Yes, the
prosecution in the George Floyd and Derek Chauvin trial put on compelling
testimony and closing arguments regarding the Floyd murder. Then, we had
another shooting of a young black man by a 26-year-old veteran white female
police officer approximately 10 miles away. One police chief said something to
the effect that her shooting a gun was a mistake. He’s a mistake. She resigned
and then was fired. This essay portrays the exploitive sadistic character of killer
police officers that murder black skinned individuals.
402 years ago, black skinned individuals were
brought, against their will, to this land as slaves by British pirates. In
essence, black skinned people started out, in this land, being exploited by
white skinned people. Roughly 150 years later, a U.S. Constitution conceived by
the Wasp’s Jefferson, Madison and others reinforced and continued the policy of
black exploitation. These framers supported the economic slavery conditions of
the South and were concerned that the “non-slavery proponents” would dominate,
exploit, and be an overbearing majority politically against the south.
Employing irrational logic, the blacks were prohibited from voting, and were
considered savages without morals, inferior and non-fully human. Although not
human, one black equaled 3/5 of a human when it came to congressional
representation.
John C Calhoun the notorious white supremacist
remarked to his friend John Quincy Adams “the enslavement of black people was
the best guarantee of equality among whites.” Calhoun fought for states’ rights
and believed along with Jefferson and Madison that the states were not
subsidiary parts of the permanent union but sovereign members of a compact
subject to continual revision.
Approximately
100 years later, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that the non-educated, limited work experience blacks
were slave free. Lincoln later pushed for freeing the blacks as a military
strategy during the Civil War. Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the KKK followed. The
Southern states enacted laws to arrest the blacks so they could continue to
enslave and exploit them. Lynching’s, burnings and other sadistic brutality and
murder followed. The Selma, Alabama march exhibited police brutality against
the peaceful marchers. Congressman John Lewis was there and told first-hand
about his experiences as a young man. Our culture and societal norms, in most institutions,
are of exploitation, sadistic treatment and continue to be well-established
against the people of black color. White man have every right to sadistically exploit
blacks because it’s what they deserve, it’s their nature?
A national
database compiled and maintained by the Washington Post found that from 2015 to
May 2020, Native Americans were killed by police at a rate of three times that
of white people; black people were killed at 2.6 times the rate of white people
or 1265 total killed. Unarmed black victims, were killed at three times the rate
of white people or 218 total killed. These killings are on par with other
common causes of death such as lives lost due to cyclist and road injuries,
unintentional firearm injuries and maternal death cases related to pregnancy.
One co-author,
in an epidemiology study, stated, “Black people are disproportionately killed
by police even when they are unarmed.” Further, “what has been done at the
local level-such as body cameras and independent investigations-has been insufficient?
We need to raise it to state and national level and to codify it into law. “According
to the US Bureau of Justice statistics in 2008, the census of state and local
law enforcement agencies in California totaled 509. These agencies employed
79,431 sworn police officers or about 217 per each 100,000 residents. In the
County of El Dorado, sheriffs roam. I’m not sure what they do, but they do
carry guns. Recently, I saw a sheriff buying a sandwich at the local market. He
was armed. He needed his weapon?
As an overview,
let’s turn our attention to the character of sworn police officers. Remember,
character determines what is expressed, what one thinks, and what one feels. There are different character types and these
types often blend as in degrees on a continuum. There is no one character type
exclusive of all others. However, there’s a tendency for one character type to
be more dominant than another. This means there are many differences and
variations in character and thus behavior.
The study of
psychology is about interpersonal interactions. Before there was a study of
psychology, the 10 commandments identified sinful and exploitive behaviors of
man treating man. Honor your father and your mother; you shall not murder, you
shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false
witness; and you shall not covet laid out a very clear framework of exploitation
being a sin. In other words, exploitation of man treating man has been with us
since the beginning of Judeo-Christian religions. A sin means?
Turning to
the movies, there are many splendid and concrete examples of man treating man
in an exploitive, cruel and sadistic manner. For instance: Spartacus had slaves
battling slave, Romans and lions for survival or death for the enjoyment of the
crowd. In Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman was sentenced for two years as a prisoner
in Florida. Although a charming and witty war hero, Newman’s character refused
to conform or be rehabilitated. As a consequence, the sadistic warden Strother Martin
employed sadistic and exploitive punishments.
In the Dirty
Harry series, Clint Eastwood was sadistic and exploitive and yet he had a cute
girlfriend as well. Eastwood was intelligent, witty, devoted and at times
charming as well. His famous line to a bad guy “Make My Day” still rings. Of
course, Eastwood had the gun pointed at the bad guy while the other guy thought
about picking up the gun near him. About 20 years ago, Denzel Washington played
a sadistic exploitive police officer in Training Day. He was manipulative and
exploited his new partner Ethan Hawke on his first day. Washington as a corrupt
cop, had his fellow cops kill and steal a large sum of money. Yet the popular criminal
Washington, in his role, was charming, adaptable, pathological, composed under
stress, intelligent, witty, and generous. During that eventful day, Denzel took
a break and had sex with his girlfriend and gave her presents.
The movies provide
stories of man treating man in exploitive, cruel, and in a sadistic manner. There
are many movies that demonstrate that manner in politics, government, Wall
Street, military and about our police force. Our nation’s history is based on exploitation,
sadism and sin. It’s no wonder that our institutions, society and individuals
exhibit the same character quality. Let’s turn, to the institution of police
with the culture of exploitation and sadism as their character.
Exploitation
refers to how man treats others. He can take things from others out of force or
through methods of being cunning. He can steal and his stolen property always
seems better. There is complete domination over a powerless individual or
person. The person is treated as a thing to be exploited and this character
trait is accompanied by destructiveness and cruelty. The culture of the police
refers to white power, a badge and permission to treat man inhumanely. Right of
might rationalizes the law of nature. George Floyd allegedly had a counterfeit
$20 bill. It took three policeman to arrest and kill him for that infraction?
Sadism, is
the desire and goal to inflict pain, suffering on another and to want to
witness the weakness and humiliation. As a character trait, it’s the desire is
to be in complete control, hurt and humiliate. Attractions to power, wealth and
being manipulative with or without a sexual component are also factors. In many
cases, the object is perceived and treated as not being human. In essence with
sadism, it’s having complete mastery and control over another and to make him
an object of the officers will. George Floyd was lying face first on the ground,
his hands, behind his back were in handcuffs for 9 minutes 29 seconds with a
knee on his neck. George Floyd” was not
resting,” he was helpless, powerless, humiliated and not a threat. I don’t know
anyone who would treat a dog in that manner. That was no way to treat a human
being and George Floyd was not treated as one. There was no apology, sadness or
empathetic emotion from Chauvin. Business as usual.
With
character tendencies to be sadistic and exploitive, one is attracted to employment
with a gun, a badge, criminal justice protection in an industry that was
established to exploit and protect the white ruling class since 1844 .This fact
is in concert with the socioeconomic and political system in our country. Along
with these character traits, an individual can have irrational passions of
anger, hatred and compel him to act, with fanatical devotion, in a non-rational
way, not with reason toward “non humans.”
These police
individuals become expectations of authority and act in the way or in the name
of duty. They are an authority to be feared, admired, and loved. There is a
chain of command and they are part of a team. They protect each other’s back
and are protected by the Supreme Court regarding their immunity. The major
problem of police killing blacks is serious and complex. Likely, training,
cameras, and independent investigations do not address the cause.
The bad
officers are those that have a character tendency for exploitive and sadistic
behavior. Likely, other police and administrators know who they are. Their talk
in private among their own provides insight; spouses or significant others also
can provide input; alcohol, drug use and spousal abuse provide additional clues.
Unfortunately, therapy and psychological evaluations along with love and
decency are perceived signs of weakness and thinking the occupation of cowards
and degenerates for this breed.
Years ago, I
evaluated the psychological fitness for potential officers. I propose setting
up a specialized program followed by research study that would evaluate
specialized training with officers that have exploitive and sadistic character
traits to see if the training can change or modify behavior in the field. A few
of the specialized training components would include: identifying and dealing
with anxiety and fear; raising intellectual, spiritual and moral levels;
providing peer group support; and identifying primitive emotional triggers. I would also change the hiring practices. Do
not let the bad pick the rotten apples.
PS
Stanley
Milligram, a social psychologist, conducted a classical study on obedience to
authority. He had his subjects believing that they were administering electric
shocks to other participants in his experiment. In other words, exploitive
sadistic tendencies were exposed and expressed under authority conditions. In
another study, Philip Zimbardo, a social psychologist, conducted a prison
experiment at Stanford. In this experiment, some students or subjects were
prisoners and some students or subjects were the guards. The sadism and
exploitation of the student guards, in their authority role, were apparent;
some student prisoners withdrew and the experiment was terminated after six
days. Exploitation is easy.
References
Delbanco,
Andrew. Paleo-Confederate. The New York
Times, February 28, 2021
Fromm, Erich.
Escape from Freedom. Avon Books
No comments:
Post a Comment