Police Who Kill and the Zeitgeist

       In Mason Ohio police Taser-ed and kicked a mentally ill man to death. In Boulder a policeman killed a community's pet elk. In Brighton Colorado a policeman killed a man's pet dog. In White Plains NY police killed an elderly man in his home after his medical alert sounded.  Black comedians joke that a black man can never reach into his pocket if police are near -- "They will kill you." After Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida will teen-agers have to stop wearing hoodies? Will some company begin manufacturing hoodies with the words "Don't Kill Me" embroidered on the back? 

        Stories of killer police are reported almost daily. Commonsense observance of our culture tells us there are many other killings and assaults not reported.

      It's easy to have an angry knee jerk reaction: Bad Police!  However, while I have the same knee jerk at first, I have to think about the police as they exist within, hired by and enforced by the zeitgeist, the spirit of our age and society. I think we need to think about the hidden and unacknowledged messages they are receiving from the world we have helped to create, that we create every day.

       Ever since I was in the civil rights and anti-war protests of the 1960s I've been reflecting about the police violence I saw close to me in Boston. I began wearing a hard hat when covering Boston Common demonstrations because the police waded in with night sticks. When they brought those sticks down on the heads of the kids near me I could sometimes hear the skull crack. It was just luck and vigilance that kept me away from those sticks. The police used a killing force with the sticks, I never saw anything resembling just a prod. We know from films and photographs of the demonstrations in southern states that the same violence was common. Mostly the dead are reported. No reports -- in Boston or any of the southern states -- detail the crippled, those injured beyond the hope of healing.

         I watched the police at the demonstrations, both to try to keep from being beaten and to see what I could find out. Their faces usually looked maddened and fierce, with determination, as they brought down the night sticks. The demonstrators usually were slender and young, dressed in light weight clothing, carrying nothing. The police were in thick military type uniforms, boots, armed with guns and sticks. The imbalance was dramatic.

         When I lived as a journalist in Hungary during the Russian occupation I experienced and saw what it felt like in an occupied country. The Russian solders, with their rifles, stood on street corners. The posture of every single individual on the streets changed from that you saw in their homes. You could see in the bearing of their heads and shoulders that they felt themselves to be in danger from a force they could not affect or control, a force that could kill them at random, with no repercussions possible, no matter what the circumstances.

          Reports, stories and observations tell us that this is often the situation of young men of color in the American society. There are also, of course, other classifications of those who are not entitled to the "protect and serve" ethos of police work: prostitutes, the homeless, the poorly dressed, the mentally ill, teen-agers wearing expressive clothing. When you expand the classification to the "animal" community, it's open sesame. All stray or unaccompanied cats, dogs and companion animals of any kind, all "wild" animals may be killed. A woman who adopted a wolf puppy in one of the western states had to move to a remote area because of threats from both neighbors and police that they would shoot the pup through her fence.

          In every circumstance, human and animal, the police have a procedure:  report that the victim was attacking them or scaring them. If it goes to court there is even an inside argot, an invented word:  "testa-lie," as in "I have to go testa-lie in court today."

           However, from watching the police and from reflecting on European actions against the Jews -- study shows that the brutality and killing was not alone from Germany, not only from Germans -- I think about the zeitgeist. We all live in it, no matter how independent we may think we are from it. We all create it or allow it to be created. We are never entirely innocent of it.

           For the police who are killing, I wish we could consider them in the context of our persistent national definition of the "man" as a powerful agent who expresses and proves his primary characteristic by the act of killing, by the position of being able to dominate to the point of killing. Sure, there are the other ideas and scenes of the "gentle" man, the ahh-h-h moments of a man cuddling a baby or a puppy. Just one moment: why the ah's?  Why isn't that "normal."

           While there are millions of instances and discussions in government, politics, law and religions about whether and how society can regulate the hormonal affects of estrogen for women, there is no discussion about the concomitant hormonal affects of testosterone for men. In fact, the testosterone-ruled man is held up repeatedly as a hero in films and other presentations. Looked at from another point of view, these men may be considered as being on the verge of pathology. Sure there may be a time for killing, as there may be a time for everything. I don't know. But why did we create a zeitgeist in which we -- more often than we would think -- tacitly approve of police as killers? There are nations, perhaps primarily the Scandinavian ones, where police are not expected to be killers.

          Thinking about our zeitgeist in which we brutalize and distort the definitions of men -- and women -- we need to also consider police killings in the context of our national obsession (illness) about guns. The matter of killer police is not separate from the gun rights conflict.

          Apart from that, what to do with the police who "illegally" kill? Could we think about how to be kind to them, how to help them. Killing is never neutral. If it doesn't change a person's life in some way, that is a cause for serious concern. Next,relieve them of duty, perhaps a term of imprisonment. Most important, intensive and extensive therapy to be provided and required. Maybe a lifelong pension and a prohibition from being hired for police work. Although this last is a bit frightening -- we must not be seen as providing a guaranteed pension for police who kill. That would open the door even wider. Daunting questions.

          I am only a person looking out the window at a tree. Please don't kill me.  

Typo -- A wish?

In my post on the Mason Ohio police killing, I mistakenly typed the officers as kicking with their "books" -- instead of boots. What kind of world would it be if police carried books? They could still be used as weapons, I suppose.

Police Kill Mentally Ill Man

Two police in Mason, Ohio used repeated Taser prods and kicking with their books to kill a mentally ill man. I wrote to the mayor and chief of police. No doubt you and the “damage control” specialists are labeling it an “incident.” However, the clear evidence makes it self-evident that Officers Daniel Fry and Sean McCormick tortured and murdered Doug Boucher, an unarmed man, mentally ill. The number of Taser strikes, his bloody face, the forensic evidence of being kicked with boots – it’s beyond imagining what the last interval of this man’s life must have been like. How pitiful, how shameful, how horrifying that when they roughly grabbed his arms to handcuff him they realized he was dead. The American public now knows it is routine for police officers who wrongfully assault and/or murder a person to claim that the person was threatening them. There’s even a word for it when used in court: “testa-lying.” Among those in a well-trained police force no officer would ever have to resort to this shameful strategy. It goes without saying that the police officers in Mason need to have training to help them handle situations such as this without torturing or killing a person. The officers involved need to be relieved of duty. They also need therapy to deal with impulse control and anger. From their actions, it is logical to suspect that they are the ones with mental problems, much more dangerous to society than Doug Boucher who, though “mentally ill,” has no record of harming another human being. The police in Mason, ironically serving “Ohio’s largest playground,” must urgently reassess the purpose of what it means to protect and serve. It is essential for everyone that those words reflect reality, not just continue as meaningless phrases for self-praising speeches. We can have peace without employing police to act as bullies who use out of control force. Any society is judged by its treatment of the most helpless and the most innocent.

Boulder City Manager Steps Up re Elk killing

Following is the unusual letter I received from the Boulder Colorado city manager, followed by my response to her. "I share your concern about the number of incidents in our police department over the past year. We have had four employees make very poor decisions. Those four employees represent about 1.4 percent of the police department. "The city has taken each violation very seriously. Boulder’s internal affairs officers investigated the situations from a policy and discipline perspective, and external agencies investigated when appropriate (such as DUI, weapons sales, and the Mapleton elk). The Boulder Police Department cooperated fully with these external investigations and also took additional actions when department policies and officer codes of conduct were violated. "While Boulder works very hard to maintain a model police department, no organization is perfect. The issue, however, is not whether an organization has occasional problems; it is how the organization responds and deals with each situation. The Boulder Police Department has a long record of being responsive to allegations of misconduct and in dealing with them appropriately. . . . "In reference to the elk that was killed in the Mapleton Hill neighborhood on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, we are taking the situation very seriously. There are two separate investigations underway to determine the facts and details of this incident – an internal investigation by Police Department’s Professional Standards Unit (internal affairs) and a criminal investigation by Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (CDPW). "Officers Sam Carter and Brent Curnow, the officers involved in the elk shooting, have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigations. "The CDPW’s investigation will focus on whether a crime was committed by the officers. The Boulder Police Department is cooperating fully with wildlife officials and cannot comment on the agency’s investigation. Questions should be directed to CDPW.. . . We will be awaiting the outcome of the criminal investigation before reaching any conclusions. This could take several weeks to complete. "I appreciate your concern about the police department and can assure you that the situation is being thoroughly investigated; the city will respond appropriately." Very truly, Jane S. Brautigam City Manager -0- Dear Jane S. Brautigam – Thank you for responding to my concerns about the elk killing. I am impressed with what you write and your general approach. Sometimes I and other animal activists are regarded with dismissal or disdain. It was inspiriting to be connected with your ideas. As you know the matter about how we treat animals has far more dimensions than we knew before. As I said, it’s not just that we should treat animals differently than we did in the past; it is that a new approach and new insights are tied into the visionary thinking that will bring us – we dearly hope – to a new evolutionary point in regard to the web of life. To a point wherein we don’t just deny or feel anxiety about the ruinous damage to the planet but where we turn in the direction of guardianship. More and more we see that a hope for life lies in new visions about life. Though I’m not religious in the traditional sense, I recently found that, far back in the writing of Revelations it was said: “Hurt not the trees nor the waters...” Probably the officers who thought it was routine or okay to kill the elk need to see a broader perspective. How to bring that about will be a daunting challenge. I extend my respect and kindest wishes. Thank you again – China Altman

"Manly" Policeman kills pet elk

A police officer in Boulder Colorado killed a big tame elk which had become a fixture in a neighborhood where the people fed it and treated it like a mascot. The officer posted photos of himself as a hero. There is an internet petition protesting what he did. I wrote: Policeman Sam Carter - Feels good to kill a tame elk who just walks up to you? Who are you? What will you do next -- go into people's yards and kill their dogs and cats? Many of your fellow human beings have become aware of the web of life WITHIN which we live. We are not ABOVE it and our survival on the planet depends on our becoming guardians of this web. It includes every living thing, large and small. The reflex of killing as a first response to seeing a so-called "wild" animal affects all of us and damages all of us. It is out dated. It is not "manly" as you no doubt think it is. Killing that elk was no different than killing a person's pet. Do you plan to go to the zoo and shoot the animals in the cages? Is this really the example you want to hold up to children? Far from making you a "manly" example, what you did identifies you in another way and not favorably. Please re-think your approach to animals, to living beings, and your impulse to kill without thinking. Whenever you kill a being that is loved you are killing part of the souls of everyone who regarded that being with love. The more you encourage the knee jerk killer in yourself, the more you set yourself onto a path into the past, into a darkness that you may not see, a darkness that will affect every day of your life.

Nevada Governor Backs Selling Wild Horses for Food

I wrote to Governor Sandoval who backs the brutal roundups of wild horses, including foals, to sell to slaughter houses: All over the world American consultants are working to persuade local peoples not to kill the wildlife. Practical reasons: Wildlife is an essential part of the tourist and travel industry. Wildlife is part of what makes any given area unique. Other reasons: Wildlife are part of the web of life. Only recently we humans realized we were WITHIN and not above the web of life. We are not its rulers. We trample in it at our peril. What does it matter if we round up wild horses and sell them to eat? Our routine of killing to resolve wildlife "issues" belongs to the past. Certainly we can honor the past of the Wild West. That doesn’t mean we keep on as if we lived in the past, as if we were still those people who wiped out the herds of bison. They also thought it didn’t matter. Those who would like the earth to continue for our children and our descendants are thinking now about how we can transform our thinking and our approaches. We now see that we can harm the web of life. Harm can be caused that we can’t fix, no matter how hard we try. We are just beginning to learn about the web of life in ways we never knew before. Maybe you’ll say we can’t tell, right now, what we need to do in order to be guardians and caretakers of the earth for the future. Maybe not, but we can try to learn every day. We can re-examine the old ideas instead of blindly following them. And right now, we can stop holding up to our children examples like killing wild horses. Right now we can do that for our souls. And for the soul of the world. Thank you for reading this.