Need for Change

There needs to be a change in police culture.

A big change.

In many places, the mindset that is promoted and supported is a copy of military attitudes.

For soldiers, it makes a lot of sense. They are part of a unit, and that unit needs to be able to depend on its members to perform crazy behaviours in order to succeed and survive.

It is the most logical in a traditional military situation, such as during the world wars. Soldiers are encouraged and rewarded for dividing the world into two categories of people; us and them. If you want to understand how this all works, you should watch the HBO series called Band of Brothers.

It closely follows the experiences of a unit of American Paratroopers during the second world war. Death is all around, and can strike any member of the group. This isn’t left up to the ingenuity of a team of writers, but is based on what really happened within that unit.

This us-versus-them mindset works well with a clearly identifiable enemy, but breaks down in a partisan war context.

The American experience of this in Viet Nam is a very good example. The soldiers still felt tightly bound together, but there was no clearly identifiable enemy.

American soldiers fought, and died, and killed, but were always trying to identify the enemy. This lead to horrible atrocities being committed.

Let’s say you are standing in your garden, and a helicopter flashes overhead at treetop height. You will look up. At one point in Viet Nam, somebody decided that only a Viet Cong fighter would be interested in a military helicopter flying about, and innocent civilians would ignore the incident. Therefore only the enemy would look up, and so it was decided that anybody looking up at US aircraft was a valid target. Gunners were authorized to fire at anybody doing so.

The most famous failure of the us-versus-them system happened at the village of My Lai. Approximately 500 unarmed civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly were murdered by American soldiers. The killings started without warning, and proceeded in the fashion of a mass execution.

This type of mindset was still in evidence in every conflict since, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Experts in all of these types of conflict fully understand that the only way to win a partisan war is by getting the support of the populace involved. Conversely, the best way to lose is by failing to embrace this concept.

In Iraq, while attempts were being made to settle things down, the standard operating system being used by the troops were counter-productive.

If any fire was received, air and artillery strikes were called in on the source of the firing. Usually, this meant the levelling of some village or town, with huge civilian loss of life. This type of thing turns people against the offending military force. It is like a recruiting campaign for the opposition.

In much of North America, the police seem to think they are in a war. Many of them have a military us-verus-them mindset. They are forever trying to identify the “enemy.”

Who are the outcasts in the police force? Is it the cop who needlessly guns down a civilian, or is the internal affairs officer who has the job of going after bad cops?

If there is an incident, cops often cover up for one another, including faking evidence, and lying in reports and at hearings. In effect, they act in the exact manner as old-style mafia members.

Let’s take a trivial example of this team mentality. On the recent season of the game show Survivor, there were two contestants who just happened to be police officers.

For the entire season, they called themselves Cops-R-Us, and operated as a team. They were not bonded because of personality, background, philosophy, or any other manner than their police experiences. They were forever telling each other, “I’ve got your back.”

Keep in mind that they had played together on a previous season, and had called themselves Cop-R-Us then, too. A notable feature of the previous season was that one of the two cops had turned on and backstabbed the other.

Even so, they stuck together the second time around. The fact that they were both cops was more important than the proven fact that one of them was quite willing to stab the other in the back.

What happens in the real world when a cop steps over the line?

Almost universally, other officers either try to bury the incident, or at best ignore it.

When handcuffed George Floyd died because a cop knelt on this neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, there were 3 other officers present. None of them pulled his killer off, or even suggested that it would be a good idea to get off of the totally helpless man.

Indeed, the incident looked like it was going to be ignored like so many others, and then the shocking video of the killing went public.

If I were to handcuff some stranger, chuck him on the ground, and then casually crush his neck I would expect to be immediately arrested and charged with murder, especially if I did it while being observed by 3 police officers. It took 4 days and a media storm before Floyd George’s killer was charged.

When such a crime by a cop goes to trial, police officers to the incident are always considered by prosecutors to be hostile and uncooperative witnesses. It is rare that they testify openly and honestly about what they know.

This is the exact opposite of how they are considered in all other criminal trials.

This is very similar to how soldier stick together in the face of an enemy army. It is also how soldiers stick together in a partisan conflict, even when it is totally inappropriate.

Think about it. Floyd George’s killer sparked off all of the massive outrage across society. People have died in the upheaval, including police officers. In effect, his casual willingness to commit murder has directly killed members of his police brotherhood. He might as well have shot them himself.

The us-versus-them mindset has no productive role to play in our society. Police need to consider themselves to be part of the people, not in opposition to it.

Many police officers already understand this. In several American cities, police officers sent out to control the crowds have joined in on the protest, and been greeted with open arms.

More commonly, citizens on the street have been greeted with rubber bullets, tasers, tear gas, and riot batons.

Things need to change.