In response to the very instructive letter from Andy Reid on the
shelding of cops from danger here, including their lower risk of on the job
death than lumberjacks and garbage workers, a former
police officer and peace activist in Minnesota (one who lets people know his
past) sent the following, striking thoughts. He underlines that "clothes" - the
gun and taser - "make the man," that an officer feels dangerous and in
danger (a potential target). Despite the statistics, this point is, I think, right, and
helps explain the isolation and clannishness of cops. The first point about how the police protect the murderers among them by blackmail is
also really striking, evoking what J. Edgar Hoover notoriously had on Presidents, Congresspeople and even Martin Luther King (the film “Selma” gets this, as many
other matters, right – see here). Every police department, as the letter
suggests, lives off, tries to achieve this.
This point underscores Andy’s general argument, as does the letter in
general.
"Alan:
I think there is something missing in the answers to why the
police are protected by the establishment.
Surveillance of
politicians, court personnel and attorneys in general has been going on in some
areas for decades. It is likely that a dossier on most potential "friends
and enemies" is maintained by many police agencies and certainly state
police agencies. That dossier comes in handy when negotiating contracts and
influencing decisions. The nastier the scene videoed or audio-ed the more value
it has in influencing behavior.
For example;
want the bishop to make a statement about something? check the files, ask the
bishop and make a reference to his latest dalliance. Need a vote in a
legislative matter, check the files and see who is sexually involved with
who...usually all that is required is a snippet of information on past
indiscretions and people will behave.
I think most of what Reid states is accurate. As an ex-cop I
disagree with the "significance" of the following paragraph; "All
of this is, of course, justified to the public with the argument that police
officers are faced daily with extremely high risk to life and limb and need to
be protected by their military /assault style weaponry, by their job security,
and by the courts and doctrines of law. Bullshit. It's an absolute
myth that they "put their lives on the line" for the public.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, fishermen, loggers, aircraft
pilots, trash collectors, roofers, iron workers, construction workers, farmers,
ranchers, truck drivers, miners, and taxi drivers are more likely to die on the
job than cops. To put it in perspective, fishermen and loggers who make
half what cops do are 10 times more likely to be killed on the job than a
police officer - a garbage man is 3 times more likely to die while working than
a cop. The annual death rate for cops is around 12.6 per 100,000.
For loggers, it's 127.8 per 100,000. And, as anyone who is familiar with
the operation of police departments is well aware, most police officers die on
the job from traffic accidents, not from anyone shooting them. Of the 76
cops who died in the line of duty in 2013, 18 of them were from gunfire and the
rest were from traffic fatalities or slips and falls. The murder rate of
police officers is about 3 per 100,000 while that of the general population is
5.6 per 100,000. In other words, you or I as ordinary citizens are more
likely to be murdered than a police officer. When a cop is killed
"in the line of duty" it is sensationalized and published widely and
nationally. When a farmer, logger, construction worker, taxi driver, etc.
is killed, much more frequently, we hear very little about it."
If you are on
the street and see the blood and injuries to other officers and the public, and
the mythology is that you could be killed or crippled, then fear becomes a
factor and the goal is to get home alive and live to enjoy your pension (in MN
it is 95% of your high five after 30 years). People who work in other
occupations don't wear a gun and tazer to work and the old adage
"clothes make the man applies"...try wearing an exposed weapon around
for eight hours and see if you don't feel different...people will definitely.
The only answer is total community control and that isn't likely
to happen for the above reason(s)."
***
Total community control probably will not
happen, at least under capitalism, but as Black Lives Matter shows, much can be
achieved by scrutiny and democratic protest from below, even some prosecutions (the same is true
for the anti-war movement).
***
Catherine MacArthur corrects my claim about zero police murders in England in 2015;
there was one racist police killing in London (and possibly several).
Still, the startling general contrast with the US holds, down to the marksman's arrest...
"Hello Alan,
There was at least one shooting by a police marksman last month
in Wood Green, which is just 1 mile from to Tottenham.
Meantime, may I wish you & your family a very Happy New
Year.
Kind regards
Catherine"
***
Here is the story from the Guardian:
Police marksman arrested after shooting suspect dead in Wood
Green
IPCC head Cindy Butts says officer who shot Jermaine Baker dead
on 11 December in north London has been arrested and interviewed
Jermaine Baker, pictured, was shot dead by a police marksman in
Wood Green on 11 December. Photograph: Facebook
Thursday 17 December 2015 19.17 EST
Scotland
Yard was rocked on Thursday by the arrest of a police marksman who shot a
suspect dead near a London court.
Jermaine Baker, 28, died last Friday morning after a single
bullet struck him in the neck as he sat in a car 100 yards from Wood Green
crown court in north London.
The Guardian has learned that Baker, claimed by some media
reports to have been a gangster, did not feature on the Metropolitan police’s
databases of gang members.
It was revealed on Thursday that a homicide investigation, which
is focusing on the armed officer, is looking at how far Baker was from a weapon
allegedly found inside the car.
Two other men in the car have been charged with plotting to help
release two prisoners from a van as they were being brought to Wood Green crown
court that day for sentencing.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is
investigating Baker’s death and the actions of officers in a criminal homicide
investigation, which saw the armed officer suspended from duty on Wednesday.
IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts told a public meeting on Thursday
that the officer who shot the suspect had been arrested and interviewed under
criminal caution on Thursday afternoon. The IPCC declined to say what the
officer had been arrested for.
Butts stressed the arrest did not mean the officer would be
charged.
Baker was in a black Audi at the scene and the IPCC said its
investigators had discovered a “non-police issue firearm” in the car. The other
men in the car face charges over an imitation weapon, according to the Met.
IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts speaks at a meeting about the
shooting of Jermaine Baker by armed police. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters
Baker had been shot while in the vehicle and Butts declined to
say where investigators suspect either the firearm or Baker were as those
issues are “the focus of our investigation”.
Butts told the meeting that no
relevant CCTV footage had been identified. Officers were not wearing body
cameras, which drew repeated criticism from the meeting and shouts of “Why?”
Butts told the meeting, which was attended by more
than 200 people, of the events leading up to the decision to arrest the
officer.
On Friday, police started forensic examination at
the scene, which was completed 24 hours later. Independent witnesses were
located and the car sent away for forensic examination.
On Saturday, officers involved in the
intelligence-led operation gave their initial accounts of what happened and
Butts said “the officers were warned about conferring with each other”.
By Sunday, barely 48 hours after the shooting,
Butts said investigators from the IPCC made a key decision. “On Sunday there
was evidence to indicate that a potential criminal offence may have been
committed by the officer in his use of lethal force. We therefore made the
decision to begin a criminal homicide investigation,” she said.
Chief superintendent Victor Olisa, borough
commander for Haringey, confirmed Met databases hold no information Baker
had gang affiliations, saying: “They don’t indicate Jermaine was a gang
member.”
Baker’s family have been dismayed by claims in some
media reports and the meeting was told Baker had been linked to gangs which
do not exist.
Floral tributes remained at the scene of the
shooting. One card contained a tribute and then a reference to “NPK boys”, a
gang called Northumberland Park Killers, named after an area of Tottenham.
The public meeting was sometimes raucous and tense,
with Met assistant commissioner Helen King shouted down.
Met assistant commissioner Helen King and chief
superintendent Victor Olisa close their eyes during a prayer at the meeting
regarding the shooting of Jermaine Baker by an armed police officer.
Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters
She was reprimanded by Pastor Nims Obunge from the
Peace Alliance, co-chairing the meeting, after she suggested a friend of
Baker’s come in and witness police firearms training.
The man, called Josh, told the meeting: “Jermaine
was shot while sleeping in the car.” Butts said she did not know if this was
the case.
The meeting showed a chasm between the police and
sections of the community. But they, the armed officer and the police face
months of waiting until answers emerge.
In a statement, Met police deputy assistant
commissioner, Peter Terry, said: “In these difficult circumstances we
continue to offer every possible support to the officer, and their family,
and to the officer’s colleagues.
'All of the officers who took part in the operation
on Friday 11 December were doing a job, one that we as senior officers in
the MPS asked of them.'
Terry stressed that his officers had a difficult
job to do. After last month’s Paris terror
attacks police chiefs believe they need more firearms officers,
which require officers to volunteer to carry a gun: 'Now, more than ever
before, our armed officers provide an invaluable service in keeping
Londoners and their own unarmed colleagues safe. We rely upon on them to
provide this, quite frankly unique, policing role.'
Police chiefs will fear officers will refuse to volunteer to
carry a gun to express their disagreement at the treatment of the armed
officer."
***
Note that most police in London are not armed - again, a big contrast with the U.S.; individuals have to volunteer to go to armed.
***
Andy Reid offered some additional insights, including one about how eugenics/IQ testing is used against poor whites - eugenics is, it must be emphasized, an ideology of divide and rule - as well as a startling observation from criminal attorney Gary Spence:
“Hi Alan -
Don't know if you caught the Netflix series titled
"Making a Murderer" about the Steve Avery fiasco, police
misconduct and the failure of the criminal justice system in
Wisconsin, particularly when directed at those who are poor...
You might want to check it out - it's absolutely shocking [see the fine
article by Kate Tuttle on eugenics as applied to poor whites, the Kallikaks
and now the Averys "Whiteness
and “Making a Murderer”: Manitowoc, the “one-branch family tree” and the
sinister race science of “degenerate whites”: The Avery clan’s reputation as
"trouble" echoes myths planted by inane, racist eugenicists in the
early 1900s" here ].
Also, here's a recent book on the topic that
might interest you. (In)famous criminal lawyer Gerry Spence makes some
pretty strong observations about the criminal just-us system.
The one I found most interesting was this one
from one of the most if not the most prominent criminal lawyer in the
country after 50+ years of practice and hundreds of clients:
"I realized I’d never represented a person
charged with a crime in either a state or federal court, in which the
police, including the FBI, hadn’t themselves, violated the law—and on more
than one occasion, even committed the crime of murder."
Andy”