Police 3: Solidarity and Identity

I’m writing about a little about police, as part of the larger conversation that is taking place. I wrote about why the police are such a welcoming home for “bad apples.” I wrote a tiny bit about the history of modern police departments. And today I’ll write about two more things:

1. In Buffalo, police were clearing a square, a cop came upon a senior citizen, and shoved the old man out of his way. The man fell, began bleeding, bleeding from his ears, was hospitalized, and is now in serious condition. The cop was suspended. And 57 Buffalo police officers who were part of that unit (Emergency Response Team) resigned from the unit, and asked to be deployed to other units.

I am less concerned with the casual brutality of the POS who assaulted a senior citizen. I am more concerned about the culture that led all of his colleagues to rally to his defense. No one who shares that culture should be allowed armed on our streets. But evidence suggests the ENTIRE PD shares that culture.

Here’s the video:

Here’s the link to the story about the unit resigning.

2. You know, in the classic cartoons, before going out and robbing and stealing, criminals put on a mask (not N-95)? That’s to hide their identities, so they can get away with doing bad stuff without getting caught.

New York City:

Police in Philly are putting electrical tape over their badge numbers to hide their identity 

Chicago:

DC:

Seattle:

Random? No way. Orders from above? At least in some cases, yes.

How come so many cops do that? Not one or two. Not one department, or two departments. It is a general feature of police culture. Is it tolerated? Allowed? Encouraged? Promoted? Doesn’t matter. It happens. It is part of the culture.

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Neither issue, police standing in solidarity with brutality, or police hiding their identities, neither is an issue of “one bad apple” – they both point to structural, cultural problems with modern US police departments.