The other day I returned to Facebook to chastise some people on sharing photos of police solidarity with protesters... it caused a few comments which prompted me to write a follow up dissertation that I feel the need to throw up here too.
Here’s the original post:
Here’s the original post:
A few people came at me with the predictable “not all cops” response and an officer I know got angry feeling that their sympathy with protesters wasn’t being believed.
This was my long-winded response. Strap in.
This was my long-winded response. Strap in.
First off, the post was not about “good cops” and whether someone who participates in a system designed to be corrupt can ever actually be considered good. That is an entirely different conversation which I am willing to have, but not in this thread as it pulls things off topic.
As far as *individual* police taking a knee, holding a sign, or marching with protesters I am not saying that they all are “fake”. I honestly believe that *in that moment* many of them are following their hearts. Just like I believe that spousal abusers are sincere when they...
... apologize to their bruised significant others or when they give them a loving hug. And just like the abused should not believe that a single act of kindness or solidarity in any way erases prior offenses or proves that things will be different now, the public should not ...
... in any way immediately go “Awww, see, they support us now” when the police pose for duplicitous photos like the ones I shared.
The reason I say this is two-fold. First, for the reasons I stated above… but more importantly because while police officers are most definitely individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and motivations the “POLICE” are not.
It is an organization that needs to be taken as a whole; not because I say so but because that is the image and culture they themselves foster and propagate.
When I say “don’t believe them” I am speaking of the POLICE.
The group that encourages tribalism and uses the same methods that the military (and cults) use to shape their culture of solidarity. The culture that John Nhan describes as “a set of values that shape how police officers perceive their working environment and act within it...
... This worldview is shaped by real and perceived dangers associated with police work and characterized by strong group introversion and cynicism toward non‐police individuals and groups. Consequently, an ‘us versus them’ mentality is created and reinforced through...
... officer selection, training, and work experience, which manifests in cynical attitudes toward the public and tacit acceptance of misconduct, metaphorically known as ‘the blue wall of silence.’”
It is beaten into their heads from day one. That somehow they are the only thing holding back the hordes of criminals from overtaking civilization. That they are the “thin blue line” separating order from chaos.
And you are foolish if you don’t think for a second that doesn’t color every decision they make as the POLICE and as individual officers.
When the POLICE look out at the sea of protesters they realize that they are woefully outnumbered. They realize that if they don’t quell the uprising soon that the public will remember that they are public servants who are supposed to work for us!
They know, deep down, that any control they have is due to the public’s agreement to uphold the social contract (eloquently explained here by Trevor Noah - ) and that at any moment it could end.
So they do what an abuser does when they think they have gone too far. They pull back just enough to get the abused to think “it will be better next time”. They have to, because they have crafted their entire existence and culture around the fact that they believe they are...
... above the community. That they are the bringers of order. That they are right and those that stand in defiance of their corrupt and draconian culture are wrong.
It is also how they make their living.
They want everything and everyone to relax just enough to go back to the status quo. They don’t want to be out there, outnumbered, and worried that not only might they get injured should we decide enough is enough but also that tomorrow they might not have a paycheck.
This is why the POLICE want you to share these bullshit images! They want you to give them the benefit of the doubt!
This is the same reason abusers are so charming around their victim’s friends and family, it is why they make grand gestures in public, so that the victim questions themselves, so things like “Maybe they aren’t so bad?” cross their minds...
... but more importantly it is so everyone around them is there to point out just how great or loving they are to the victim when the victim starts question the abuser’s behavior.
It is textbook mental abuse and shame on you if you fall for it or, even worse, participate in it by sharing this nonsense and helping the very organization looking to gaslight you.
This is too little too late!
Do not give the POLICE any benefit of the doubt. Do not let people confuse the fact that these abuses and the systematic culture of racism inherent in the system has gone on for so long that one gesture isn’t enough. Ask the POLICE to prove it!
Again, do not believe them until they themselves push for actual police reform, until they completely overhaul their hiring and training practices, until police unions rescind their endorsements of Trump and his racist and fascist policies...
... until the supposed "good cops" actually start ousting all their violent racist brethren!
Do not let them misdirect your attention from the fact that they have intentionally created, and protected, an insular system of violent and racist practices. As a group!
The POLICE want the public to view them as a singular entity. Never is the rhetoric respect this or that individual officer, it is always “You must respect the police.”
So if they want to be seen as one big entity, then so be it. Here you go.
And to those individual police that don’t want to be lumped in with the others? Sorry, you don’t get to have it both ways. You know the culture you decide to work in, and you know the way the POLICE portray themselves.
You don’t get to be an “I” when the entire motto of your organization is that you are a “TEAM” that always has each other’s backs, no matter how wrong or despicable those actions that you obfuscate may be.
If you want to step out from behind that blue wall of silence and really be believed it is going to take more than a photo op.
If that makes individual police angry then they should turn that ire directly back to the POLICE who have put you in this position due to precedent they’ve set through decades and decades of racist culture and insincere publicity like the ones noted in the original post.
