Never Underestimate The Predictability of Stupidity: Part III

The recent news media torrent of coverage concerning recent cases of police brutality have not slipped past me unnoticed. One of the more troubling tales to occur last week was when a 23 year old black man was essentially shot in the back by a police officer in his parent’s driveway while officers were investigating whether or not his car was stolen or not. Obviously, cases of police brutality and citizen complaints concerning these acts have been common place for decades, so this is nothing new. However, in a county where our government is based upon the consent of the people (police are a part of the government, mind you), one must figure that something has to be done about the way that police officers operate.

To begin, I fully respect the role that police officers play in our society: to protect and serve. A vast majority of these officers are indeed good cops and work hard at what they do. At the same time though, police officers are part of our civil service and for all intents and purposes, police officers are at the bottom of the heap in terms of education. Sure, they undergo extensive training, but this is training that is the brainchild of other officers with minimal education. Some departments do require that their officers obtain a bachelor’s degree before becoming employed, but this is not enough.

By trade and education, I am a social scientist. That is, I study society as a whole, whether from my concentration of politics, to history and other various views of how our modern society interacts with each other. I am not about to claim that I understand what a police officer working in South Central LA experiences and knows about the area; that is beyond me. However, being that we give a lot of power to our most undereducated civil servants, universities and other police training grounds should really consider more education and training in the realm of social science. Police officers need to understand how society works; from issues of race to the role that they play in our government, for example.

I have never really had any major run ins with police officers and when I have, I have been more than compliant. For others, they have been far from complaint, which leads to a milieu of issues. I understand the use of force, whether from a gun to a tazer, when an officer’s life is in danger. However, part of me believes that an officer finds legitimacy in the eyes of society not through the badge, but through the gun that they carry. When the person that you are talking to has the ability to take your life and you do not have the ability counter it because you are not carrying a gun, you are going to comply. The fear of god is not stricken into us by the badge, but the gun.

Many of us have viewed “The Andy Griffith Show” at some time or another in our lives. The one thing that I remember about the show is that Andy, the “sheriff” never carried a gun- instead, it was always in his desk drawer. Yet, he was able to garner the respect of the citizens of “Mayberry” without a gun. Granted, this was a TV show in the middle of “white America” in the 1950’s where no real danger existed. But the point is, what if police officers were never given guns in the first place? Would a vast majority of criminals today even use guns? What if they had to actually resolve conflict without the risk of force coming to mind (much like the UK)?

I am not suggesting that we take guns away from cops, nor am I suggesting that our right to own guns be curtailed, as it is a constitutional right of almost everyone in this country (minus felons). I am simply suggesting that police departments put more of an emphasis on training their officers in a more intelligent manner. For example, require more and more successful completion of social science and community or interpersonal relations in college education and training. With a more thorough understanding of how society works, I believe that crime would decrease and at the same time, officers would find more respect for themselves in the community. Would it hurt to try this? To force more training on some of our most undereducated, yet most powerful civil servants?