Beating Up On The Cops
Kevin J. Mullen
In the wake of the nationally televised beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers, a number of public bodies have initiated investigations. (1992)Local authorities are inquiring into the matter, of course, as is the FBI which has entered thecae because of possible civil rights violations. The state legislature is about to conduct hearings and so is a committee of the congress which will consider police brutality nationwide. Now, Attorney General Richard Thornburgh says that his department” will review all complaints of police brutality to the federal government from the entire nation over the past six years."
Whether all this activity is seriously intended to solve anything, or is merely the usual governmental reaction to expressions of public outrage, remains to be seen. But if the investigators are serious this time, one of the unintended benefits of the tragic incident could be the chance it gives to get a fresh look at violence in our cities. To do that the inquiries should be broadened to include not just brutality complaints against the police but the use of police force generally, in the context of the wider violence that besets our inner cities.
Critics of the police think they already have the answer.” This horrifying incident is no aberration." exclaimed one editor after the Los Angeles beating, "It's [just] the latest example of police misconduct toward blacks." Public polls bear him out. In one survey there was widespread belief among whites, African Americans and Latinos all that the man was beaten because he was black and that police are harder on African Americans and Latinos than on whites.
There was a time when physical prowess was seen as the chief attribute of a police officer, hence the term "the police force.” Physical strength and agility were once weighted factors on entrance examinations and former prizefighters and other athletes were openly recruited. But all that is supposed to have changed with the great social revolution since the 1960s. Recognizing that most police work is really social work, departments have deemphasized physical attributes in favor of the more cerebral. Height and weight limitations have been reduced or eliminated. And to make departments representative of the communities they serve, but also to reduce opportunities for intergroup clashes between the police and those communities, extensive efforts have been made to integrate big city departments. Women have entered the service as a matter of right but also with the thought that their "inherently" superior social skills would find a place in police work. Sensitivity training programs have been developed which expose all officers to the differences between the groups they serve. "It used to be,” lamented one old time police officer "that we had officers with 22 inch necks and size three hats; now they want three inch necks and size 22 hats."
But still -- as shown horribly and graphically on the Los Angeles tape -- problems with the use of force quite obviously occur. That's what the current investigations are supposed to get at. A Justice Department representative says that his department will study cases of brutality "as a whole to see if there are any geographic or systemic patterns to the violence." That's fine as far as it goes, but the inquiry should look beyond reported cases of police brutality. The "beliefs" of editors and the general public as reflected in opinion polls should be put to the test of reality. The investigating bodies should look to the environment in which the use of force usually occurs. Are certain officers more prone to use force? What is the average age, and what is the proportionate gender and ethnic representation of the officers who most commonly resort to force? How much of the use of force is based on racial misunderstanding? How much is outright racism? And by whom? How much does the presence of macho young males on both sides of the equation -- what one old sergeant used to call the "turkey rooster" syndrome -- have to do with resulting violence.
Indeed let’s look at "any correlation between the incidence of police brutality reports and the police procedures and training programs and procedures" as Attorney General Thornburgh intends. But let's also look at the culture of violence in communities where police have to work. Physical force as a means of conflict resolution does seem to repose in the culture of some impoverished communities more so than in others. Are the reactions of some communities to a police presence in their midst more likely to result in physical conflict? How much of the police use of force is the result of a pattern of overt hostility to the police or outright attacks on them? Maybe some of the investigators should take a walk by themselves through some of the neighborhoods where all the violence is occurring some warm summer evening; police officers do it all the time.
Looking at the police use of force without considering the environment in which it occurs is like trying to understand how baseball or football is played with only one team on the field --or trying to measure applause by the sound of one hand clapping. But who knows? Maybe one of the investigating bodies will figure out a way to deal with society's incorrigibles --those who respect only force -- without resorting to the primitive police tools of a less enlightened age, the gun and the club.