Donald Trump was elected.
Christopher says
In case you are wondering, after posting the previous comment I did think of other earlier examples where I cannot fathom a defense. The Eric Garner incident was more like George Floyd, down to the detail of both reportedly complaining “I can’t breathe.” Trayvon Martin was pursued not by a cop, but by a neighborhood watch wannabe who was explicitly advised by the 911 dispatcher NOT to pursue. Even if you like stand your ground laws, George Zimmerman did not stand his ground, but rather advanced his ground, blatantly distorting the intent of the law. My earliest memory of such events is the beat down of Rodney King caught on tape in 1992 when that meant a camcorder rather than a cell phone. I recall being shocked that the LA cops were found not guilty, and I had flashbacks to that verdict when Zimmerman was likewise found not guilty.
jconway says
That’s the thing. They are indefensible, and yet the police unions continue to act like pointing this out is an attack against their entire profession. Even the Catholic Church has done a better job (at least rhetorically) taking ownership over the pedophiles in its ranks than the police unions have the with the killers in theirs.
Many of these officers are people that you wouldn’t want to work with. Barney Fifes like Darrin Wilson who fire the gun cause they got scared with deadly consequences or hot headed wannabe Dirty Harry’s Like Chaulkin who have a rap sheet of abuse toward women in their personal life and previous suspects a mile long. Even the basketball cop everyone shared on social media had a couple of excessive force violations in his past.
So there’s something there is something that fundamentally has to change. I know enough about politics to know that ‘defund’ and ‘abolish’ play poorly with the electorate, even if the policies themselves aren’t the worst idea. Camden abolished and reformed under much different rules and expectations regarding community engagement.
Mayors on big cities get to close schools all the time and fire the teachers without consideration to the union and rebuild them as “turnaround” schools. Charters and Ed reform put pressure on the state to reform how teachers are licensed. It’s now harder in this state to become a teacher with professional status (fka tenure) then it is to become a cop. It’s still easier to fire a teacher than it is to fire a cop. Something has to change.
My union just got out of contentious negotiations and we had to vote and swallow a hard pill on coming into school a few days a week during remote learning. We wanted zero, the district wanted 5, we countered with two, they countered we 3. We all voted for 3 and are moving on with the year.
We played hardball and the district played hardball and we still found a way to compromise. I think the police unions, as is their right, ask for the moon every time. Yet the public officials just hand it over to them and never go back and forth in negotiations.
No school committee member ever got attacked as anti-education for holding the line on teachers contracts, not by the media or the voters anyway, yet a city councilor who votes against a police contract will have his ward ignored as we saw in the Twin Cities or could get voted out as “anti-cop”.
This is a union btw that routinely fails to show up in solidarity with other unions. The firefighters and DPW honked their horn in solidarity during our recent car caravan to protest our working conditions, but the police were there on a detail (at who knows how much overtime) to police us. Not to stand with us.
It’s time for the entire culture to change and it will start when our justice system treats killer cops the same way it treats cop killers.
SomervilleTom says
There is a reason why cops were called “pigs” during the era of anti-Vietnam protests. So far as I can tell, the situation is pretty much unchanged between cops in 1968 and cops in 2020 — except that the cops in 2020 have more and better guns.
For many of the reasons you cite, it became uncool for candidates and elected officials to name police brutality for what it was and is. The behavior of bad cops didn’t change. The silence of all the other cops didn’t change. What changed is that those who have an express duty to stop such practices stopped talking about them.
It is indeed time for the entire culture to change. That change must extend past the necessary changes you describe in our justice system.
We the people must demand that those who wear our uniforms behave in ways that reflect our values. We the people must demand that government stop the obscene flood of military-grade weapons to our police.
American culture since the Reagan era has done a disservice to what was happening in the 1960s. American culture has vilified those of us who fought in the streets during those years.
The obsequious adoration of every uniform — both military and civilian — is part of that vilification. I’m glad that today’s younger people — at least those who are paying attention — are beginning to recognize the many ways that American culture betrayed those of us who were fighting for American values in the streets during those years.
I think that disarming the police — especially police in our inner cities — is the most important first step to take. I think the best way to protect those police is to disarm the neighborhoods those police are charged to protect.
If George Zimmerman had not been able to get a gun, he would be just another racist vigilante. The same is true for Kyle Rittenhouse.
Each exemplifies what happens when America mixes its toxic stew of amplified government-sponsored hate, huge volumes of lethal weapons and ammunition, and idolatrous worship of uniforms and authority.
The solution to this certainly starts with changes in our justice system. It certainly must not stop there.
Christopher says
I’ve long thought that serious gun control would have the side effect of reducing police shootings since cops would be less inclined to assume that a civilian had a gun. Creating a friendlier police department isn’t that hard. Middle-class suburbanites usually see them as good guys because in their experience they usually really are.
Christopher says
Seems to me that background checks and psychological evaluations would be no-brainers. Certainly anyone with a domestic abuse record should never be hired, and probably should never be allowed a gun even as a civilian.
doubleman says
If you fired all cops who committed intimate partner violence and all cops willing to help coverup intimate partner violence committed by their fellow cops, you’d be left with an exceedingly small number of police, approaching zero.
The culture of policing in the US is simply not reformable. It has to be destroyed and reimagined.
And one place to start on that project is by destroying their “union,” which, as described above, is too powerful, too vicious, and in no way aligned with a worker movement. Police work for and protect capital more than anything else.