We are all witnessing in real life, on television news, and vividly recorded and preserved in abundance on YouTube that something distorted, toxic and dangerous has happened in police departments across this country. And it is manifested in the arbitrary and wanton threat and use of force against unarmed citizens and the militarization of police conduct in the face of protests and civil disturbance. It is as if police have turned into unreasoning, badged zombie thugs who believe that they have some implicit license to act arbitrarily, use any degree of intimidation and excessive force, and to riot and run amok with impunity. No doubt, the brutalization that so many of them, as former veterans, have experienced and been exposed to on military tours of duty and battlefields is obviously something they have trouble turning off and getting over. Talk about “anger management issues” in spades. And, it also comes as no surprise that the rate of spousal domestic violence is high among police nationwide, as a class of workers. (“Several studies have found that the romantic partners of police officers suffer domestic abuse at rates significantly higher than the general population. And while all partner abuse is unacceptable, it is especially problematic when domestic abusers are literally the people that battered and abused women are supposed to call for help.” – see full article at theatlantic/national/archive/2014/09/police-officers-who-hit-their-wives-or-girlfriends/380329/.) To a significant degree, we need to understand and address that many of these badged men and women in uniform are damaged human beings, whose sociopathic and authoritarian impulses are easily triggered for the slightest of reasons. So, what we are witnessing in the conduct of many policemen today is fundamentally the result of a malformed, poorly trained consciousness and conscience about what their civil police demeanor, conduct, and role is and must be as public servants, and not as armed bullies and aggressors against an unarmed public that is constitutionally invested with civil liberties and rights that anyone in uniform should know, understand, respect and uphold, before losing it like mental defectives. (JdeCP)
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:59:09 +0000
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