How Can People Ignore the Horrific Abuses of Law Enforcement?

Have you considered sponsoring a writer? Upgrade at 30% off and make my day!One day, back when I was in high school, my girlfriend and I went to visit a friend in a neighboring town. He’d graduated the year before and was now attending classes at the tech school.He said, “My doorbell doesn’t work. When you get to my building, pull into the parking lot and honk your horn, then I’ll come down.”Seemed easy enough.My girlfriend and I were in a playful mood as we made the drive. We were listening to music and giggling as we pulled up to the building. I opened my door and called out, “Hey Andy!”No response.So, I honked the horn twice. “Andy!”Still nothing. I looked over at my girlfriend and shrugged. Andy was kind of like this, he was the sort of doofus that would make a plan and forget about it fifteen minutes later. I saw his car in the parking lot, so I grabbed a piece of scrap paper, stood against a nearby fence to write a note, and I left the note under his windshield wiper.I went back to my car and called out, “Andy!” one more time.That’s when the cops showed up. It was also the death of our festive atmosphere.The police officer pulled up behind us so that my car couldn’t back up. He jumped out of his vehicle like I was holding a baby out of an open window. “We’ve had a report of a disheveled man screaming and honking his horn and urinating on walls!”Urinating on walls?Now that we were cornered and the cop could see we were just a couple of dumb high schoolers, I guess he decided to have some “fun.” He came rolling over in that typical stride of authority. He had his chest all puffed out. I had my hands up.“I wasn’t urinating on the wall, but I stood by the wall to write a note,” I said.“Well, where is the note?” the officer demanded like he had just cracked the case.“It’s under the windshield of that car.” I kept my hands up but indicated the car with my chin.Now I felt stupid that I’d deliberately scrawled a terrible note full of misspellings because I thought it was funny. It said something like, “We were here, saw nothing!” It was written in absurd, shaky letters like a drug addict might use.The police officer rolled over to the car, fondled the note, then looked up at me. He took our driver licenses and spent about 45 minutes talking to us before he finally allowed us to leave. Taxpayer money well spent.My girlfriend and I got in the car, pulled away, and didn’t say a word.We’d been planning on spending a nice day in the city, but after that interaction, we decided to cut our losses and head home. There was no more singing to the radio, there was no more laughter. My girlfriend had gotten into trouble a few years ago, so she was terrified the police were going to call her mom and she’d get the beat down when she got home.All of this because I honked the horn, called out my friend’s name, and wrote a note in a parking lot.The worst part of this story is that it represents the best case scenario for an interaction with American police. Nobody ended up beaten or dead. There are hordes of people in our country who will read this account, nod, and say, “That officer did his job. Nothing to see here.”They act as if making high school kids feel like they’ve just been gut punched is just something you have to accept. It’s not.In a decent society, innocent people who aren’t doing anything should not have to live in fear over any interaction with the police. The police shouldn’t be allowed to detain you for any length of time as they investigate a phone call from some hysterical, anonymous caller. That officer should have been stripped of all authority, fined, and fired.But we don’t live in a decent society. We live in a society where police officers are often allowed to keep their jobs even after they beat, and murder people. Then you go on social media, and you find hordes of people lining up to celebrate them.Harassing innocent peopleEvery day when you go on social media, there’s another video of a police officer or a group of police officers beating and/or murdering a Black man or woman. Everybody has seen these videos even though they’re rarely shown in the national media.Two days ago I watched a morning show and they did a piece on retail theft. The presenters had a video of somebody driving a car into a store and then a bunch of people ran in to grab stuff before running away.This hit segment on crime stood out because it’s one of the few times I remember watching a morning show when the presenters weren’t wearing delusional, bubbly, artificially happy expressions.Morning shows aren’t reality. The people who work on these shows live in an artificial world as magically perfect as a snow globe.Together, the two anchors turned to the camera, shook their heads in disdain, and sternly scolded their viewing audience, “We just don’t do this. That’s awful. That’s shameful.”They shamed the viewing public!At first I was shocked. Then, I became angry. It was infuriating to see these privileged people who live in gated communities in houses with faucets that have a third knob labeled “coconut water” dare to participate in building our nation’s false narrative about rampant, out-of-control crime.We don’t have out-of-control crime. We have out-of-control police!If they wanted to talk about crime, they could have done a segment on how crime is a consequence of an unjust society. When people are abused and exploited, the ruling class calls their protests “crime.”If the morning anchors wanted to do something “socially constructive,” then they should have shown one of the videos of a mob of police officers beating somebody to death for jaywalking. But no, that’s not considered the type of material that’s “appropriate” for a morning show.The death videos on social mediaI made the mistake of scrolling this morning and I happened to catch a bit of a video of a police officer harassing some Black girls on Halloween.I didn’t watch the whole video, so I’m not going to address the actual incident or the spin. Instead, I’m going to address how police behavior in the United States is a symptom of an underlying disease.It should be noted that the second a police officer decides to “toxic man strut” in your direction, your evening is ruined.I realize that there are bigger issues at play during potentially lethal interactions with the police than just how it makes you feel. There’s the issue of the money you lose from paying fines, there’s the issue of the pain and suffering you endure when you’re beaten, there’s the issue of what’s taken from you when you’re murdered.But we shouldn’t disregard the enduring trauma that exists from just knowing this threat is out there and that nobody is doing anything about it. If we focus on eliminating that trauma, all the more serious consequences will be addressed as a consequence.Police pretend they don’t understand that they traumatize people just by looking at them, but they know. They get off on it. That’s probably the reason they took the job in the first place. Some people can violate you with their eyes.If somebody is watching you just looking for an excuse to come over and fine you or detain you or kill you, then that’s abuse.In the video I watched, the police officer decided to harass the Black girls because he claimed to see one of them drop a wrapper.So… for NOTHING!Dropping a wrapper IS NOT a valid reason to kill somebody.This is the point where the white supremacist apologists start muttering, “Well, the law is the law and if a paper falls to the ground, intentional or no, that does constitute littering, so this wise and noble police officer was well within his rights to go and…”No.This false argument is made worse because you know it’s delivered by a person who insists the attempt to overthrow the US government on January 6th was a “peaceful protest.”They go on, “Well, according to the sacrifice of the noble members in our military and the divine wisdom of the founding fathers, law-abiding citizens do have the right to peaceful assembly to address a grievance…”No.You don’t have the right to destroy property, break windows, and murder people.You don’t have the right to harass young women and call it “littering” when a piece of paper drops out of their pocket.We can’t be content to address beatings, rapes, and murders. We have to take a step back and stop the behavior before beatings, rapes, and murders are even on the horizon. The police have to be trained to leave innocent people alone.This is where the conversation needs to start. It needs to start BEFORE people have their rights trampled, not AFTER. After is TOO LATE!It’s infuriating that we have to have these discussions. This whole scenario shows how far the Overton window in the United States has shifted to the side of oppressive authoritarianism.In a perfect society, if a police officer sees a kid accidentally drop a piece of paper, he should walk over there, pick the paper up, and throw it away. You know, BE USEFUL!Police officers are already driving around in a $100,000, taxpayer funded vehicle that used up all the funds in a community which could have gone to feeding hungry kids. The least they can do is pick up some trash every now and then. They shouldn’t be allowed to indulge fantasies about becoming famous on the “dark web” by posting a body cam snuff video.In the social media video, rather than go and pick up the trash like a good civil servant, the officer ended up in a shouting match with the girls. He started to throw around phrases like “you’re impeding my investigation.”Come on man, it’s not an “investigation,” somebody dropped a candy wrapper. If you want to investigate something, go check out what your co-workers are up to. You know, the one who got suspended for violence and who is now spending all of his time in his personal bunker polishing his AR-15 and watching Triumph of the Will. Go “investigate” him. Forget the candy wrapper.I had to walk away from the video. It gives me no pleasure to see girls the age of my daughter have to defend themselves against some jerk with a gun who wants to intimidate them with his authority.I especially hate the monotone voice these guys use. You know they’re anticipating this video will be shown in court, so they are careful. They’re really just standing there provoking innocent kids, who are already terrified about the prospect that they’re about to get killed, into doing something the cop is confident in thinking a judge will take as evidence that the resultant slaying was “justified.”Let’s allow kids to have fun on Halloween. Toxic police officers shouldn’t be allowed to destroy their innocence by screaming at them over candy wrappers.But it gets worse.As I was scrolling away, I happened to see a comment that read, “This is the kind of lawlessness you get when folks are easy on crime, and it’s only going to get worse!”That’s irritating on so many levels.The pivot from a candy wrapper to an argument in favor of absolute authoritarianism happened so fast it almost gave me whiplash. But the worst part is that this is a normalized argument in the United States. Approximately half the country agrees with that viewpoint.In fact, the position I’m expressing in this article is the one that’s considered absurdly extreme.What’s “extreme?”Is it extreme to say that kids shouldn’t be killed over a candy wrapper? Is it extreme to say that the police shouldn’t detain you when no crime has been committed? Is it extreme to say we should investigate gun-hoarding, hate posters who send out Anthrax laced manifestos about how they want a race war? Is it extreme to say that if the police see a piece of paper drop out of your pocket, they should quietly and respectfully pick it up and throw it away rather than run over to shoulder slam your teeth into the concrete?I’m the extreme guy?I am?America is brokenThe saddest part to me is how ignorant people just allow this to happen and otherwise good people remain silent because they “don’t want to cause controversy.”The controversy is HERE, speaking out doesn’t create it, remaining silent does.The atrocities committed by police officers in the United States are some of the worst in human history, and I’m just talking about the last few years. I haven’t even begun to research the atrocities committed by slave patrols, or law enforcement during the Jim Crow era.In a decent society, nobody should feel traumatized at the sight of the police. We don’t have that society. Our society is broken.You know you have a problem when the police force represents a greater threat to your wellbeing than crime itself.You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI'm so happy you're here, and I'm looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe