Anyway, here's what I wrote, in case anyone is interested.
Quick thoughts on Ferguson and the militarization of police and then I'll stop cluttering your timeline. I work for a police department (as a civilian). The militarization has been a long process.
The riots in the 60s and 70s created the “need” for a more rapidly deployable response to large unrest. People in suburbs didn’t want to have to wait for the National Guard.
The 80s and 90s saw the escalation of the drug war coupled with a massive spike in violent crime that, at the time, no one knew was a temporary aberration. Cops were being asked to deal with people fighting with submachine guns – for real.
If you don’t remember how scared the general public was, go watch something like Robocop. Totally over the top, but actually good social commentary on where people thought we were headed. People expected city streets to become warzones, and they demanded a police force that could deal with that.
Right or wrong, that is the police force that got built.
Of course, as the 90s went on, the violent crime rate cratered. Despite what the news wants you to think, you’re far safer today ANYWHERE In America than you were at any other time in history. The police force you have today is what people thought we would need – not what we ended up needing, and a large part of that is the fact that building a police force takes a really long time.
Remember, the cops you see today – even the old guard – can’t remember a time before SWAT existed. The guys out on the line have never known a police force that didn’t have an armored “rescue” vehicle. Your older guys might remember when they didn’t have to be trained on an AR-15, but the vast majority of police officers are under 50. They’re younger people who have been trained – rightly so – to always consider their own safety and the safety of those around them – and they have been trained to do so by thinking in combat/tactical terms.
The department I work at recently got its MRAP from the military – for free. It’s been painted black, has many, many inches of thick steel and bullet proof windows. It’s marked RESCUE all over the place.I asked one of the SWAT guys why we needed the vehicle, beyond the generic, “It’s for rescue” fluff. His response was 100% in favor of using it to protect the public.
“God forbid we have something like a school shooting. But if we do, this vehicle will stop a 50 caliber round. We’d be able to get in there and hopefully rescue those kids and eliminate the suspect and everyone – us and the people we can pick up – will be protected.”
It’s altruistic. He thinks this is a rational thing. I don’t. I can’t recall there being a school shooting with a .50 caliber weapon being fired at police. BUT, I get the mentality because I see these men and women train ALL THE TIME for the worst possible scenarios. When that’s what you do for your entire career that is how you think. That is “normal.”
Does any of this excuse Ferguson? God damn no, it does not.
“Normal” doesn’t mean right. In a class I recently attended, the instructor made the point that for thousands of years, it was “normal” for doctors to kill their patients because they didn’t wash their hands. It was “normal” for people to get and die of smallpox.
Changing “normal” – however – takes time.
If you are upset at what you see in Ferguson (and I think you should be), then contact your City Councils, State Legislators, and Congressional Representatives and Senators. Tell them you want all police forces to wear body cameras. Doing so for every police officer in the country would cost the same amount of money as it cost to give every police department the military hardware that the federal government gave those same police forces last year. For the same expenditure, we can have peace of mind.
Note, this will not be easy. No one likes having their concept of normal challenged. The police officers and their unions will fight you tooth and nail because you are changing their normal. They have money for lobbyists, and they have real political power. If you doubt that, ask yourself when the last time a Mayor or City Councilperson really made cuts to a police force and managed to get re-elected.
The good news is that the people in charge of most of these departments see the writing on the wall (as far as cameras, not necessarily the militarization – they tend to see these as very distinct issues). Use of body cameras reduces charges of misconduct by officers by up to 80% - partially because use of force by officers decreases by up to 60%.
In my conversation with officers who balk at the idea, my comment is always the same: I – the civilian citizen – invest you with power. You have the power to choose when to cite or arrest people. You have the power to inflict pain and suffering and you have the power to kill. In return for that power, I demand payment. Payment comes in two forms: safety and accountability. You get the power to make my community safe. The accountability part of the equation needs to be there too.
The body cameras will happen. The command staff all know it. It’s the same fight that they had with their commanders 10 years ago when departments started putting GPS tracking systems into all police cars.
In the end, I hope that what’s happening in Ferguson will be the point that the public realizes that if they don’t keep track of their institutions, inertia may drive those institutions to places the public didn’t really want them to go. Get involved, change normal.
