I’m calling you a racist

It’s not logical at all. A Minneapolis cop kills a kid. The evidence is unclear at best, but the Police Chief rewards the cop anyway, sending a dangerous message to the department and the community. It’s part of a pattern of brutality, resulting in millions of dollars paid out in lawsuit settlements. The Police Chief comes up for reappointment, and must be approved by the City Council. The citizens have a chance to replace the Police Chief by voting out the City Council, but they don’t. In the weeks leading up to reappointment, there is no public outcry.

Why do the cops behave this way, and why do the voters permit it? I quote from the 2001 book “Police Unbound” by Anthony V. Bouza, retired Minneapolis Police Chief…

Page 13: “There is a clear, yet subliminal, message being transmitted that the cops, if they are to remain on the payroll, had better obey. The overclass—mostly white, well-off, educated, suburban, and voting—wants the underclass—frequently minority, homeless, jobless, uneducated, and excluded—controlled and, preferably, kept out of sight. Property rights are more sacred than human lives. And some lives are more precious than others.”

…In 2009, the voters have spoken, and the message appears to be the same: Get tough on crime. We don’t care how you do it. We don’t want to be bothered with it. Randomly beat people if you have to. Never mind cultural and language barriers. Teach the community a lesson, that if you run from a cop, you can be shot. Juveniles like Fong Lee are expendable…

Page 17-18: “‘Stand-up guys,’ who protect the brethren, keep quiet, and back you up, are proudly pointed out…‘Rats’ are scorned, shunned, excluded, condemned, harassed, and almost invariably, cast out.”

…This would explain why Police Chief Tim Dolan gave the Medal of Valor to the shooter, Jason Andersen. This would explain why the other cops did not contradict Andersen. I find it quite plausible that the gun used as evidence was retrieved from the police property room. The gun’s owner, Dang Her, testified that his stolen gun had been recovered and was in police possession…

Page 19-20: “Policing provides a fascinating look at the real animal beneath the patina of civilization we conceitedly assume to be our true nature…. Cops, by learning just how very thin the veneer of civilization is over every human’s psychic skin, know what that animal is capable of.”

…It’s easy for latte liberals on listservs to spout the common wisdom from the comfort of their chairs, desks, and computer screens, and to become enablers for the entrenched power structure, waiting around to see what other people do. What they can’t see are the vicious moral hazards that they themselves have created…

Page 23: “The overwhelming majority of cops are dedicated, noble workers, but the unstated truth is that they are all complicit in the code of silence.”

…If there is a code of silence, then there cannot be transparency and accountability. There cannot be justice. If there is an entrenched culture of silence on the inside, then it is up to us on the outside to change that culture, by bringing in new methods, new leadership, and if necessary, new personnel…

Page 24: “A search warrant for drugs was being executed on an apartment when a black woman walked by on the sidewalk in front of the building. She was swept up and roughly rushed into the apartment, strip-searched, and after an hour reluctantly released. She, to everyone’s surprise, sued. No one expected a ‘street person’ to complain…. The city attorney for the cops had been perfectly content to have a compliant jury, very likely mostly white, sop up the police fictions. He knew that white America loves and trusts its cops, whatever the police protestations to the contrary.”

…I see a real racial component to police misconduct in Minneapolis. Examples include the fatal tasering of Quincy Smith, the beating of Darryl Jenkins, the harassment of Somali cab drivers, and the racial discrimination settlement with five high-ranking black officers. And I see a real racial component to societal attitudes. An all-white jury acquitted Jason Andersen. They probably wrote off Fong Lee as just another Hmong gang member…

Page 28: “The overclass wants—rightly, it must be said—order, but it also wants tidiness. It does not want to encounter unappetizing or threatening visions. Messages are transmitted in evolving and usually carefully woven euphemisms. ‘Law and order’ gave way to ‘those people,’ and currently the threat is ‘gangs and outsiders.’ The cops get it. They’d better. The overclass will not admit that its practices of privilege and exclusion create pressures for the underclass that drive it to revolt. This takes the form of street crime and, occasionally dotted over our history, riots.”

…And when there’s a chance to take actions that might relieve the pressures on the underclass, the overclass is mostly silent. When racism is occurring in front of you, silence implies consent. Racism is prejudice plus power. Your prejudice is that people of color are ok as collateral damage in the war on crime. Your power is your vote, your time, your money, and your influence as an opinion leader. If this is not on your radar screen, ask yourself why. If you’re not upset about this, if you’re not voting against it, speaking out against it, or doing something about it, then I guess what I’m trying to say is, you’re a racist.