A guide to fruit.

Imagine if you could hear the cries of the countless who were assaulted and murdered by police in the past, never recorded by bystanders so questions never asked. Deniers always said there was no police violence because you had no proof. Now when you provide the proof, they say ‘oh just a bad apple’. Four police were immediately involved in the George Floyd scene.  While Chauvin killed Floyd, not one of the other three police present said or did anything to intervene, and indeed they were accessories to the murder. Four out of four are bad apples?? And what if a bad apple turns a good apple bad??

Chauvin had a disturbing disciplinary history as a police officer. Here in Australia, secrecy and unaccountability abounds: police rarely face criminal liability, because other police conduct any investigation, and because other police decide if a case goes to court. Ask yourself, how many paedophile priests would have been charged and sent to trial if the Catholic Church ran their own investigation? Of course police disciplinary records are secret, and it seems no number of flags on a individual police officer’s disciplinary record is sufficient for a ‘show cause’ to that police officer. Indeed, police often just resign but move to a different jurisdiction, there to work again as a police officer.

And so the bad apple rots in a different barrel.

As it was meant to.

Today, the only difference between a cop and robber is that one has a badge.

 

 

Around the world, various police forces have demonstrated unjustified violence against peaceful anti-racism protesters.

Why is this so? To me, it reflects a behavioural predilection, and an expectation of unaccountability, but also a sense or expectation of permissibility.

Thugs and bullies are attracted to police service, which is not to say that all police are so, but certainly some/many/most are. The thugs and bullies want to act this way –it is their nature–  but with a degree of impunity –they do not want to be held to account for their behaviour–  and they find this opportunity in the police force.

It is indicative of a failure in the selection process that the thugs and bullies are not identified and rejected. It is also an indication of the militarization of police services, in personnel, training, tactics, attitude, and equipment, and successful civilian policing –that which respects and is respected–  is simply incompatible with a military approach.

I have had informal conversations with police officers, and with, for example,  university philosophy and ethics lecturers, and while both groups spoke English,  there the similarities ended. No good will come from putting a thug and bully in a uniform and not holding them accountable for their actions, and so the police whose actions led to the protests, unsurprisingly continue to use that same violence against peaceful protesters.

But the issue with police violence and unaccountability is a symptom of an underlying wrongness in our civil society, and at heart, the problem is a reflection of a failure of politics and political oversight. That is where the real responsibility lies.

The Gestapo did Hitler’s biding, and before them the brown shirts, and similarly the police everywhere work for the political system –totalitarian or so-called democratic,  the police defend the political system, which is to say the status quo, illegally if necessary, and they expect with impunity– and whether Labor or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, Tory or Labour, in government or opposition, the police are the dogs that the State uses to do its dirty work, and even in so-called democracies it is recognized by the political parties, in government or opposition, that it is a benefit to be able to whistle for the dogs.

There is NO difference between American or Australian police assaulting a peaceful protester, or Chinese police assaulting a pro-democracy campaigner, or North Korean police assaulting those that criticize the regime, or apartheid South African police throwing Steve Biko off a roof, or Nazi police assaulting a Jew, or Russian police assaulting critics of Putin, or Saudi police assaulting protesters calling for equal female freedoms, or French police assaulting yellow vest protesters calling for economic justice, or Iraqi police killing anti-poverty protesters last year, or the assault and killing of G9 protester Ian Tomlinson by English police, or South Australian police assault of a homeless man, or any of the innumerable instances of violence committed by the police –then and now, all around the world, totalitarian or so-called democratic–  against citizens in the name of law and order. To the police, everything –principals, ethics, equity, fairness, even accountability and responsibility, reason, common sense and evidence– all are secondary to the defense of the status quo.

Yes, we need to rid police forces of the thugs and bullies, the stupid, the unquestionably obedient, those that can’t think critically or act ethically, but attention needs also to focus on political systems, especially so-called democratic (as we profess higher ideals), where donations (bribes) and quid pro quo can buy decisions and outcomes, where secrecy is legally enforced, and where accountability for decisions and actions is deemed unnecessary.

Three of the rules of chivalry for knights:

1. Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word.
2. Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone.
3. Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

Is this your police force???

Probably not, the knights are gone and we have thugs and bullies now.

NYPD officer who murdered Eric Garner will not be charged.

I am white and an Australian, living in Australia.

The decision not to charge the NYPD officer involved in the death of Eric Garner is disgraceful, wholly unreasonable given the excessive and disproportionate force used by the police officer (including the use of a banned choke hold), is indicative of the level of institutional racism in America. If a police officer is recorded using excessive and disproportionate force, and nothing is done about it, what chance is there that something will be done when there is no recording? No chance whatsoever.

Reason, evidence, justification, accountability, protest and demonstration, none of this matters to the racist institutions and individuals.

Where does the black lives matter movement go from here??

“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.” Voltaire.

And black lives will never matter to the racist.

The sorry truth is that where there is one prejudice, there will likely be others, and so the fool has their reasoning.

“Federal prosecutors will not charge the New York police officer implicated in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an African American man killed almost five years ago.

The decision announced by the US attorney Richard Donoghue on Tuesday was another blow to the Garner family, figureheads in the Black Lives Matter movement, who have campaigned to hold the NYPD accountable. US justice department sources said the final call on the non-indictment was made by the attorney general, William Barr.

Garner’s death, on 17 July 2014, became a focal point for national conversation on race and policing. Garner’s last words, “I can’t breathe”, were chanted by protesters across the US.

On Tuesday, Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said: “Five years ago my son said ‘I can’t breathe’ 11 times. Today we can’t breathe because they [the federal government] have let us down.”

The arrest was captured on cellphone video which showed Garner repeating the phrase 11 times as Officer Daniel Pantaleo pulled him to the ground in what has been described as a banned chokehold.

The incident was ruled a homicide by the investigating medical examiner but in December 2014 a grand jury in Staten Island declined to charge Pantaleo in a separate case investigated by local prosecutors.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/16/eric-garner-death-new-york-no-charges