So, lately it seems we’ve all had reason and opportunity to contemplate the police. Who do they really work for? What is their real mission? How do they actually affect the day to day lives of the average citizen. One of the things I’ve come to realize is that the real function of the police is to keep the population in line. “To Protect and to Serve” is a marketing slogan that doesn’t really align well with their actual mission.
What has really come to the forefront of my awareness is that there are two possible routes to achieving this goal of keeping the population sedate and compliant; respect-based and fear-based. The respect-based approach involves being of service, demonstrating integrity and professionalism, cooperation, and collaboration. The fear-based approach relies on intimidation, harassment, and brutality.
The respect-based approach is more difficult; it requires a great deal of impulse control and patience to build trust and partnerships with the citizenry. The upside is that, once established, this relationship is very strong and stable; it is much easier to repair when it “breaks”. If the police begin to fall off on their end of the partnership and they begin to lose the “buy in” from the citizens, the track record of having been helpful and respectful will make it possible to rebuild and renew the partnership with a renewed dedication to that service and respect.
The fear-based approach is easier in the short term; when you have the guns, the hand cuffs, the prisons, etc. it’s a simple matter of keeping people under your thumb with brute force. It works great for awhile, but over time the brutality required to maintain it creates resentment that grows into anger. When that anger grows into rage the fear-based compliance begins to erode. The fear-based approach doesn’t include a component of trust or “buy in” from the citizens, so the option of stepping up service and respect simply won’t work in this situation; the foundation for it just isn’t there. So the only option is to crank up the brutality and hope to cow the population back into submission. This works… until it doesn’t. Eventually, the population’s rage and resentment will grow to the point that they over-ride their fear.
We’re starting to see that now. Police “riot control” tactics are designed to work as a sort of “shock and awe” campaign. The idea is to confront the population with an overwhelming show of force and brutality, inflicting as much pain and damage as possible to intimidate them back into submission and compliance. It’s quite effective when it works right away, but it is not sustainable. There are a finite number of police officers in any department, and this level of force requires all of them to work long, stressful shifts; after just a few days, they start to get fatigued and their resources get scarce. When the population’s outrage reaches the point where this intimidation no longer works, and they keep coming back, the police then have nowhere to go. They’ve already turned their brutality “up to 11;” there is no more to bring, and they have no other options.
That is where we find ourselves now. It is starting to sink in to the leadership of both municipalities and their police leadership that they are up against it. We are starting to see concessions being offered; Minneapolis has floated the idea of disbanding their police department and rebuilding it from scratch. Seattle declared a 30 day ban on tear gas (a promise that has proved hollow, but that’s another essay…).
So, now that these police departments are seeing the effectiveness of their fear-based approach slip away, they are attempting to move to the respect-based approach. They need to be aware that simply paying lip service to these ideals and not following through with real, good faith action will only make the problem worse. Seattle PD promising to stop using tear gas, and then just lobbing some new type of pepper spray grenades instead, is not going to cut it; they are going to need to stop dressing for a riot and then wondering why a riot broke out.
It is on the police to earn back the trust they have violated from the population they have brutalized. They can do it, but it will take a lot of work and sincere humility and contrition. They’ve got a LONG way to go to make it happen. But, if they can set aside their egos and really do the work, the population they have so abused will eventually come around and work with them because, in the end, we really all do just want to get along…
Generation Extreme 