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Friday, June 25th, 2021

The Authoritarian Instincts of Police Unions

Author:     Adam Serwer
Source:     The Atlantic
Publication Date:     JULY/AUGUST 2021 ISSUE 25 June 2021 (used)
 Link: The Authoritarian Instincts of Police Unions
Stephan:   Have you ever wondered why police violence in the United States is so very different from every other developed democracy in the world? How is it over 1,000 people a year are killed by American police when, in a country like Norway, police don't even fire their weapons more than once or twice in a year, and rarely kill anyone, and certainly not as George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin while three other police officers looked on and did nothing to stop the torture and killing? Part of it is clearly the training. Police in other countries go through several years of training and must have college degrees, while U.S. police require nothing more than a high school diploma, and only train for a few months. But another part of it is the consciousness that is instilled in trainees, and that continues thereafter. The idea that the police are at war with the people they are supposed to serve. This is the best essay I have read on this subject.
Illustration by Danielle Del Plato

In may 2020, Darnella Frazier, a 17-year-old with a smartphone camera, documented the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Most Americans who watched the video of Floyd begging for his life, as Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck, saw a human being. Robert Kroll did not. The head of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis saw a “violent criminal” and viewed the protests that followed as a “terrorist movement.” In a letter to union members, he complained that Chauvin and the three other officers involved in Floyd’s death had been “terminated without due process.”

Kroll’s response was typical. In the apocalyptic rhetoric of police-union leaders, every victim of police misconduct is a criminal who had it coming, and anyone who objects to such misconduct is probably also a criminal, and, by implication, a legitimate target of state violence. Due process is a privilege reserved for the righteous—that is, police officers who might lose their jobs, not the citizens who might lose their lives in a chance encounter with law enforcement.

In the […]

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2 Comments

  1. Dariel Garner on Friday, June 25, 2021 at 5:45 am

    It’s not just the police unions…it’s the police gangs.
    Activists in Los Angeles this week were dropping banners on freeway overpasses with the simple message – GOOGLE LASD GANGS –
    Go ahead try it.
    You will probably get an article from the LA Times about “The Compton Executioners” or a new study driven by FOIA data exploring the 18 police gangs in the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department. HERE>> https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-violence-lasd-gang-history/

  2. Rev. Dean on Sunday, June 27, 2021 at 6:37 am

    I went to NYC one time. When I was there, waiting for a bus, on the block I was on, one end had a group of unfriendly Police officers who scared me, on the other end there was a gang of Black Men who were very friendly to me and I was less scared of the Black Men than the gang of Police, who looked like they were ready to kill someone.