We’ve Got To DO Something
How long can we hide from the truth? And, how long until we DO something about it?
From Eric Garner, to Michael Brown, to Freddie Gray, to George Floyd, to Jacob Blake, to Jorge Gomez, and others in between, America has seen a rash of officer involved shootings. All of these have spurred indignation, protests, riots, looting and violence. The cost in human lives (protestors, civilians and police) in the wake of all this has been DOZENS. The cost in property has been BILLIONS. And the cost in terms of the loss of our country’s sanity has been inestimable. There’s no doubt that there’s a problem. The question is, however, exactly WHAT that problem is.
There’s a thread, ladies and gentlemen, that runs through EACH of these incidents. There’s one feature common to ALL of them. There’s one behavior without which NONE of these tragedies would have happened. And this one behavior isn’t featured in our nation’s news and commentary. This one behavior gets hardly a mention. This one fact, in actuality, is HIDDEN from view. The common denominator in ALL of the above is resisting arrest. In EACH AND EVERY incident listed above, the suspect resisted arrest. Often, they struggled with or even assaulted the police officers. In some cases, they brandished weapons. But in EVERY case they failed to yield to instructions from the police and resisted arrest.
Now, once a suspect begins to resist arrest, he throws the whole process into chaos. The suspect becomes a danger to the arresting officers, unfortunate bystanders, and, in fact, becomes a danger TO HIMSELF. The resisting suspect MAY be a harmless, but frightened, innocent. He MIGHT be unarmed. But, how are the police to know this? Remember that the officer’s life is in jeopardy too. The officer doesn’t WANT to be there. He wants to return, after his shift is done, to his wife and children. He wants to LIVE. But, he has a sworn duty to uphold. By resisting arrest, the suspect can bring grievous harm to the officer AND himself. Isn’t it about time that these simple facts are recognized by our media and politicians? And isn’t it about time that we DO something about it?
Idiotic activists have offered their own unique solution: “defund the police.” It’s hard to even discuss the absurdity of this notion. Without police our society would fall into the barbarism that has plagued much of human history. Human safety and security are the bedrock of any enlightened society. They are more important, even, than food, water and shelter. For without freedom from barbarism, one can’t grow or buy food, obtain water nor maintain a safe dwelling.
Even the notion that having LESS police would help is preposterous. (One wonders, is this the BEST they could do for a solution?). When dangerous altercations occur, having more police present would likely HELP the situation, not worsen it. With more police on the scene, the suspect might be intimidated into compliance, thereby de escalating the situation. Additional officers on hand, might ratchet down the visceral response of those officers involved, perhaps letting “cooler heads prevail.” And, with many officers on hand, it also possible that those officers involved may feel less threatened and be more apt to hold their fire.
No, defunding the police is not a viable solution to the problem. Some people suggest that body cam usage is the answer. While it’s possible that the use of body cams might encourage responding officers to be more circumspect in their reactions, I doubt that it will make a significant difference. When an officer feels that his life is on the line, he’s not apt to worry about the “optics”; “to hell with the body cam, it’s MY life at stake here!”
So, body cams, unfortunately, won’t be the answer. Some suggest that the answer would be to transform America into a socialist authoritarian state. Unfortunately, however, criminals are found in every type of socioeconomic system as an inescapable aspect of human nature. Crime will STILL occur and arrests, and their ramifications, will still be a fact of life. And, an “authoritarian, socialist America” wouldn’t be America at all.
So, socioeconomic reforms won’t do it either. Some people may think that the problem is insolvable. While they MIGHT be right, there MAY, however, be a solution.
Since resisting arrest is the common thread in all of these tragedies, reducing the incidence of resisting arrest is where we must aim our strategy.
The FIRST thing we’ve got to do, as a society, is to recognize the problem. We must reach a consensus on the simple concept that resisting arrest is DANGEROUS AND WRONG. Arrest fatalities will NOT go down until we decide that, first and foremost, it’s wrong to resist arrest. I wouldn’t have thought that it would be necessary to stipulate such a common sense notion, but some commentators of late have made crazy arguments that resisting arrest is somehow JUSTIFIED. Indeed, some fringe activists now maintain that it’s everyone’s DUTY to resist arrest. This kind of thinking is worse than just stupid; it will result in only one thing: more needles arrest tragedies. We must refute the illogic behind these subversive notions and unite behind the common goal of peace UNDER THE LAW.
The SECOND thing we’ve got to do, obviously, is to publicize this. Unlike the derelict media and the self serving politicians who hide from the truth and use these tragedies for their own nefarious political betterment, we’ve got to TALK about this. We’ve got to label the cause for what it is. Then, once we’ve done that, we can work on solutions.
Since learning begins in the home, the NEXT intervention must be to motivate parents to be involved. It’s imperative that parents begin talking about this and teaching their children NOT TO RESIST ARREST. In the same way that parent’s taught us, very early, to “look both ways,” it’s essential that they teach their children to obey all police directives, if only for their own safety. You would THINK that parents would naturally do this, but, judging from the prevalence of the problem, many, apparently, do not. It would also be useful if clergy, social workers and community leaders encourage parents in this very important role.
NEXT, we’ve got to get schools involved. And, the earlier, the better. While the effectiveness of curricula in changing social behavior has been long debated, there is research that it can make a difference. This has been demonstrated with anti drug programs (source: Drug Abuse Prevention Curricula In Schools, Gilbert Bovin, Handbook of Drug Prevention, January 2006, pp. 45-74., www.researchgate.net) and other behaviors as well. Programs should be created in which police officers go into the schools and speak with the students, building understanding and trust.
And, speaking of trust, it must be recognized that trust is an essential component of this approach. Complying with an arresting officer does require that the suspect unavoidably place his trust in the arresting officer. The suspect is, in essence, surrendering to the officer and must trust that the officer will treat him safely and fairly, and protect HIS rights as well. By the way, by painting the false impression that police malfeasance is common, despite statistics that show it’s quite rare, the media is COMPLICIT in this problem because they undermine the public’s trust in the police. Hopefully, the school programs will go a long way to promoting trust, which will help ameliorate all of this.
One other thought, with trust in mind. In communities where building trust may be a difficult task, it would be possible to set up an ombudsman type of system in which each suspect requesting it will be assigned someone to monitor the suspect from arrest to adjudication, ensuring that the suspect is treated fairly and safely. Such a program would likely be expensive, I concede, but, I think, would be well worth it, as arrest tragedies seem to be tearing our country apart.
And, finally, since drugs seem to be involved in many of these cases, continued anti drug teaching and education, both at home and in the schools, is essential as well.