Sadism

Five members of the Memphis Police Department sadistically murdered Tyre Nichols.  A couple of these officers are Scorpion Division members.  That division was recently formed to police street crimes operating in certain areas of that city.  It's been reported that they are faced with car thefts, gang investigations, narcotics and guns.  This unit has been credited with about 2000 arrests .  40 officers divided into four teams make up this unit.  To be clear, anxiety, fear, aggression,  irrationality, sadism, impaired morality and violence are exhibited under conditions of real or imagined  danger or threats  frequently to  their well-being for this group of men .  This essay provides reasons for violence  occurrences .

Special units like The Seals , the Rangers; and various other law enforcement units have been  created  to disarm, capture , and kill various targets.  Specifically, certain character types are drawn to serve  In these units and they undergo specialized  violence training .  They learn how to protect themselves and how to subdue others.  In other words, violence behaviors are taught and learned.

 Learning violent  behavioral techniques are taught  by Imitation and Modeling .  This teaching technique physically demonstrates strategies and/ or techniques designed to  hurt, damage, disarm, capture and even kill . In other words, violence can be taught, employing a number of methods or the how to.

Violence can also be described as playful. Playful Violence  occurs when displaying a skill.  The aim or goal is not to injure or to kill one's opponent.  For example, Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills tackled the Cincinnati ball carrier. A violent collision resulted in Hamlin collapsing as a result of a cardiac issue.  Hamlin's goal was to tackle and bring down that ball carrier.  His goal was not to injure or kill that player.  Sports, especially football, have many examples of violent behavior.  In an attempt to minimize injury , the players wear special helmets, shoulder pads etc. and even have referees handing out penalties for unsportsmanlike actions.

 Reactive Violence also occurs.  Reactive Violence is related to defending one's life, dignity,  property that’s perceived by real or imaginary fears.  Often that threat, but not always, is based on external  manipulating messages from  politicians.  It's  a culture , with  an attitude  toward violence.  Police units like Scorpion are designed to enter specific areas of the community that are classified as dangerous.  As a result of entering a potentially dangerous confrontation or situation, they become anxious or fearful.  In other words, the job, the assignment is associated with stress, anxiety and fear regardless of training or having weapons.  These individuals are ready to defend themselves at all times.  Regarding Nichols, were these policemen sadistically reacting based on threats to their well-being ?

One aspect  of Reactive Violence is the result of frustration.  Frustration can be the result of some goal not being met; a narcissistic injury; not being able to perform; etc. Frustration can be related and pertain to  interactions with  one's spouse, children, job, finances, and so forth.  Frustration can be immediate or it can be repressed based on earlier  goal  failures .  Were these police officers acting out their frustration when dealing with Nichols  and/ or were Nichols actions  the reason ?

 Violence frustration  and action  is also  based on envy, jealousy and hate.  This means someone else has what you want and /or  the other person is favored and  has some advantage . Paul Pelosi had much more going for him than his despicable attacker.  Were these policemen envious or jealous of something related to Nichols or his family ? Envy ,jealousy  and hate are psychological deficits. 

Revengeful Violence is a common theme in many current dramas and even has a special place in the Bible with the  Eye for Eye reference.  Gandhi cleverly remarked that this behavior can lead to the world going blind.  Essentially, revenge is based on some injury that has already occurred.  That  reaction is an irrational response that functions to somehow  magically undo what has already occurred.  It's really an attempt to restore  self-esteem, narcissism that has been threatened by having been injured or being deprived of something. It’s  not only common in primitive cultures, when the  tribe feels obliged to avenge the injury that was inflicted upon someone in their group . Jan 6 comes to mind. Were these officers inflicting some kind of “revenge” on Nichols or some other social ,cultural  present or past issue of revenge ?

A  Loss of Faith begins very early in life. For some,  there appears to be a life space filled with  goodness, love, justice, truth, and so forth.  Then as one  ages  that faith , that illusion  or trust in father, mother or God  becomes shattered.  Was the father truthful; does the mother favor another sibling and so forth?  The loss of trust, faith, ideals and being disappointed or betrayed result from a number of experiences.  Depending upon the amount, degree, frequency  of the negatives of the shaking of that foundation,  can result in tendencies becoming negative and skeptical.  As a rule, negative, skeptical individuals identify with some “powerful “ authority. That authority can be the church, political party ,leader or even a police force. It’s an unconscious attempt  to regain some faith in justice, fair play, or even law and order. Also,  seeking power, prestige, and possessions are other unconscious tendencies to magically undo  earlier disappointments.

Related to the shattering of faith, a deeply deceived, mistrustful individual often has tendencies toward hate and destruction . With despair, disappointments in life  lead to  hating self, scapegoating others, and self harm. Unfortunately, scapegoating is not only irrational , but it also becomes a defensive barrier and blocks a person's ability to take responsibility for aggressive and violent behavior while not admitting one's   flaws, failures, disturbed morality and misery. Scapegoating  with hate has been used for centuries by both the powerful and their followers.

Compensatory Violence is unconscious and is a substitute for productive activity occurring in the impotent.  It could be social forces and/or circumstances that seem to get in the way of mastery, achievement or success .It's easy to find scapegoats to blame for feelings of misery and impotence.  Generally, man wants to transform ,change, and have some form of  meaningful impact on the world. It’s difficult to accomplish  realistic change  when one's will is compromised by reasons of weakness, anxiety, incompetence, Intellectual deficits, and moral failings. It becomes very difficult to accept being powerless and the unconscious motivation is to attempt to restore those  deficiencies.  Often these individuals submit and identify to persons or groups having more  effectance and power. That substitution often results in disappointment ,frustration, doom  , gloom.and incarnation.  Submitting and being part of a powerful group does not mitigate feelings of  hate, low self esteem and impotence. They, in turn, become victims.

Related to Compensatory Violence is the drive for complete and absolute control over anything living. This is  Sadistic Violence which amounts to having complete mastery and dominance over  the living .  The goal is to make the  individual helpless because of our will; the drive to humiliate him ; and have him suffer without him being able to defend himself.  The pleasure is for complete domination to transform ,so that the individual loses his freedom, his quality of life.  This occurs because these sadists are crippled  with hate. This malignancy is  a result of many factors. However, despite their neurosis, these individuals still  have the potential for destructive and sadistic behaviors.  Sadism can be suppressed by fear of punishment but when submission weakens, the brutal inhumane behavior  becomes manifest.  These five policemen exhibited  malignant Sadistic Violence.  Tyree Nichols was dominated and treated without any dignity. These policemen had complete control and with sadistic brutality as he was beaten  and murdered . The Judeo-Christian morality of love thy neighbor,  thou shall not kill,  law and order was not present.  There was no opposition to  these murderers.

Another element, but beyond the scope of this essay, relates to  violence activated by group dynamics.  With special forces, a leader emerged.  Did the leader model  hateful Sadistic behavior ?  Did other members of the group engage in Sadistic behavior because of  their identification  with him   ?  Was  being one of the gang ;  membership with  the Scorpions and/or to the rest of the Memphis police force and/or law enforcement in general- with their uncontrolled  culture of sadistic behavior toward Blacks ?

Within group dynamics, the formation of a team becomes extremely important.  With  group cohesion, power, loyalty and a sense of brotherhood  emerges.  With group cohesion, team members rely on each other to the fullest.  In combat, it's not uncommon for one team member to perform some  heroic act to save another.  The goal is to acknowledge that you want that team member in the same foxhole as you.  Attitudes, feelings and goals become clear.  When there is  loss, PTSD symptoms occur.  The goal is the team, the team.  Did these external and situational factors of conformity , group goals  create behaviors  which otherwise might not be expressed ?

In summary, there are different motives  and amorality for engaging in  malignant sadistic behavior. The  amoral  police have a sadistic code of   hate, discrimination, oppression , not respecting  nor  being perceived as a full human and killing  blacks.There was no opposition to  these murders. It's clear that Tyree Nichols was the recipient of sadistic actions .   In any event, Nichols was the victim.  Statistics show that additional funding for the police does not  correlate with much less cause or result in less crime.  Therefore, a special police unit does not appear to be the solution for reducing crime.  Arrests, drug issues, car thefts  require a special unit ? Maybe less is better than more? 

Reference

Fromm, Erich.  The Heart of Man  , It's genius for good and evil.