Police are (not) our friends: argument is dangerous
by
pdb | 11.30.2011
As Occupy Philly comes to terms with the recent police violence, I can almost hear the white radicals gloating that they were right: "see the police are NOT our friends after all".
Silly I say, but more like dangerous.
As Occupy Philly comes to terms with the recent police violence, I can almost hear the white radicals gloating that they were right: "see the police are NOT our friends after all".
Silly I say, but more like dangerous.
First off, the white radicals, and I count myself as one, studied and maybe experienced, as I have, the painful history of police violence, so they were right about one thing: police have used violence against peaceful protesters in the past and there's no reason to assume they won't do so again. So in a way, they were right all along. But I think the "police are NOT our friends" idea is just as a shallow, divisive, and dangerous as thinking police actually are our friends. Here's why.
Like everyone else, people who have jobs as police officers are people first -- they are not defined by their day job. Ok some are, just like in any field. They have families, bills, loves, college tuition and loans to pay, mortgages. When people who are officers are OFF THE CLOCK they may even be personal friends, or relatives. Since as individuals, police may be, and likely are, friends of some of us, they ARE OUR FRIENDS, and the white radicals lose!
Well not really.
Imagine you are a police officer. When you clock in, you live by a very different set of rules than you do outside your job. Like most people, you probably are worried about having enough money to pay for stuff you need, like medical care, so you are worried about keeping your job and could probably use a raise. That means you, like most of us who work in places with bosses (or teachers), mostly do what your boss (or teacher) says, in police terms that's "following orders" I guess. In cop world it goes further of course, because the dangerous nature of the job makes it even MORE important that you follow the rules, especially the unwritten ones, so you keep other officers on your side.
So really, police officers ON THE JOB are NOT OUR FRIENDS, and are NOT OUR ENEMIES; they are police officers doing their job, which means following orders given by their bosses among other things.
So you're a cop, and you get an order to do something you don't think is quite right. MOST people (police or not) MOST of the time are going to swallow their discomfort and follow orders anyway, and may have a bunch of excuses for that like "my boss knows best", "I need the job". There are two things to think further about here: 1) who gives the orders in the first place and 2) if you were an officer, what would make it more likely you'd disobey a bad order? Let's take the second first.
There have been occasions when police and other officials refused to comply with an order -- even recently some police refused to arrest Occupy people saying they wouldn't do so because people's behavior was lawful. But this is rare. Think again of being in that position yourself, and what would it take for you to make that choice? Do you think Philly police are experiencing what it would take to disobey? Is Occupy Philly figuring out what that is and trying to do it?
Back to #1 -- who gives the orders? Bosses. Can we guess how high up the chain the order to kick out Occupy Philly went? Think about the budget for having the 1000 police officers gather at once with all the right gear. I suspect that's above Chief Ramsey's pay grade to approve -- probably needed the Mayor to sign off -- and it wouldn't entirely surprise me to see some indirect funding or earmarks coming from DHS.
That makes it a political decision -- because really the police work for the politicians, who supposedly represent us, but often do not. And politicians, like police, may be friends when they are off the clock, but when they are being politicians they are, well, politicians, and act like that. For example the first priority of most politicians is to get elected and rise through the ranks, so they can have more power to do what they think are the right things. This is true of both "good" and "bad" politicians -- the only differenc is what they think is right. The political power reality shapes what politicians do more than their personal preferences, just as bosses (and politicians) shape what police officers do much more than their personal preferences.
Ok so Nutter signed off, or even gave the order himself. He hadn't done so before. What changed? You can probably guess pretty well if you imagine you are a politician in his position.
If you've been thinking Nutter's a kind guy who works for us, or the police maybe actually are our friends or at least that they work for us, it's going to be pretty natural to feel betrayed by recent events. Take care of that feeling, but know that despite the actual painful and otherwise unacceptable behaviors which occurred by police officers and probably the Mayor, that it's NOT PERSONAL. When on the job, they are cogs in the machines which sustain them, just like the rest of us often are. They might do (and did) brutal things, just like football players do to each other. When they are off the clock they may be genuinely friendly, just like football players after the clock runs out. Nothing personal.
And it is by looking at politicians and police and other powerful structures of our society in this less-personal way, which is ironically more humane, that we can learn what it takes and organize to help them disobey bad orders. Straight out of Gene Sharp's work for those curious.
Some may point to the over-the-top violent acts by some police officers during the eviction as evidence that police can never be trusted. That's one of those overly-simple arguments too. In any group of 1000 people with a mission to do something forceful like clear out a park, there will be a few people who are less stable or more edgy or whatever, and will do harsh things -- whenever there are enough apples in one place, some will be bad. Yes the nature of the police institution makes it more likely this shit will happen, but let's not blame all officers for the violent acts of a few. And you can bet that if Chief Ramsey had given really strict orders not to use excessive force, and shown a will to kick anybody's ass who disobeyed, that it probably wouldn't have happened. So since it happened, that probably gives us some (unsurprising) information about Ramsey.
So should you ever trust a police officer? No, not while they are on the job. Because they work for their bosses, not for you, and you don't know what their bosses told them last week, or what they'll tell them in the next 30 seconds. It's nothing personal. It's not because they are rotten human beings. It's just the way this messed up system works, and if they are being honest, they'll probably tell you the same thing.
So how do we assess our risks dealing with police, or figure out how to move them in a different direction? Well, what systems they are in and where do their orders come from? What system are their bosses in too? What it would take for those individuals to change, to disobey? The answers won't be very precise, but there are answers, and they'll keep us a heck of a lot safer than arguing about trust as if relations with police and politicians are the same as personal relations.
My heart goes out to everyone who's suffering from last night's actions, and to those people who's worldview of police has been shattered too. Be free. And be safe when you can.
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