The
Death of a Common Man:
A
Semi-Objective Investigation of Violence within the Police Force
By:
Chris Vinan
Violence. One of mankind's most
primitive responses to resolving any issue. Primitive because we have the
ability to speak, which can be used to solve disputes. Words over fists aren’t
the way of the modern man, fists over words are the way of the barbaric savage.
Mentality should always triumph physicality because intellect is what makes us
human. Our minds are what allow us to stretch our skyscrapers and type
sentences like these. Since humans are naturally capable of resolving conflicts
with their words, shouldn't the government exemplify this?
The US government is an
institution that is supposed to stand for the integrity and progress of the
human race, but why then do they devolve us by using brute force to combat the
maleficent. A famous quote by Gandhi, one of the most influential human figures
within the last 100 years, states that "an eye for an eye makes the whole
world blind." Here Gandhi says that fighting fire with fire is detrimental
to human society because without water all will burn. The eye for an eye
mentality can first be spotted in Beowulf, a text that dates back to the dark
ages. But if we have come a long way since the times of unsanitary lifestyles
lived by the peasants who were oppressed by lavish kings, then why do
present-day governmental institutions regulate this mentality? The death
penalty is a perfect example of this immature and primitive behavior; if
someone kills someone then they deserve to die. Poke out their eye. My
ethnography project will investigate the manifestation of this mentality within
our government further. I will start at one of the governmental
institutions that we have all come into contact with: the police
department.
The police department has a long
decorated history within the US but lately the population has been antagonizing
their image, why? It is because the media keeps replaying the same images of
violence exerted by police officials over and over and over again. Most
recently, the murder of a young unarmed black male in Ferguson has been the
focus for topics of discussion like police brutality and exploitation. But what
goes unnoticed by most of the population are the violent instances that occur
in small towns and suburbs that exist in the shadows of big cities, where the
media does not tend to dwell. It is not uncommon for violence to be exerted on
the populations of small peaceful towns. But, why? Shouldn't the US
government and all of its entities serve as a role model for the rest of the US
population? Yes. That is the very purpose of having public figures. These
public icons should resemble safety and peacefulness not violence and hate. The
police should not act in accordance with violence even if they are faced with
it. It is not right for a policeman to strike a man, even if that man has harmed
said policeman. The government should stand taller than the common man and
therefore be more prudent in all of its retaliation practices. Otherwise we
live in a world governed and dictated by a hypocrisy rather than a democracy.
What crosses the line into absurdity is
when an official responds to a non-violent crime with unnecessary violence and
unwarranted aggression. This is a common occurrence in small districts with
large police departments. I will be investigating the police departments
of small towns to see what causes these policemen to lash out violently against
non-violent crimes. Is it perhaps the fact that they do not see enough action
because the area of their jurisdiction is so calm and quiet relative to the
dangerous streets of a big city? Does their lack of action cause policemen to
become bored and fidgety and thus propelling them to lunge out in fits of
violence when action does occur? In cities, it is somewhat understandable for
there to be higher rates of reported police brutality because there are also
higher rates of violent crimes. And if the police wrongfully act within this
eye for an eye mentality, then they will respond to violence within cities with
violence. But what about areas with low violent crime rates? Why are there
still reports of police brutality? Why does the police respond with a blow to
the eye when their eye has been untouched? Why am I still asking questions to
someone who cannot immediately respond? Because you cannot respond, I will
strive to find the answer. I will be observing the police in action and
hopefully understanding the personalities behind the men that perpetuate these
wrongful fits of rage and unwarranted punishment.
Maybe the answer lies
within their IQ's, they might not be able to rationally respond to a verbally
aggressive teenager without anything but their physicality. It seems to me that
there might be a stronger emphasis in physicality than mentality within the
police force. When in the police academy, policemen and policewomen might only
be trained to respond with the muscles on their arms and not the muscles in
their brain. If this is the case, then there is much that needs to be fixed.
Another thing that I will explore
will be the character qualities based on the background of the employed
policemen. Perhaps many of these men and women act as though they are in a war
with the population because they were trained for war. Many veterans join the
police force because it is the only place that they can apply the skills that
they have acquired in the army (which are hardly ever intellectual, thus
explaining why so many veterans aspire to return to college after their time
has been served). There is a mentality that I have observed within the US army that
disassociates the recruit from the civilian. Within the US military, officials
train their subjects to view the outside world from a pedestal. In an effort to
consolidate and unify their battalion they will ostracize the general
population by creating this image of the "inferior civilian." Army
property is told that the men and women who live normal civilian lives are
unproductive, ungrateful and undeserving. This is simply a way to enhance
coping with the terrible psychological experience that is the army. Thinking of
the outside world as inferior is a way to make these men and women who have
signed away their freedom for the next 4 years feel superior and meaningful.
Though this is a useful coping mechanism it can prove to be dangerous when
veterans carry this mentality into their new positions as police officers. They
still believe that they are superior to the lowly lazy civilian.
I hope to learn about the reasons why this violence exists in institutions
where it shouldn't so we can correct these unnecessary problems. People are
scared when they get pulled over by the police and horrified when a policeman
approaches and this is not okay. This was not the case 70 years ago and it
shouldn't be the case now. We should feel protected by those who embody the law
because the law is supposed to serve us well and help us live harmoniously.
The place I have studied for the past few weeks has been the
Contra Cosa Sherriff Dispatch center, located in Martinez California. This
station has a relatively small jurisdiction since it operates singularly. The
station itself is a branch of the larger Contra Cosa County Sherriff’s
department. However, all of their sheriffs and officers report to Martinez
station and not its larger affiliate. This fact alone defines the purpose of a
dispatch center. The area of their jurisdiction is confined to the Martinez city
boundaries, 13.135 square miles in all. 7.64% of this area is water. The remaining
12.1 square miles are land filled to the brim with localities and
infrastructure that house thousands of people. The city’s geography squeezes 35,824
people into dense and developed square miles. Martinez is the ninth largest
city in the Contra Costa County and the focus of my scrutiny.
The people of Martinez are not surprisingly not diverse. I say “not
surprisingly” because Martinez is surrounded by some of the whitest counties in
America, specifically Marin County. Marin houses 8 cities that are over 90%
white. Martinez, on the other land, is 79.7% white, 4.6% Black or African American,
13.6% Hispanic, 7.6% Asian and 7.4% other, according to a 2010 census. When
looking at their populations by ethnicity one can see that, despite the city’s
suggestive name, only13.93% of the people living within Martinez are Hispanic
and 86.07% of these people are Non-Hispanic. The city quietly sits on the
eastern bay with much noise operating within its boundaries.
The city flourishes in its crime rate statistics, which boast
overall low crime rates. But when one looks at the numbers one can see that Martinez,
although small, has a total of 1,000 crimes reported annually. Which, when
compared to other urban districts, is extremely calm. San Francisco, for
instance, has a whopping 45,912 crimes reported annually, 5,874 of which are
Violent. Martinez reports only 70 violent crimes occurring on a yearly basis. 930
property crimes occur yearly within Martinez whereas 40,038 property crimes
occur annually in San Francisco alone.
Now let us dive deeper into the violent waters of Martinez’s
crime reports. 1 murder, 9 rapes, 18 robberies, and 42 assaults (it will be
interesting to see how many of these assaults have been committed during
arrests on the detainee’s behalf) are reported annually. Per every 1,000 people
there are 1.14 instances of violent crimes committed. Those numbers don’t look
very nice; in fact they look very antagonizing and ill tempered. However, those
numbers are relatively peaceful.
The statistics that report these depressing figures report
higher occurrences of property crime rates. Annually, Martinez houses 174 incidents
of burglary, 565 of theft and 189 of motor vehicle theft. Your chances of being
a victim to property crimes, in Martinez, are 1 in 39. 4.74 out of every 1,000
people succumb their belongings to burglary, while 15.44 per 1,000 fall to
theft and 5.15 per 1,000 unwillingly donate their motor vehicles to motor
vehicle theft. When one punches all the punches and kicks into a calculator,
one will find that there are 39.3 crimes per square mile in the lovely city of
Martinez California.
These seem like semi-stressful conditions for the policemen and
policewomen to be operating under, which provide a perfect situation to
explore. I want to know why there are violent retaliations from badge-wearers
to violent and non-violent offenders, making Martinez an ideal research
location since it has some of both.
My research question is structured like an umbrella since it is
hard to find one root cause to the response of violence to non-violent and to
violent crimes. Quintessentially, I am asking “Why do police men and women
respond violently to violent and non-violent crimes?” This over-arching
question can be broken down into a few parts:
1.
Are there too many
officers staffed without too many crimes? Making some of them feel immobile,
static and useless, thus harboring a feeling of restlessness and unease that
they then release when there finally is a crime to tend to?
2.
Do officers find
excitement in reporting to violent crimes and find most other incidents dull?
Thus causing them to look forward to violent crimes and perpetuating them to
over react and over perform?
3.
Is there a
military-mentality residue lingering over the heads of army veteran police
officers which causes them to demean the citizens that they are supposed to
protect and serve, making them less susceptible to feelings of compassion and
empathy when dealing with citizens violently?
4.
Is there too strong
of an emphasis on physicality in the police academy, which conditions officers
to respond with a fist when reckoned with? Are they not sufficiently trained to
answer violent provocation with mental rationality?
Martinez is an ideal location because they experience far higher
non-violent crimes than violent crimes. Making violent crimes a comparative
rarity. So, when exploring the second sub-question, it may be possible that
officers get anxious when they do not have violent crimes to report to. Making
them desire the moment when they can finally implement their brute force. There
seems to be a violent response from police officers occurring in instances of
property crimes like vandalism, theft, etc. The police force also has a good
number of veterans staffed, which is ideal for exploring my third sub-question.
But I will explain the military mentality later in this research text. Lastly,
the fourth sub-question will be perfectly answered in Martinez just as well as
it will be answered at any other police department across the country. This is
because the very nature of the question deals with a universal precursor to
official officer-hood.
Now take yourself out of this setence and into a BART train on its
way to Martinez. As your eyes quietly scan the vibrating setting, you see a
mother pulling her daughter to the safety of her side. Then you see a man
whispering lyrics to himself on a stage that extends no further than the seat
in front of him. The hums and whirs of the accelerating train make the music
from your headphones faint and you wonder if those screeches are normal. Then
to the side of you is a window filled with fast blurs and whooshes that contain
thousands of people that you will never meet. They can’t see you and you can’t
see them so your reality is limited to those who sit in the germ-filled seats
before you. You hold your backpack tight as a man who probably hasn’t showered
in days refuses to sit down. His body becomes a cheap marionette to the violent
to and fro force of the turbulent ride. He rocks left and you move right. You
press yourself against the welcoming glass window and wonder if you’ve missed
your stop. The Google maps app assures you that you haven’t but you doubt it.
You find reassurance by turning your body to the row behind you to ask an older
lady, whose attention is buried deep within the pages of her noir novel, if
you’ve hit the Pleasant Hill stop. She fixes her glasses and tells you “it’s
the next one” and then her frames slide down her nose as her eyes dart back to
the jumbles of rickety text that lie in her unfolded palms. She was right. The
train seems to be yelling in pain as it comes to a complete stop. The thin
metallic doors fly open and in rushes a surge of crispy salty air. You are
greeted by cooing pigeons and red trees as far as the clouds allow you to see.
Then you step aboard a bus and sit on a seat as brown as the bus
driver. Atop each seat sits a white or Asian man, quietly scanning the world outside
the smooth-sailing bus; their world. The streets of Martinez are like rivers,
with Chevrolet and Lexus salmons hastily swimming upstream. Everyone’s car is
as clean as the sky, which reflects off the shiny sidewalk below. As the bus
swims down the black paved stream, you pass shopping mall after shopping mall.
White colored people stand at intersections, waiting. You see a brown bearded
man turns to his wife with an “I love you.” J.C. Penny, Dick’s Sporting Goods,
Nordstrom Rack, Best Buy, Safeway, Round Table, In N’ Out, Toys R’ Us, La-Z Boy
Furniture, DXL Men’s Apparel, Denny’s, Target. The streets are crowded with
tall godly people with small companion dogs at their sides, who are so well fed
that they dress like people. In all, the community seems like just that: a
community. With fresh painted schools and protective trees, Martinez resembles
a contemporary Norman Rockwell painting.
103 steps and 26 bus stops later, the abrupt bus stop lunges
your body forward. As you exit, you hear a mechanical woman soothingly force
you off the bus as she exclaims, “Glacier Dr. /Muir Rd.” Before you, nestled in
the palm of a hand made from mountains and rolling hills, stands the Martinez Sherriff
Department dispatch center. Now I’m going to switch this back to first person.
GOODBYE third person!
Hello this is first person. When I got there I noticed how
desolate the station was from its surrounding jurisdiction. The station seemed
to be right in the middle of nowhere and somewhere. The building defined itself
with an, aged but pristine, metallic inscription on the side of its wall that
read:
“Field Operations
Patrol and Investigation.”
When I walked to the main entrance the only sound I could hear, besides
the muffled oceanic freeway, came from a flagpole. The wind shook the flag’s
chains, clanking and banging, making America’s values echo throughout the empty
parking lot. The main entrance was closed. So I pried open a small yellow clam
and inside it I found a pearl-like telephone with a direct line to the Contra
Costa County Dispatch. I waited for an answer. A lady operator told me that
someone would come and pick me up very soon. I dragged myself to a wooden bench
that overlooked the lot. I waited and, pretty soon, I began to doze off. Not
because I was tired but because it was all so peaceful. Red leaves danced on
the moist paint, frolicking and whispering to each other, while the soft wind
glided through the trees, gently pushing the clouds to the east. My pants
sponged up the moistness from the wooden bench as I was reminded to “buckle up”
by a sign to my left. Then I saw a shiny tiny ordinary looking police car drive
up in front of me. It stopped there for a second waiting for me to stand.
When I stood, from the car exited Officer Kevin Cook. He felt
assertive to the touch despite the fact that it was the people of Martinez that
kept the city safe. I got a good look at him once I snuggled into the
passenger’s seat of his cruiser. He was an older man, slowly being eaten by
grey hairs. Cook’s eyes were as kind as his handshake and his voice was
distinct and sharp. 6 feet tall with a 52 inch waist, he seemed to be squeezed
into his shell of a police uniform. We began talking immediately and didn’t
stop until he dropped me off at the BART station later that day.
Cook was funny, relatable, intelligent and inquisitive. Our talks
ranged from philosophical ideas, to the current healthcare system, to his
political opinions. He verbally sifted through the endless number of stories he
had accumulated during his 15 years on the force. He started off by telling me
that there were only two officers patrolling Martinez and only two patrolling
Bay Point. We would stay in Martinez. Officer Cook described Bay point, the
neighboring city, as being “more active.” “It’s very bad over there…shootings,
stabbings, car chases…it’s a lot safer on the Martinez side” he finished his
sentence with a quick assessing glance and then continued to say, “but once in
a while it can get a little crazy here too.”
“People don’t call us when they’re having a good day. They’ve
always got some sort of crisis and they look at us to solve their problems for
them” Cook smiled proudly at his reply to my question. This is Kevin Cook’s
second career. Before patrolling the streets of Martinez he was a salesman for
a high-tech marketing center. Immediately after speaking about his former
employment his demeanor changed. He then mentioned, however, that he had always
had the drive to drive a patrol car. Kevin Cook became Officer Cook at the age
of 35 and he described his time since then, “It’s got its good days and its bad
days.” “Everyone says that it must be cool to be a cop and yeah it’s cool but,
like I said, it has its bad days.” His eyes grew silent and he squeezed at the
wheel. A memory entered his forebrain and escaped through his lips. “One of my
first calls was a baby at the bottom of the pool.” His good attitude began to
drown and the car went silent, begging me to ask another question. But before I
could, he began telling me how “Someone dies here in Contra Cosa County every
single day.” But here he speaks of the entire county, of which Martinez is a
small fraction of (1/14th to be exact). “There are gangs all over
the place and once you put on these glasses you see the world in a different
way. Last week I was at Disneyland and right in front of me in line was a man
with a big old gang tattoo. I wouldn’t have noticed that if I wasn’t a cop.
With this job, you see the world for what it is.” These descriptions bring us
into the first investigative section of this text, where I will try to explain
the mental mechanisms that influence violence.
SECTION 1: The
Policeman AND the People NOT: The Policeman IS the People
Earlier I mentioned that an army mentality may linger within the
heads of veterans. This mental residue forces Officers and army personnel to
separate themselves from the general population. But I believe that the police
department harbors its own sense of separation. I hold this to be true because
there are many police officers who have never been affiliated with the US army,
navy, marines, etc. yet still distance themselves from normal “civilian”
lifestyles.
Let me type for a bit about the unfamiliar and the familiar. When
the familiar meets the unfamiliar, a boundary is created. A thick boundary that
needs a lot of work and a lot of strength to be broken. Orientalism was a
manifestation of the unfamiliarity shared between the orient and the occident
(east and west respectively). These differences sparked numerous conflicts
throughout history, but the example that best fits my description of a"
thick boundary" is the Berlin wall. This wall separated western ideologies
from eastern ideologies. The west was seen as familiar and the east as
unfamiliar, from the standpoint of westerners. It took decades to change this
and even still a sense of hostility resonates. Though we have come far from the
McCarthy era we still find ourselves looking at the east through an
iron curtain. This unfortunate situation
is an example of how tough it
is to ignore differences that form on even the smallest scales.
Before I went to the police stations to do my research I
thought to myself, “there will be a divide.” Here is a writing of mine two
weeks before I started conducting my field observations:
“They (policemen) are fulltime employees and I
will be a fulltime student. Immediately our respective statuses will separate
us. I will be there to study them, to learn from them. They will be there
simply because they are paid to. I will be entering their workstation, their
familiar surroundings, so immediately I will be the stranger to them. I will be
the unfamiliar. I will be there to investigate them in their
own familiarity and in my own unfamiliarity. This boundary will be hard to
break, but it's shattering will start with simple discussion. Finding common
ground is essential to remind others that we are all just human. We have all
cried at the same difficulties and laughed at the same movies. I will have to
bond with the policemen and women so that they understand that I am not there
in opposition. I am simply there to study. But perhaps one of the biggest
obstacles to overcome will be the barrier that stands between a hired
professional and an amateur. These men and women worked hard to get to where
they are, they went to a police academy and passed rigorous mental and physical
exams. I simply called their sergeant and asked if it would be alright
for me to join them in their daily routines. When one has to work hard to
achieve a position there is a natural separation that ensues. This occurs
because those who have endured the path to get to where they are prefer to
associate with others who have endured that same path. And that occurs because
it is easier to relate to people who have gone through the same things as you. A
lifestyle grows from this and it becomes increasingly difficult to relate and
associate yourself with those who fall outside said lifestyle.”
I was able to break this boundary by stretching
the truth a little bit. During my investigation, I acted as if I was very
interested in pursuing a career in the law enforcement industry. This helped
the officers relate to me and, thus, made them feel inclined to share more
since they assumed that it would benefit me and my future career. Through this
I was able to disassociate myself from the image of an "impostor" or
an "investigator". Stranger became familiar and the impostor was
welcomed. The reason I have mentioned all this is because the police department
is like a family. They are an autonomous entity that feels most comfortable
with people like them. It would be so difficult to enter and relate to them if
they didn’t think I was like them. By saying that I had hopes of becoming an
officer one day, they were immediately able to relate with me. In a sense, they
saw themselves in me. I was one of them. I might as well have been wearing a
badge with a buzz cut.
Officers live with one another, they are all
they know and the badge is all they breathe. Their stories stem from their
commonalities. At one point, in the first of my many ride alongs, Officer Cook
pulled us into a small shopping plaza. He pretended to angrily yell at another
Officer who had taken an ideal parking spot. We stepped out of the car and into
the cold air and were greeted by a warm man named Stoffles. On his head grew a
soothing field of grey crop and below his nose hung a moustache that seemed to
hold his face together. Officer Stoffles was another county Sherriff
who also served the city of Martinez. The two men joked and laughed as we all
waited to be tended by the bartender. Not once did a smile fade from each of
their faces while they stood in each-other’s company. They laughed about everything.
From the Starbucks ornaments being sold to Michael Buble, everything had the
potential to spark a chuckle. Stoffles let me know that he had known Cook for
quite some time now. “Cook and I met in the academy 15 years back” he said with
a pause between every few words to take a sip from his green straw. But their
strong interactions were very different then the relationship that Officer Cook
maintained with another Officer we met on another day.
Officer Ellis was a short-ish man with a loud
demeanor and a flamboyant belly. His eyebrows ricked and rocked with every word
that came out of his mouth. In nearly every sentence he dropped an F-bomb and
then laughed at its explosion. Muscular arms and strong presence, Ellis made
fierce eye contact with everyone he spoke to. Cook and Ellis didn’t seem to
have much in common. In fact they seemed like opposites, each comfortable at
his own end of the spectrum. But these men talked and talked. Their discussions
were altogether very different than those that Cook shared with Stoffles. In
fact, their conversation topics rarely ever left the boundaries of the police
force. These men talked about past criminal instances that they had responded
to and joked about others in the department. Occasionally, Ellis would ask Cook
for advice on how to address a specific police situation. This all showed me
that Officers who don’t share too much in common find common ground through
their forced commonalities.
Earlier I mentioned that people who have chosen
a certain path tend to associate and relate themselves to others that have
chosen said path. A lifestyle stems from this. A social sector is born and all
those who meet certain qualifications are allowed in. Friendships are built on
the badge because they all know the badge. By doing this, Officers get along so
well that they remove themselves from the average workings of society. They
remove themselves and cling to each other. A great example of this would be the
fact that Officer Cook divorced his former wife to marry another woman, Lisa
Cook, who happens to be another police officer. Cook told me that is not very
uncommon for officers to develop serious relationships with each other. But,
why do things like this happen? Part of
the reason, in fact, is that their job calls for it.
When Officers begin to associate regular
civilians as “the unfamiliar” they can make quicker judgments and prevent
themselves from becoming impaired by simple social operations. By deeming
citizens as “unfamiliar” the only people that provide familiarity are those who
share the same view on society. By noticing a distinction, officers remove
themselves from normal society making it easier to maintain real relationships
with each other. This forces them to
look at normal society from a more objective standpoint since they reserve
subjectivity to their own inter-official interactions. This benefits them in
some regards. To Officers, anything, anyone and anyplace can be
life-threatening.
On our regular round around Martinez, Officer Cook began to tell
me a story. The story began with a “blank 911 call.” Someone had called the
emergency line and then hung up. “9 out of 10 times it’s an accident, a
misdial. But that tenth time it’s something.” Apparently, a few years back, two
officers responded to a “blank 911 call” and expected it to be nothing. When
arriving to the source of the call, the Sheriffs casually walked up a white
porch and bobbed their fists into the peaceful wooden door. Nothing. No answer.
The men waited in silence and continued to knock a second time. Nothing. No
answer. Then, suddenly, the silence was broken by another few knocks. Once
again, nothing. Before the two could knock a fourth-and before I could finish
this sentence- a man lunged out with a hunting rifle. He sent both men straight
into the ground and their soul’s right into the sky before pulling the trigger
on himself. Instances like these keep officers on their toes. Always ready to
pounce and respond when they have to. In the end, they trust no one but each
other. I believe this stems from their gradual separation from average society.
Officers remove themselves to a point where they are just over lookers, gazing
at the workings of average people below. To them, nothing is what it seems. By
the time he had finished his story we were in a pretty little neighborhood
where kids bounced from sidewalk to sidewalk, smiling and greeting the police
car with tiny waves. Each house we passed was nicer than the next. But officer
cook made them all seem so ugly when he mentioned, “that’s a drug center and
that one too.” Cook saw something I didn’t because he had knowledge I didn’t. I
knew only as much as the kids swarming outside the car. This knowledge is what
removes policemen and women from the average citizen. They develop a distrust
toward the common people that they cannot shake, even when they go to
Disneyland. Further, this untrusting view of the world can provoke officers to
believe that everyone poses a threat. Because of this they may act defensively
when responding to a common non-violent occurrence. These suspicions harbor
hostility.
Part of this stems from the knowledge they acquire in the
academy. In the academy they are taught the ins and outs of the criminal world.
How to identify a criminal. How to tell if someone is under the influence of
narcotics. What criminals wear and what they tattoo onto their bodies. All
these definitions that are indoctrinated supplement an officer’s hostility
toward the common man. If an average someone falls into any of those categories
then he/she may fall victim to the law. For example, if you drive a car that
happens to be dirty-looking then you will probably be stopped because there is
a greater chance that you are a criminal. Police form their view of the world
on statistics. Statistically, poorer people will commit more crimes. So, the
police are more inclined to stop lower class individuals. While Officer Cook
and I were driving around Martinez one day, a shabby car stopped to our left as
we waited for green to turn red. The car’s front windshield was brown and its
body was covered in peeling paint, its doors seemed to succumb themselves to
the force of gravity as they loosely clung to the car’s roof. Inside sat two tired
looking men, their eyes drooped as low as their spirits. Immediately, Officer
Cook began to recite their license plate number to himself before entering it
into the laptop on his right (which, in my opinion, is more dangerous than
texting and driving). Before the laptop could deliver any information, the car
drove off into the distance. Cook removed his discriminating eyes from the
sad-looking BMW and said “Oh well” and continued driving. Officer Cook began to
speak about his younger days again and before he could finish a thought the
police radio interrupted and pleaded for his assistance a few blocks away.
We made a few turns and eventually became mosquitoes, flocking
towards a blue and red light. When we arrived at the scene there sat the same
rugged looking car. It had been stopped by another officer who had probably
chosen to stop it for the same reasons. This proved that all officers are
conditioned to view, judge, and assess the world in the same way. From the car,
I observed Cook and another officer search the two passengers thoroughly before
continuing to search the rest of the car. Cook took a towering stance before
calling me over. While the other officer searched under the seats and behind
the steering wheel, Cook made polite conversation with the two disgruntled men
who sat on the curb casually. “It was a good car to stop,” said the other
officer as the car drove away since nothing illegal had been found.
Another driving force that furthers the distinct divide between
Officers and the common man can be seen in the following quote made by Officer
Ellis, “If people were half as educated as me-and I mean only half- then they
wouldn’t be calling for all their stupid bullshit.” Through this utterance it
is easy to see that Officers deem themselves as belonging to a higher level
than most people. This isn’t because they are cocky or narcissistic, it is
simply because they see the worst of society on a daily basis. Thus encouraging
them to generalize and associate the rest of society with what they observe. To
the police, the world is defined by the people they are forced to enforce.
Because the department regulates strong ties between its officers
and because the world outside of the cop car is defined by statistics and
generalizations, the police officer is removed from real reality. (My
Kindergarten teacher would die if she saw that I started a paragraph with the
word “because.” Hell, it was a sin to start a sentence with that blasphemous
word!) During their casual conversing, Stoffles and Cook seemed fascinated by
pop culture and even more fascinated by people’s fascination with it. To them,
they are outsiders looking in through a glass that surrounds the globe. They
merely spectate on interactions and popularizations. They are removed. The
officer operates on a realm made up of comradery and familiarity, which are
based on the badge that they all wear so close to their hearts. For these
reasons the relationship exists as follows: The Officer AND The People. Not:
The Officer as part of the people.
SECTION 2: The Policeman
Who Wants To Be Taken For a Walk
In this section I will explore the static state of the officer
as opposed to the dynamic activity that they so rarely get to partake in (in
Martinez). During my time in the ride alongs, there was hardly ever something
to respond to. Most of the time we cruised in the cruiser and chit-chatted
without anything pressing to do. Because we had so much time, Officer Cook
explained to me that there are many levels of service within the force. Most
officers start off in court security. Then they move up to Jail security and,
after they are seasoned enough, they are placed on street patrol. Cook
described his time in the jails as boring and static. “It’s the same thing
every day. You feed them (prisoners), watch them and then put them to sleep.”
He explained that most officers wait eagerly for the day that they get the privilege
to serve the streets. When I asked him which he preferred, without a second to
contemplate, he said, “The streets of course. Street patrol is great because it’s
different.” There is always a chance that something new will happen every day
as opposed to a strict routine that grows old and mundane increasingly over
time. It is possible that this harbors anxiety. Officers eagerly await action
because they all come into the force thinking, as Officer Cook put it, “that
it’s all about catching bad guys.”
When I was first calling to schedule my ride along appointment I
had the option to choose between many jurisdictions in East Bay. The Sergeant
who was in charge of placing me in whatever district I pleased, advertised the
ones with the highest crime rates. He said they were the ones with the “most
excitement.” “In bay point you have murders, rapes, gangs. It’s more exciting really.” He seemed surprised by
the fact that I was looking for someplace relatively quiet and peaceful. It
seems to me that because officers have to climb this ladder of
responsibilities, moving from static to dynamic environment, they tend to
associate violence with excitement. This can be dangerous because when officers
begin to look forward to these types of calls they might over-perform and
release all of their accumulated energies because they know they might not get
an opportunity like it for a while.
I wasn’t able to answer my first sub-question during my
investigation because something became evident during another stop. Later in
the dusky afternoon, Ellis called Cook for backup because he had stopped a van
that they were all too familiar with. On our way there Cook told me that the
lady who drove this van was a “meth whore” who solicited her body for
crystal-methamphetamine. Ellis explained that they weren’t interested in the
“meth whore” but rather in the people who were probably with her. “Every time I
stop that car that lady has someone we want in the passenger seats.” Apparently
this lady is a gold mine for criminal activity and every time they pull her
over they might as well yell “Eureka.” As I sat in the cop car waiting for Cook
to call me over, I observed a black woman, a Hispanic woman and a black man
uneasily step out and form a disgruntled row on the curb. They didn’t seem to
be hiding anything, but the officers didn’t think so. Their elbows pointed to
the sky as each of them was physically scanned from top to bottom.
All the while a middle aged Hispanic man watched from the
sidelines. He cursed at the badge-wearing referees in Spanish with a cigarette,
a beer, and a child at his side. Though none of them had a warrant like Ellis
had hoped, they were sure they’d find something and find something they did.
Cook stood near the cliff of the sidewalk with his arms at his hips, looking
like Zeus. His body was poised like a powerful triangle, with his arms pointing
at his guns, reminding them all that he was stronger. Then his stance was
broken when Ellis called him over. Eureka. In the back of her car lied layers upon
layers of metal. While the officers slowly pulled out the pieces, she told me
to jot down “too much fun” in my notebook. I smiled and continued to write that
she had told me to write that. The metal reflected her lies as she was asked to
explain their origin. She searched her head for excuses and finally, with an
uneasy grimace, blurted out, “I picked them up at a dumpster.” The officers
knew she was lying. They laughed at her answer and finally after being unable
to get a straight confession retreated back to their respective cars. I heard
Ellis say to the driver, as I climbed into my seat, “Now you have a suspended
license. Either park the car or just start driving after I leave.” I was so
confused.
When we began to drive off, I asked Cook why they hadn’t made an
arrest. “We can’t prove that any of that is stolen, even though it’s clearly
from a construction site. With Prop 47 passing it’s now just a misdemeanor even
if we were able to prove that it was stolen. That means we would just cite it
and drive away. There’s no point in going through all that hassle (paperwork)
just for a misdemeanor.” As we trickled down the narrow streets I finished
writing his reply in my notebook and then perched my head up subtly asking him
to tell me more. So he continued. “We have to be careful in what we get
ourselves into. Every criminal report takes time. A lot of time. If we spend
two to three hours filing a report we might miss something big, like a felony.
We can’t waste our time like that because we are so understaffed.” Because
Martinez is “so understaffed” I will not be able to answer that first
sub-question. However, because Martinez
has so little crime in general I will be able to attempt to validate the
second.
Most of the things that Officer have to report to, in Martinez,
are defined as “boring.” An uneventful series of events that string together to
make up their day. Near the end of one particular day, while the night slowly
enveloped the car, the two officers received a call. The intercom stated that a
lady had called 911 to report that “her ex-boyfriend keeps calling and texting
her.” The two policemen, whose cars were positioned in such a way that their
driver-side windows aligned with each other, began to laugh at the
ridiculousness of the so-called “emergency.” Officer Cook took out his
cellphone and typed in her phone number. The two men mimicked the woman they
hadn’t met. “Like, oh my gawsh, my boyfriend and I like broke up like a while
ago and he’s like not over me,” Cook said aloud in a valley girl dialect. Ellis
responded, “Well then block his number, honey!” The two continued to joke until
the woman answered the phone. Immediately their smiles faded and a stoic look
overcame Cook’s face. His voice grew stern and responsible. The woman explained
to him that she and this man had broken up more than a week ago and that he
hadn’t stopped calling or texting her since. The heart-sick lover had also
shown up to her apartment earlier that day. Cook resolved the conflict by quickly calling
the ex-boyfriend and telling him that he could be arrested for stalking. In a
matter of minutes the situation was resolved and once again silence fell over
the police scanner. The men informed me that most days this is all it is.
Boring calls that can be solved with a phone call. Hours of waiting followed by
minutes of minute issues.
This provokes me to believe that these men grow restless and
become dogs waiting to be taken for a walk. Everyday officers have energy that
they cannot externalize because they have nothing physically demanding to do.
For the remainder of that day we sat in an empty parking lot discussing movies
and hobbies. But not once did we have the opportunity to respond to a crime. If
most of these men joined the force in pursuit of exciting action only to find
that there is mostly all but that, then I would expect these men to become
restless. During my conversations on this subjects, it seemed to me that
officers looked forward to, what Officer Ellis calls “fun shit.” But looking
forward to this can provoke a violent response. Due to the rarity of violent
situations, officers may inflict all of their violent retaliation potential in
a single response call because they’ve been sitting in a cop car for hours.
Think of it like a soda can. If you shake one up and leave it sitting, it will
explode as the bubbles inside it expand. The pressure is released. The same
occurs with cops who join expecting a lot of “excitement” and get none. When
they finally do, they explode in every direction usually resulting in a mess
that has to be settled in court.
SECTION 3: Sir, yes
offiSIR!
In this section I will address my third sub-question, where I
ask if a military mentality causes army-veteran officers to demean the citizens
that they are supposed to protect and serve. Based off of the information that
I provided in the first section, it is safe to say that there are many factors
that provoke officers to believe that any citizen poses a threat. As Cook put
it, “In the academy we were taught that any man can be a dangerous man, even a
man in handcuffs.” This mindset is very warranted, however, it can manifest
itself violently because it builds the metaphorical platform that officers are
at war with citizens who can ambush and strike at any moment. Uniform vs.
Casual wear. Though this mentality is constructed within the academy,
former-military officers are all the more susceptible to it because they have
been trained to embrace it throughout their military careers. In the military,
recruits are taught that “everyone not on your side wants to kill you.” This
mental training prepares them for the battlefield where this can be very true.
Zachary Gore, a 20 year old who is currently in the Marines, has filled me in
with a lot of information about the kind of mind-morphing that goes on within
military fences.
Like I said at the beginning of this writing, recruits are
separated extensively from the outside world to allow them to cope with the
psychological difficulties that the military presents. An instance that was
described to me by a former classmate of mine named Wyatt Westhoff really
reinforced that fact. “Every time we move from base to base, we are ordered to
put our heads in-between our legs so that we don’t look out the windows.” In
the army this separation from society is crucial to invoke a hard-working,
blindly-following piece of property. By not looking out the windows, recruits
slowly forget about the outside world. Eventually, all they know is the
military, all they eat is their gun, and all they breathe is their uniform. If
the mind of a private remains in the outside world, too many of his pre-formed beliefs
will encourage and discourage certain tasks that he is asked to performed.
Questioning is not good in the military because you are obligated to follow any
demand yelled in your direction. The kind of separation from the outside world
that exists in the military is very similar to the separation between an
officer and normal civilian life.
The separation can also very physical and observable to the
naked eye. For instance, a uniform is only worn by those who deserve it. The
men and women who successfully pass through military training are awarded with
a sleek uniform that makes others of their kind more identifiable in war and in
life. The same thing occurs with Policemen and women. They get to wear that
uniform because they went through months of hard work to obtain it. The path to
becoming an officer is rigorous and hard, resulting in pride. Pride puts these
men and women on pedestals, where they can look down at the average citizen.
“It’s not that you think you’re better. You know you’re better” said Zach as we
walked down Pier 39 in San Francisco. Marines and Police Officers are prepared
for months so that they may get to walk in the positions they do. To become an
officer of the law you have to pass a written exam, a physical agility exam, a
psychological profile exam, a medical exam and a background check. Only after
passing all these tests are you allowed into the academy, where you have to
pass a test a week. Sometimes the entire process takes a year. That fact alone
means that officer find pride in their successful completion of it. They feel
like Hercules after he completed his 12 labors. When I asked Zach to explain
what he meant, he elaborated. “Pride is involved. You see yourself at a higher
level because no one else had to do what you had to.” Now here Zach is talking
about the Marines, but this is still very applicable to the Police force since
they share so many similarities. Officer Cook himself said that the structure
of the police force is “paramilitary.” “Lieutenant, Sergeant, Officer,
Corporal, and Captain are all positions you’ll find in law enforcement and in
the US Army,” said Cook when I asked if the Police force was structured like
the military. “Everyone has someone to report to and take orders from.” I asked
Cook if there were any ex-military men staffed on the force. He replied that “A
lot of our recruits had former careers in the military.” In fact, about 1/3 of
prospective law-enforcers, in the academy, have prior military experience.
According to Cook, the Sheriff department actually looks for men and women with
military experience. This is because, he says, “They’re good at taking orders.
They’re conditioned to take orders.”
In the military, recruits are forced to think about things they
wouldn’t ever think about in their civilian lives. Zach says it’s because they
are held to “a higher standard.” By this he means that they are forced to pay
so much attention to trivial details. For instance, the military uniform has so
many intricate specifications that make it complete. I found a 303 page
pamphlet on Military uniform specifications on a research database that
addresses everything from collar maintenance to hat positioning. These men and
women have so much expected from them because they must adhere to all of these
qualifications. This excessive attention to detail helps them distinguish
between a sloppy uniform and a tidy one. Privates are supposed to correct any
negligence seen on the bodies of their peers. For example if one of their
comrades has their shirt sticking out, then they have to remind them to correct
it and inform their captain so that they may be properly punished. Things that
most normal citizens wouldn’t consider “wrong” are highly frowned upon inside
the military tree and all of its branches. Other examples of behavior that is
marked as “wrongful” or “disorderly” include things like language, stance and
overall demeanor. Marines are scolded if they swear, or if they slouch. They
might receive punishment for sitting at a table with their legs up or leaning
against a post. It is also completely terrible to spit and talk on a
cellphone/text/eat/drink while walking. All of these punishable actions are
things that I did the day I typed this sentence and I probably did the day you
read this. The military labels normal citizen behavior as rude, lazy, stupid,
primitive and animalistic.
So how does this affect a military man/woman’s view of everyday
people? Greatly. There is much that the common man overlooks and this causes a
distinction that goes further than whether or not someone is wearing a uniform.
While Zach and I walked, he pointed at a group of men in front of us. The three
men were buddies who laughed loudly and playfully shoved one another. Gore then
continued to state, “His shirt is not tucked in, his back is slouched and his
hands are in his pockets.” He said it with disgust. The military man views the
common man with sneer snootiness. To the men in uniforms, we are lazy, nonchalant,
laid-back and overly relaxed. “You guys take so much for granted.” Private Gore
described the average civilian as, “asleep and unaware of themselves.” We,
normal citizens, don’t have too many specifications to follow. We are free and
we do as we please, but officials condemn us for this. Gore said that civilians
are most commonly referred to with the phrase: “looks like trash.” A lot of
this stems from the fact that this excessive attention to detail creates an
overactive mind. A mind that cannot rest, it always pay attention to what most
people don’t pay attention to. So, by noticing things that others don’t, a new
world view is formed. And since most of the world doesn’t conform to the
military man’s view of what is “proper” or “professional” then they hold themselves
to a superior status. This happens all the time and most commonly between the
rich and the poor. The rich have access to things like education and pastimes,
whereas, the poor have to scavenge for time to relax and learn on the job as
opposed to in a classroom. So when the two groups interact, one group holds themselves
higher than the other because they both have such distinct views on the world.
An opulent person might think he/she is smarter that a poor man/woman because
the latter speaks with a grammatically disproportionate lexicon. The same
dichotomy prevails in a normal civilian’s relationship to an official.
We are below them because we don’t adhere to their standards. Apparently
if we civilians want respect then we have to act like we want it. To officials,
acting like we want respect, entails embodying the extensive qualifications only
they are exposed to. In the military, “If you want to be treated
professionally, then you need to act professionally.” But this presents a
problem. In a sense, it creates a different language, a different culture that
one of the classes cannot learn or adapt to. The only way an individual from a
certain class can adhere to these hidden policies is by joining that other
class. Maybe I should start wearing shirt-stays? Evidently, learning the
language of officials is essential because they will always have more power
than the common man. This is due to the fact that they embody the law, which
dictates everything. The common man is governed by the law and is, thus,
governed by police officers and military personnel. Though they may earn less
than a CEO with a net worth filled with many commas, they still maintain power
over him. When I asked Officer Cook what
he thought might explain people’s change in behavior when they saw a cop car,
he said, “We are a reminder that there are rules to follow.” So, in a sense, cops
themselves are symbols for the law they coordinate and regulate.
What else might cause this overly-present distinction? Labeling
might play a big part. To civilians, officers are referred to in a number of
ways. Some labels are intentionally derogatory like “pigs.” But cops are also
objectively referred to as “the 5-o, coppers, and po-po.” This language
distinguishes one sector of the population from another. Officials commonly
refer to anyone without a uniform as “civilians.” These vocabularies harbor and
maintain the dichotomy. The distinction is made clearer when you have the
ability to categorize an entire section of the population with a single word.
The point is that people and officials don’t seem to think that they are rooted
in common ground. They each inhabit different worlds, different lifestyles. Through
this, the position of the officer in society is elevated.
Another verbal cue that reinforces the belief that I mentioned
in the former sentence comes in the form of titles. When you successfully
complete training and receive a position in the military or police force, you
are awarded with a title. Zach Gore becomes “Private Gore.” Kevin Cook becomes
“Officer Cook.” Your name changes with your position. You become something
higher than you once were. You become more than you used to be. Through this
succession, you associate yourself with others of the same title and belittle
those who haven’t “earned” one. A sense of respect comes with a title, which
can even lead to a sense of entitlement. Language like this defines and divides
the people. Distinctions are cordially labeled, which only makes them more
obvious. Being a police officer or a private becomes more than just a job, it
becomes an enhancement. For some reason, it seems to validate your supposed superiority
in the same way that a PhD validates someone’s intellect. Doctors hold
themselves higher than most societal beings, as do Officers, Lieutenants and
Privates. Since Police Officers see themselves as higher than the average man,
we become sheep and they become shepherds. In a sense, they babysit us and
scold us when we forget the laws of mother nurture. I say “nurture” because
none of us are born knowing the laws of society that officials are experts on.
Although, it can be argued that morality is dictated by human nature.
In the military, personnel are trained to respond to violence
with physicality. Boot Camp and Arms Training prepare recruits for combat.
During this time, recruits are conditioned to use their muscles over their mind
to solve mishaps. If someone comes at you with a fist, you fire a fist back.
Indoctrinating this mentality is crucial in a war zone, when you have to react
quickly or you risk losing your life. It is much safer to shoot before you have
the chance to be shot at. During these camps, drill instructors teach their disciples
how to categorize and view the enemy. The enemy is defined and there are no exceptions
when dealing with said enemy. You point, you cock, and you shoot. These
disassociations become associated with violence, rage and opposition. The
military man disassociates himself from the enemy so feelings of empathy and
sympathy will not jump in front of his gun to block a bullet. But while they
disassociate themselves from the enemy, military personnel also remove
themselves from the average citizen. The disassociation is most evident in the
way that military property refer to normal citizens as “civilians.” Military
personnel are intentionally disassociated from everyone so that they may ensure
their own safety. “If you only think of yourself, then you probably will
survive,” Wyatt said about combat technique. But this causes men and women to
remove themselves from the normal workings of average life.
Military men find it extremely difficult to reacquaint
themselves with everyday life because the skills that they have learned are no
longer applicable. So when a veteran comes back into the mundane ticks and
tocks of normal societal existence, he/she doesn’t feel a part of his/her
environment. He/she feels removed. He/she is disassociated. So he/she finds it
harder to empathize and sympathize with the common man. Through this lack of
empathy, the military man will not be reluctant to use the only thing
(violence) that he has learned during his 4 years (or more) in the military
against the common man. This is because he no longer identifies with the
average, suit wearing, gum chewing, money spending, movie watching, average Joe.
So, I ask, what happens when a veteran becomes a police officer? Is it easier
for him to use violence because it is all that he has learned? Is it easier for
him to use violence because he no longer feels sympathy for those he has power
over? It certainly seems to be the case. In part, because the law enforcement
agency is structured so similarly to the military tree. It becomes so easy for
a veteran to assimilate oneself in an environment that fosters the same
mentalities and looks rather the same.
A few paragraphs ago, I typed about the fact that police
departments happily seek former-military men and women because they are good at
taking orders. These men and women are all too fluent in the realms of violent
response and since they have been conditioned to retaliate violently to
whatever enemy they face, they most probably will. Since officers see
themselves at war with citizens (due to the fact that there is always a chance
that any civilian wants to hurt you) then veteran police officers can reassign their
former hostility towards an enemy and redirect it towards the common man. The similarities
between the two realms make it easier for the mentality of the military to find
a home within the police department. In the police department there is even a
great emphasis in attire specifications.
Police men and women have to wear as many intricate devices as
the next military man. When Officer Ellis, Officer Cook and I stood outside on
a sidewalk conversing, Ellis’ attention kept wandering. His eyes would fall
from eye level to fix themselves somewhere on Cook’s lower body. Ellis’ fingers
twiddled nervously and eventually he broke the conversation to say, “I’m sorry
but this is bugging the hell out of me. Tuck your shirt in Cook.” Cook smiled
but Ellis retained his serious expression until Cook finished fixing his
shirt-stay. Now the shirt-stay is also found throughout the military, it is a
device that makes sure your shirt, well, stays in place. A good Officer will
have a flat shirt subside under the crevice of his pants. This instance showed
me that there is a lot of attention to detail present in the police force.
Which, like I mentioned, can harbor a feeling of superiority against those that
are ignorant to such intricate specifications. These types of similarities make
it easier for a former-military official to assimilate his/herself into the environment
that is the police force. The similarities seem to supplement the easy
transition. This means that the military mentality remains since their new
environment isn’t all that new. In fact, the police force has become
increasingly military-like.
“The Militarization of the Police Force” is a rising phenomenon.
Police men and women wear military gear and even use military weapons. They
point the gun to imply shooting, as opposed to drawing the gun only when they
are about shoot (the former is a militaristic behavior). The public is slowly
falling into a war they didn’t know they were drafted for. A war within the
confines of their neighborhoods. A war against those who they once thought were
there to protect them. Evidently, people are now more scared of police people
than ever. People slow their cars down when passing a cop to avoid any sort of
interaction because in the back of their minds they know it could not end very
well for them. This furthers the divide between the police and the people. The
dichotomy is now being realized on both sides. Citizens still and, probably
will, remain separate.
SECTION 4:
Physicality over Mentality
These last two sections, as you have noticed, are very
assumptive. They are more theoretical than observational. However, I am drawing
these conclusions and beliefs from the objective observations I have gathered.
Both of these sections are very different from the first two, which is why I
have chosen to place them at the bottom of my investigative report. This final section will do
the same as the one before. It will draw its source material from numerous
interactions that I have garnered and jotted down into my orange notebook. In
this section I will specifically address my fourth sub-question, which asks if
the Police Academy itself promotes a physical response over a mental one. When
I say “mental” I refer to behaviors that heavily rely on the mind to operate
effectively like speaking. Making words come out of your moth is very reliant
on the brain and its operating systems. It is for this reason that physical
damage to brain can result in speaking difficulty like Aphasia, which inhibits
a speaker’s ability to speak clearly and comprehend the dialogue others relay.
Earlier, I touched on the idea that officials should embody mentality over
physicality since they condemn physical atrocities like violence and abuse. It
is reasonable to expect the government and all of its affiliates to respond to
situations with rationale instead of muscle power. Even when a cop is ordered to respond to a
physical atrocity being committed, his/her demeanor should remain verbal and
mental. It would be hypocritical for a cop to strike a man and then book him
for striking another man. The police force should embody and symbolize the laws
they regulate and enforce.
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Officers to
equip themselves with ideas and rational thought because their very training
inhibits them from doing so. Also, a person who is more or less intellectually
constrained will resort to finding occupation in the police force because of
its strong association with physicality. Cops are trained to perform better
physically than mentally. It all starts before the Police Academy. Like I
mentioned before, there are many exams that an officer must successfully pass
in order to wear a badge. The very first of which is an exam that tests your
general knowledge and intellect. Now this might contradict what I have said in
the preceding sentences but I assure you that this is no SAT. “This written
exam tests you on both writing and mathematics” Officer Cook said, “You (Chris
(me)) will have no trouble passing it, considering you’re a third year at
Berkeley.” I asked him about the nature of the exam and he told me that it was
“all very general.” The reason this test is so broad is because those who take
it will not know what is going to be on it. How can one study for a test whose
content is not disclosed? The test, in result, must be structured in such a way
that it doesn’t demand too much prior knowledge. It must test on things
everyone has access to and everyone will probably know.
A young man named Anthony Huacuja has taken all the exams
necessary on the road to becoming a police officer. In a few weeks, he will
start working at the jails. Since Anthony is a friend of mine and a prospective
police officer, he was an ideal person to interview. Over the phone, I spoke
with Anthony about some of our old shared experiences. We talked about our
intrinsic lives and our external environments. I told him I have been stressed
and he told me he had been too. Then I began to navigate the conversation
towards his experiences in and before the academy. I asked him about the test
and he told me everything he could. I was very careful to make sure I didn’t
sound like I was belittling him since I was investigating the simple nature of
the exam. I asked him about the academic rigor that the test demanded. He told
me that “The English and Math (portions of the exam) is basic high school
skills.” So anyone who graduated from high school should be able to pass this
exam. Anthony did, however, mention that one part of the test was challenging.
“The reading comprehension was a little tough because it is
tricky. You have to identify misspelled words.” When I called the Sherriff’s
Hiring and Recruitment Offices, I respectfully asked about the exam. The lady
operator connected me to another man who answered my plethora of questions.
“The exam” he said patiently, “is 60 questions and you get an hour and a half
to take it. It’s similar to the SAT but, it obviously won’t be as difficult as
the SAT.” When I asked him how many questions I would have to answer correctly
to pass he stated, “There is no set number. It varies. So I wouldn’t be able to
tell you. But it’s safe to aim for 40 out of 60.” That’s a D. Also, there is
always an opportunity to retake the exam if one fails. The very fact that the
test doesn’t have a set passing score leads me to believe that departments reserve
the right to hire those who score below 40. I doubt the exam’s passing-score-bar
is ever moved up. The reason I doubt this is because the rest of the path to
become an officer involves too much physicality, which is most clearly seen
once you have been admitted into the academy. “After you pass that (written
exam) you have to take the physical agility test. Then after passing that you
will have to complete and submit 17 pages of application forms along with providing
us with all needed documentation. Things like birth certificate, passport, and
social security. Then we will conduct a background investigation and then a psychological
examination and lastly a medical examination. After passing all these you will
then be admitted into the academy.”
The psychological examination is one of the strangest tests I
have ever heard about. Huacuja says that “they hook you up to a polygraph and
ask you questions like ‘Have you ever had sex with an animal?’ or ‘Have you
ever done drugs?’” “The answers to these questions really impact whether or not
you become an officer,” Officer Cook said, he paused to listen to the police
scanner and then continued, “It’s really about how honest you are.” The psychological
exam, which is mediated by a polygraph machine, asks prospective police
officers if they have tried all sorts of drugs. The test favors those who have
not experimented with many. An interesting article, published in Psychology
Today and titled “Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs,” stated that a study
found “that more intelligent individuals are more likely to consume
all types of psychoactive drugs than less intelligent individuals.”
Intelligence was measured by IQ, of course. This goes to show that the police
force, through its extensive analysis tends to prefer and hire people with
lower IQ’s. This is a pretty big statement and I am aware of that, but like I
said before I am just making subjective assumptions from objective material.
But since smarter individuals are usually in search for more knowledge, thus
provoking them to continue their education at Universities and Colleges, the
Police Force seems like a physical alternative to that. There is a stereotype
that is associated with the police man in popular culture and culture in
general and it is that: The high school jock or football player who wasn’t very
smart will never leave town and end up marrying his high school sweetheart,
while being employed as a petty police officer. Officer Stoffles addressed this
by saying, “You see me and Cook went to college. We’re somewhat educated and
that’s dangerous to have in this job.”
.
When one gets to the academy, the material that
is presented and tested on relates to the police force. Throughout the 6
months, you are constantly faced with physical tests. They make you do push-ups
and train you to do more. “The exams in the academy are generally about cop
work and police work in general. And they go over all that beforehand” said
Officer Cook as we pulled up to the BART station. I was preparing my materials
so that I may leave. “There is a test a week. Shooting, driving, chemical
weaponry.” All of his examples delved into the physical realm. The Police
Academy is not a good judgment of intellect because it teaches you the subject
right before you’re tested on it. Its structure reminds me of summer school,
which most students tend to pass with less difficulties because the information
is still fresh in your brain by the time you’re tested on it. Now something
interesting is that the Sherriff’s department encourages the hiring of those
with college degrees. Cook said that there are actually pay incentives for
those with a bachelors, associates or masters. “They want the people with
degrees.” But, sadly, those with degrees are quickly moved up the chain of
command. If you have a degree you are more likely to become a sergeant or a
lieutenant, leaving all the degree-less patrolling the streets. There have been
numerous studies that suggest that people with lower IQ’s are more likely to
use violence. If in the police force, smarter individuals leave the streets,
rookies and lower IQ individuals remain in close contact with people. Making
violent interactions all the more likely.
So, the academy teaches you to respond to things physically and
the overall process of becoming a cop favors lower IQ individuals. The only
test that might actually measure your mental capacity can become rather curved.
In all, the police department needs non-inquisitive folk because “they are better
at taking orders.” But the drug-using, question asking men and women are
usually more intelligent and rarely ever hired to be placed behind a badge. The
more intelligent tend to address situations with more rationale. Brute force is
barbaric, since humans have the capacity to discuss and solve problems with
their mouths. But, the police system favors and conditions its officers to
think with their fists. Poke an eye even if yours hasn’t been poked. Shoot a
gun even if you haven’t been rightfully provoked.
THE END
Finally, you’re at the end of this
text. Look above you and feel happy that you have read all that. Too many
words, I know. I apologize. But all of those letters were crucial because
without them I wouldn’t have words and sentences and without many sentences I
wouldn’t be able to form paragraphs and without paragraphs I wouldn’t be able
to present an argument or even deliver an idea. Now the first part of the writing you have just read is rather anthropological since its content is founded in mere objective
observations (The words “objective” and “observation” have the same initial
syllabic morpheme for a reason). The second half is very much structured like a
sociological evaluation. It is broad and makes strong arguments that can’t
really be proven without more research, which I plan to pursue. But both of
those sections were crucial because I believe that observations inherently spark
thought and opinion. I would much rather describe and then assess the world,
rather than sit back and take it for what it is. A lot of work went into
scheduling interviews and ride alongs. So I wanted to milk the time that I
spent to the best of my ability. I did this by forming explanations, beliefs,
and questions that I strove to answer.
I hope my writings have shed a light on the public shadow that
is the police department. I hope that I have shown you that policemen and women
aren’t inherently violent, they are merely conditioned to be. It is not their
fault, it is part of what the job entails. Police people operate on a different
realm than most of us because they have been trained to see the world
differently. I hold my answers to my sub-questions near and dear. I believe this
text holds a lot of truth. I tried to explain the occurrence of violent
retaliation in the police force without bias. I merely gathered all of the
information I have collected in my head and in my notebook and poured it all
out onto these pages. Now, it is up to you to believe me or not. After all I am
just a human trying to explain the world around him. I could very well say that
there is a Police Brutality God that regulates violence within the police
force. That explanation could hold just as much truth as the one I have
provided.
The common man is dying. There is a schism in our midst. A disappearing gap between the governed and the government. Between predator and prey. Soon the middle will be no more. There will be no "average" no "common". Through separation, alienation, and desolation, society itself is creating the conditions for a battle between the police force and the citizens it "protects and serves." A revolution resulting from the evolution of an unnecessary dichotomy. Remember that we are all people. We all live and we all die. This seemingly inevitable separation will only cause problems. So remember that we are the police and the police is us. So, now I conclude my long accumulation of phrases and prepositions with a short sentence.