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Why Are Police in the USA so Terrified? National Crisis: The Routine Killing of Innocent Civilians by the Police

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By Robert J. Burrowes

In a recent incident in the United States, yet another unarmed man was shot dead by police after opening his front door in response to their knock. The police were going to serve an arrest warrant on a domestic violence suspect – the man’s neighbour – but went to the wrong address. See ‘Police kill innocent man while serving warrant at wrong address’.

For those who follow news in the United States, the routine killing of innocent civilians by the police has become a national crisis despite concerted attempts by political and legal authorities and the corporate media to obscure what is happening. See ‘Killed by Police’ and ‘The Counted: People killed by police in the US’.

So far this year, US police have killed 1,044 people. In contrast, from 1990 to 2016, police in England and Wales killed just 62 people. See ‘Fatal police shootings’.

Of course, these murders by the police are just the tip of the iceberg of police violence as police continue to demonstrate that the freedoms ‘guaranteed’ by the Fourth Amendment have been eviscerated. See ‘What Country Is This? Forced Blood Draws, Cavity Searches and Colonoscopies’.

So why are the police so violent? you might ask. Well, several scholars have offered answers to this question and you can read a little about what they say in these articles reviewing recent books on the subject. See ‘The Fraternal Order of Police Must Go’ and ‘Our Ever-Deadlier Police State’.

While there is much in these works with which I agree – such as the racism in US policing and the corruption of the legal system which is used to violently manage oppressed peoples in the name of ‘justice’ while leaving the individuals, banks and corporations on Wall Street unaccountable for their endless, ongoing and grotesque crimes against society, the economy and the environment – I would like to pose a deeper question: Why are police in the USA so terrified? This is the important question because only people who are terrified resort to violence, even in the context of policing. Let me explain why this is the case and how it has occurred in the police context in the USA.

Violence does not arise ‘out of nowhere’. And, sadly, its origin can be traced to what is euphemistically called the ‘socialization’ of children but which is more accurately labeled ‘terrorization’. You might think that this sounds extreme but if you spend some time considering the phenomenal violence – ‘visible’, ‘invisible’ and ‘utterly invisible’ – that we adults inflict on children during the ordinary course of the day – see Why Violence? and Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice– while deluding ourselves that we are preparing them to become just, decent and powerful citizens, then you might be willing to reconsider your concept of what it means to nurture children. Tragically, we are so far from any meaningful understanding of this notion, that it is not even possible to generate a widespread social discussion about how we might go about it.

So, having terrorized children into submission so that they unthinkingly and passively accept their preordained role in life – to act as a cog in a giant and destructive enterprise which they are terrorized into not questioning and over which they have no control – each of them takes their place in the global ‘economy’ wherever they can find a set of tasks that feels least painful. The idea of seeking their true path in order to search out their own unique destiny never even occurs to most of them and so they lead ‘shadow lives’ endlessly suppressing their awareness of the life that might have been.

Some of these individuals end up as recruits at a police training facility, where they are further terrorized into believing an elite-sponsored ideology that precludes genuine appreciation of the diversity of people in the community they will later police (that is, terrorize) in the name of ‘law and order’. After all, elite social control is more readily maintained when people, including the police, live in fear.

Police training further terrorizes the individuals involved and militarizes policing by encouraging recruits ‘to adopt a “warrior” mentality and think of the people they are supposed to serve as enemies’; the equipment they use, such as battering rams, flashbang grenades and Armoured Personnel Carriers, evoke a sense of war. See ‘War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing’.

But it doesn’t end with terrorization during childhood and then police training. Police practice functions within a long-standing cultural framework which has both wider social dimensions and narrower, localized ones. And this cultural framework has been changing, more quickly in recent years too. Unfortunately, more than ever before, this framework is increasingly driven by fear and older, delusional social expectations that police are there to maintain public safety or defend the community from criminal violence have given way to militarized assumptions, language and procedures that regard virtually everyone (and certainly indigenous people and people of color) as both dangerous and guilty until proven otherwise and treat the family home and car as targets to be ‘neutralized’ with military-style tactics and weapons. And this trend has been accelerated under Donald Trump. See ‘Trump to lift military gear ban for local police’.

By triggering fear and using military-style tactics and weapons, however, the very essence of the relationship between police and civilians is more rapidly, completely and detrimentally transformed in accord with elite interests. It equates law-enforcement with counter-terrorism and community safety with social control.

Fundamentally, of course, this plays its part in ensuring minimal effective resistance to the broader elite agenda to secure militarized control of the world’s populations and resources for elite benefit.

This transformation in the relationship between police and civilians has been accelerated by training US police in the use of military tactics that the Israeli military employs against the occupied Palestinians. See ‘Israel trains US law-enforcement in counter-terrorism’.

But consider the implications of this.

As Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University, has noted in discussing this phenomenon: US police are learning paramilitary and counterinsurgency tactics from the Israeli military, border patrol and intelligence services, which enforce military law.

‘If American police and sheriffs consider they’re in occupation of neighborhoods like Ferguson and East Harlem, this training is extremely appropriate – they’re learning how to suppress a people, deny their rights and use force to hold down a subject population’. See ‘US Police Get Antiterror Training In Israel’.

Moreover, the most tangible evidence that the militarized training is having an impact on US policing is that both Israel and the US are using identical equipment against demonstrators, according to a 2013 report by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem and photographs of such equipment taken at three demonstrations in the USA. ‘Tear gas grenades, “triple chaser” gas canisters and stun grenades made by the American companies Combined Systems Inc. and Defense Technology Corp. were used in all three U.S. incidents, as well as by Israeli security forces and military units.’ See ‘US Police Get Antiterror Training In Israel’.

Given the sheer terror that drives Israeli military policy towards occupied and militarily undefended Palestine, it is little wonder that this fear is transmitted as part of any training of US police. All knowledge and technology is embedded with emotion, and fear is utterly pervasive in any military activity. Especially when it is directed in pursuit of unjust ends.

So what can we do?

If you are interested in working to reduce police fear and violence, you will get plenty of ideas in the document ‘A Toolkit for Promoting Justice In Policing’ which is summarized here: ‘15 Things Your City Can Do Right Now to End Police Brutality’.

If you want to organize a nonviolent action while reducing police fear to minimize the risk of police violence, there is a comprehensive list of guidelines here: ‘Nonviolent Action: Minimizing the Risk of Violent Repression’.

If you want to work towards ending the underlying fear that drives police (and other) violence, consider making ‘My Promise to Children’. In essence, if you want powerful individuals who are capable of resisting elite social control, including that implemented through police violence, then don’t expect children terrorized into obedience by parents, teachers and religious figures to later magically have this power.

And if you are inclined to resist violence in other contexts, consider participating in The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth, signing the online pledge of The Peoples Charter to Create a Nonviolent World and/or using the strategic framework explained in Nonviolent Campaign Strategy for your peace, environmental or social justice campaign.

Why are the police so terrified? Essentially because they were terrorized as children and then terrorized during police training to violently defend elite interests against the rest of us. Elite control depends on us being too terrified to defend ourselves against their violence.

If humans are to survive this elite-driven onslaught, we need people courageous enough to resist police violence and other elite-driven violence strategically. Can we count on you?

Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of Why Violence? His email address is [email protected] and his website is here.

The original source of this article is Global Research

Copyright © Robert J. Burrowes, Global Research, 2017

https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-are-police-in-the-usa-so-terrified-national-crisis-the-routine-killing-of-innocent-civilians-by-the-police/5618325


Articles by: Robert J. Burrowes

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. The Center of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author’s copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: [email protected]

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

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    Total 17 comments
    • 72FX

      There should be a course to take on how not to get killed by police.

      • Anonymous

        wear a dunkin donuts hat.

      • Rockledge

        There already is one. It is taught by all decent people and, when society was still decent and poverty wasn’t an excuse for becoming a criminal, was taught by society at large.

        That lesson consists of one sentence: ” Obey the law”.

        • Just me

          The law (constitution) and the law (police) are two different things. I obey the constitution, not unconstitutional militarized police. Studies show that EVERY adult commits numerous felonies in their lives – mostly without knowing it. Police used to serve and protect. Now they have become tax collectors and tyrants.

          • Rockledge

            Bullshit with an exponent of 3.
            The same laws and same legal system govern the system.
            Much as it is flawed, one of the flaws is that there are those who are “protected species” and treated like the spotted owl, who seem to think themselves immune to the law.

            Of course there are bad cops, but it isn’t like it was in the 60s and 70s when cops were mostly unmonitored and did as they fucking pleased.

            Now cops are under insane scrutiny, and most of the time the media picks up on a situation where a cop had to shoot a criminal, it was indeed a criminal , someone in the process of committing a crime then committing a second crime by either fleeing, shooting at, or resisting police.

            That isn’t the fault of police, it is the fault of taxpayers and criminals alike, who refuse to back the cops.

            We live in a society that pampers criminals and disdains law and order, the same way we now live in a society that is genetically declining and with it intellectually declining.

            I think one of the best things that could happen is that for ALL police forces shutting down.
            If that happened, the law abiding citizens of this country would end up at war with criminals.
            After the dust settled, we could all go back to being a society with laws that count and morale structure.
            WITHOUT all of the crying and whining.

            I blame all of this breakdown in society on our politicians, particularly republicans who pretend to back the working man but in fact will pass any law that benefits corporations and fucks anyone with intelligence and ambition.
            While at the same time, starting with reagan , have flooded us with un-evolved sub humans who are merely here to snatch what they can grab and send it home, while dragging down the work force to slave labor wages.

            After all, when the government does not enforce the laws that protect society the most, then there is no law.

            Our problem is not the police, it is those who command them to go into battle while at the same time refusing to back and enforce our laws except when it is convenient to their causes.

            Our only hope is to quit voting for ALL republicans and democrats, all of whom no longer are chosen by CITIZENS, but chosen by the media.

            We need to clean up congress if any of this is to ever get fixed.
            Which can only be done by replacing our entire government, from the top down, through the election process.

            Blaming cops for the herds stupidity is not the answer, it only feeds the problem.

    • a.colts

      It’s more understandable when you relises psychopaths become police officers so that there is a viel over there crimes. I have whittnessed this many times psycho cops doing one thing then lying out there ass to justify the resulting injuries. I have seen this in to many cops all across the country. Cops where I grew up using the Patriot act to ransac my car searching for what they knew I didn’t have. Getting stopped and frisked in Ohio after new York enacted legislation. Getting held in jail all week because court not in session for memorial day 2009 for an underage consumption. Being torchered during this same time by being forcefully strapped to a suicide chair for requesting a doctor because I was having panic attacks. But let me not forget June 2008 in Tennessee while visiting the Bonnaroo festival being stopped by an on foot officer for not wearing my seat belt crossing the street from the Bonnaroo grounds to the gas station. The subsequent confiscation of my medications for traumatic brain injury because they thought that was drugs. Also on was to Bonnaroo the cop that intimidated me with arrest because some hillbilly toothless bitch gas station attendant gave me to much change back then stormed out the gas station like I did something wrong. The police in delphos Ohio who stole my wife’s keys and broke into our home ultimately tazeing me in bed because they thought I was a drug dealer. I wasn’t so the report was doctored to make it seem as the guilty one wasn’t even there. The van Wert Ohio police dept swarming me and my wife are our banks ATM because we looked suspicious. The van Wert county denying me a lawyer on multiple occasions even though I’m on SSI. Cops are psychopaths who chose this profession because they can injure, name, even kill others and as long as they say I feared for my life there in the clear. What better way for psychopaths to insure job security while still being evil individuals who can get the state to pay for their defence and also get preferential treatment.

    • Anonymous

      Because the zio-fags control them. Dumb a$$.

    • Hi NSA, kiss my artichoke

      The WW2 vets that used to make up a large part of the police forces across the country, are pretty much gone now.
      Common sense, decency, respect for fellow citizens, are gone with them. :cry:
      Now we have mostly, not all to be fair, thugs in black, (kinda like what your terrorists favor in fashion).
      The days of an Andy Griffith policing are LOOOOOOONNNNGGGG gone.

      • merlgerl

        You are 100% correct! I remember years ago, if it happened to be a state bull that pulled you over, you knew he was going to be an experienced man with patience and if the violation wasn’t too serious you’d probably just get a warning. Not anymore! The arbitrary writing of multiple tickets cause they didnt find drugs or arresting a young person on a minor indiscretion can ruin young lives and cops used to think hard before they did that. Not anymore! A cop used to go into the job willing to take a bullet for a citizen or a suspect in their charge, it was in their job description. Not anymore!

        • Rockledge

          This is very true, see my above post.

          Back then cops were also prudent and mostly without agendas.
          I am an old hippie, and got followed all around by cops.
          I’ve had cops pull me over plenty of times when I was young, just to check me out and make sure I wasn’t into something unacceptable.
          I always acted like a gentleman, no matter how insulting, intimidating , or rude the cop was.
          I always complied with them. And cops were then left with the judgement call.
          I was never arrested or taken downtown.
          Had I been, I would not have resisted and would have complied with them.
          Because doing otherwise is just plain stupid.
          I use to drink, a lot. I have been pulled over for a tail light out or some silly shit before, and cops have questioned me while I was under the influence. I was always in control of both my functions and emotions, never badmouthed a cop, and as a result, they always let me go after making sure I was functional.
          In other words, I was always in control of myself, the cops could surmise that.

          They can no longer make that call because special interest dictates to cops what they MUST do. They have no need for pragmatic analysis of a situation.
          They are robots, merely doing what they are told.

          My point being that cops use to be able to make reasonable judgement calls, and normally made good calls.
          Now they are no longer expected to do that. They are required to treat everyone the same, the guy with a tail light out and 3 beers in hims is treated the same as the drunken fool who drives up the freeway the wrong way at 90MPH.

          Cops are no longer thinking individuals. They are taught to be reactionary and not to discriminate between real criminals and guys who are hard working and responsible.
          The media and the system dictates what they do.
          And that sucks for them, because the media tells them one thing, and their training tells them something quite different.

          Cops no longer need to be intelligent, savvy, and pragmatic.
          They need to merely be reactionary.
          Everything is dictated to them, which is hogtying them.

          And it will only get worse. The more authority cops lose ( and the media destroys) the more crime there will be because the criminals have nothing to fear.

          Especially in a a society that has a $40 an hour cost of living but only pays 20 bucks an hour.
          Poor desperate people will do what they have to to survive.

      • Rockledge

        On the other hand, have they gone that way themselves and led society, or are they merely reflecting the culture they live in?
        Common sense and decency aren’t merely gone from doughnut shops, it is gone everywhere.

        And the cops are dealing with it every day. When skin gets irritated, it tries to get as tough as the irritation.
        Such is cops.

        I feel for them. This country didn’t use to have cities dominated by their ghettos.
        Cops have the worst job on the planet.
        I’d eat shit with the chickens before I would be a cop and have to deal with the shit they put up with.
        My hat’s off to them.

      • Rockledge

        Another problem is that the standards for cops has been bottomed out in the desire to be “fair” and let everyone be involved.

        Instead of our cops being like Matt Dillon, big men who had natural authority, police now look hilarious.

        Lets get real here, when I was a young man cops were normally big imposing fellows, at least average size and build or bigger, who had natural authority.
        You send a car load of 6’1″ cops into a bar fight to break it up, and a large cop walks up to some drunken badass and says “knock it off or I am going to run your ass in”, and chances are real good the
        asshole causing the problem is going to think twice about fighting a cop.

        Now, you have a car load of women and little Barney Fife looking fellows pull up to a bar fight, and they are going to have to rely on weapons to speak for them.

        All of this fucking warm and fuzzy everyone involved aren’t we a nice fair society bullshit has made us a far more violent society, because there is no authority in policing now.
        The only authority is “the badge” which no longer counts.
        Because when you pin a badge on someone who doesn’t look intimidating, has no natural authority, and can’t even make their teenagers behave, you might as well have a mechanic with no tools work on your car.

        The days of Andy Griffith policing never really did exist, because even in small towns cops were grown men with the natural authority of grown men.

        That is shown in the Andy Griffith show, which did indeed mimic real life to some degree.

        Andy Griffith played the cop that was large enough, well spoken enough, and intimidating enough to enforce the law fairly easily.
        On the other hand, Barney had no authority and was the town accidental comedy routine.

        Now instead of Matt Dillons and Andy Griffith, cops are Barney Fifes and meter maids.
        They got not choice but to pull guns or to gang up on criminals and apprehend them by force of numbers.
        Because criminals are not afraid of them and laugh at them.

    • dennis48309

      Was this article written by a Black Lives Matter nigger? I live in a white community with little crime and the police have never shot anyone. Niggers shouldn’t be committing crimes and acting violent when police are arresting them.

      • Hi NSA, kiss my artichoke

        More whites are killed by the cops annually than blacks.

    • Maxwell

      Police terror shootings could be stopped by putting them on trial for murder in the first and jailing or executing them.

      • Hi NSA, kiss my artichoke

        There is no justice in the “CRIMINAL” JUST-US SYSTEM.”
        Used to be called “The Justice System.”
        Not shy about admitting the truth are they?

    • Man

      You know those NFL players that took a knee during the national anthem….

      That is because of this. POLICE BRUATLITY!

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