America is a nation in crisis, for many reasons. The death of newspapers goes hand in hand with the death of true liberty and democracy; opening the door to the rise of corporate rule, as opposed to a nation of the people by the people for the people. On top of that, undealt with trauma from a history rife with barbarism and inequity, and a century of calculated miseducation and spurred factionalism and tribalism has led to a population more fit to be behind bars than outside of it. And unfortunately this harsh critique extends to swaths of law enforcement as the latest case of police brutality clearly shows.
What should not be lost in this latest case, as it should not be lost in all previous cases is crimes like this are not a few bad apples or uncontrollable incidents, the failure of the led is a failure of leadership. People in positions of power, abuse their power, in steps. They do such crimes, because they feel comfortable, empowered, and beyond reprisals in the commission of such crime. They are ensconced in a chain of command, from Dept Head, to Captain, to Chief of Police, to DA who has made a deal to go easy on any caught cop, that if it does not overtly promote policing by oppression, takes a very “don’t ask dont tell” stance on it.
And while this in no way lessens or mitigates the guilt of any officer who abuses his power, the first thing you are taught is there are such things as illegal orders, make no mistake any such person should be tried, sentenced and put away for long portions of their life; however for these regrettable incidents to cease you also need to hold the leadership culpable for the actions of the led. People up the chain of command should at a minimum lose their jobs, and possibly also their freedom.
There is that line in A FEW GOOD MEN, to paraphrase — “if you told your men, not to do it, and your men always follow your orders, why is this man dead…and the answer being… the desire for his ‘correction’ was passed down from leadership to the led”, in such a way is police brutality a lax offense. Memphis dropped something like 400 bodies last year. 400 people murdered, most unsolved cases. Given the latest news, you would be forgiven wondering how many of those bodies were dropped by police.
Here is the thing I know most police officers do an invaluable duty, however atrocities like this do not happen in a vacuum. It happens because municipalities are employing sociopaths Testing for sociopathy and psychopathy for some inexplicable reason not required for people to be granted the legal right to use deadly force.
That seems a staggering oversight, As it is known those positions of power over others, Police, Prison Guards, Military, Politicians, CEOS, even Doctors, are the careers sociopaths and psychopaths are drawn to. So it would behoove a society concerned with keeping those occupations the purvue of people who want to use them to do good; to institute stringent testing to weed out sociopaths and psychopaths.
And Black History month is as good a month as any, to spearhead such a call not just for reflection on what was, but improvement of what is.
Here Endeth The Lesson.
Heroic Times 