Let’s Arrest the Police

O nce again the SPD have disappointed their city with more violent and overtly racist reactions. Read and watch this story from 11/17/10: “Seattle Officer Kicks juvenile in groin, chest, head”. “Images exclusively acquired by KIRO Team 7 Investigators show a teenager getting kicked in the leg, chest and face by an undercover police officer during a round-up of suspects.”

We are highlighting this story not because it is surprising or unique. Unfortunately, this story fits too well into what the two of us and many of our peers have both come to expect of the police. Taking the SPD in particular, there are too many recent bouts of violence to brush off as “citizen stupidity” instead of “police brutality” as some articles have tried to frame the problem. Below we have shared five iconic events from the ’08-’10 in Seattle. Try to watch all the videos, although for some of us they are  sickening. If you can’t bring yourself to watch all of them, please skip to the rest of the article.

November 29, 2008: King Country Sheriff’s deputy Paul Schene brutally beating then 15-year-old Malika Calhoun in a SeaTac holding cell.

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May 10, 2009: 29-year-old Christopher Harris was left in a coma, wrongfully identified as a suspect in a stabbing earlier that night, after being body-slammed into a wall and dragged by Seattle Officer Matthew Paul.

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April 17, 2010: Seattle detective Shandy Cobane told 21-year-old Martin Monetti, who lie prone on the ground, “I’m going to beat the fucking Mexican piss out of you homey. You feel me?”  He then kicks Monetti’s head, and Officer Mary Lynne Woollum stomps on the back of his leg.

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June 14, 2010: Officer Ian Walsh punches 17-year-old girl in the face in an altercation which followed a jaywalking stop close to Franklin High School. The girl was then asked to apologize to the officer in a meeting set up by the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. Click here to see a video.

August 30, 2010: John T. Williams was shot four times in the side by Seattle Officer Ian Birk. The shooting ignited a series of community responses to police brutality during an extremely violent string of killings by Puget Sound-area police during the end of August and first week of September.

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I’m sure by now you are all sick of what you are seeing. On the contrary, the devil’s advocate would remind us that these people are criminals. They have broken their social contract with society some how. This obviously stems from, and plays upon, some societal fear about strangers and so-called criminals. We can see this fear clouding our judgment when police brutality arises. For example, in the video from the most-recent beating (the video linked at the top) the news anchors found it necessary to mention that the innocent man has a criminal record. So what? Are we concluding that all past criminals deserve worse treatment? Then what is the point of incarceration? One of us authors has a criminal record. Does that make one of us more eligible for a convenient-store beating? Does that make it more “okay” if it happens “on accident”? If we step back and ask ourselves questions about the nature of police brutality, it starts to seems less and less excusable. For example we can tell by the nature of these incidents that the problem is not attributable to any one police officer, and it would be problematic (and futile) to try and identify a group of violent and/or racist police officers. When incidents occur regularly, the problem is systemic. When the police department hides video of police brutality from the public, but then pretends to be concerned when it reaches the public eyes, the problem has been institutionalized.

Injustice at the hands of SPD is increasingly understandable once one examines the problematic nature of policing as a whole.  First, it should be noted that police hold an incredibly unique position in our society, as the only people authorized to use physical force in order to coerce those around them.  Therefore, citizens who come into conflict with the police are at a distinct disadvantage due to the remarkable imbalance of power.

Most abuses stem from the extent to which officers must use their discretion. When police respond to a disturbance, there is hardly ever one specific law that has been broken where there is a clear perpetrator, victim, and protocol to follow.  Instead, officers must use their best judgment, which again and again prove faulty.  Discretionary actions are inherently colored by the race and class based prejudices deep within the officer.  Police disproportionately target those from poor minority communities, oftentimes unconsciously motivated by racial bias.  This is most evident in law enforcement decisions surrounding who and where to search for illicit drug use.  For an illuminating study on racial bias and drug enforcement in Seattle, see Race, Drugs, and Policing by UW’s Professor Beckett.

The predominant culture of policing has also proven quite problematic.  A certain adventure-machismo quality has been observed during ethnographic research within police departments.  Brutality is less of a surprise when you consider this component of police culture.  When officers find themselves in a conflict with citizens, a testosterone overdrive compels them to violence, similar to a bully on the school playground. Only in this case the bully is armed and authorized to be violent.  Another component of police culture that should be noted is the understanding that officers share about their role in society.  They commonly believe themselves to be the thin line between chaos and order.  This belief about their importance to society leaves many officers with the idea that they have the right to do whatever they see fit, including extra-legal actions.  Lastly, police see themselves as purifiers of society. When officers go out on their beat, they believe they are cleaning the streets of ‘dirt-bags’ and ‘scum’ for the good of those residents who ‘belong’ in a given neighborhood.

It is time to take a step back to examine some theoretical considerations surrounding the state, law enforcement, and those targeted by the police.  First, what is the state? Back in the day, OG sociologist Max Weber investigated the sociological definition of the nation-state. He concluded that the state should not be defined by the various ends it seeks, but instead the means that it employs. Therefore, he asserted, the state is the monopoly over collective means of violence, including the police, prisons and military. In other words, police are the state.  So, should we expect elected officials to hold the police accountable? The single word answer: No. The state has a vested interest in increasing the coerciveness of the police because it directly translates into the amount of sovereignty it holds over the people.

Now, that we have addressed the nature of the police vis-à-vis the state, we should examine the segment of our population that is most commonly coerced at the hands of the police.  The field of conflict criminology, in part derived from Marxist historical materialism, proves useful in explaining the disproportionate targeting of the urban poor, specifically young minority males. Where there is incredible wealth inequality, the poor and unemployed pose a threat to social order. In reaction to societal structures of exploitation and discrimination, the disadvantaged may potentially advocate for revolutionary action and are therefore sometimes referred to as social dynamite.  Thus, the police, and the laws that they enforce selectively, are weapons of the state against the disadvantaged.

Given the problematic nature of policing, it is time to think critically about potential alternatives.  Whatever form it may take, we need to increase our focus on the root causes of crime, problems that cannot be solved by way of gun, baton, taser, badge.

Tags: Beckett, christopher harris, civil violence, drug enforcement, income gap, inequality, injustice, John T. Williams, john williams, malika calhoun, mary lynne woollum, matin monetti, matthew paul, oag, our american generation, paul schene, police, police brutality, police state, protest, Racial Discrimination, racism, Seattle Police Department, shandy cobane, social dynamite, social justice, SPD, the state, violence, washington, washington state, Weber, Youth