Cops and Obedience

Boston Globe employees have rejected contract concessions demanded by the paper's owner, the New York Times Company, a move that may turn out to be semi-suicidal. Over at the Daily Beast, Alex S. Jones uses this analogy:

[T]he situation was like mouthing off to a cop. It may offer momentary satisfaction, but you pay a severe price.

I don't think Jones is wrong about the propensity of police officers to punish anything less than complete subservience on the part of the public. It's a bit chilling to see it so matter-of-factly and breezily laid out though, as if it's an accepted fact of life, 2+2=4.

Like the Talking Heads, we may ask ourselves, How did we get here?

Comments

[Jeff Wiebe]

One of the challenges of being a police officer is that one is called upon to be professional in situations in which professionalism is very difficult to retain. A salute to the good cops who keep their heads, and without doubt those who do not need to be corrected and held accountable. With power comes responsibility.

I do think that 'mouthing off' means that someone is showing less respect than they should, less than 'a reasonable person' would evaluate as appropriate. In such a situation the police should never be abusive, but I can see them taking that as an indication that the 'mouther' might well be willing to violate other 'reasonable' expectations of society and the law, in which case they might quite fairly put the mouther through a certain amount of investigation.

Notes:
(see http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Mouthing+Off)
mouth off Slang
1. To express one's opinions or complaints in a loud, indiscreet manner.
2. To speak impudently; talk back.

(and http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mouthing+off)

"when you start swearing and saying all this crap to someone "

[Rogier]

Jeff:

It's a given that police officers, by the nature of the profession they've chosen, will find a good number of people in their path who, through agitation or panic or inebriation or all of the above, are less than completely respectful. If such a lack of respect (a) quickly becomes a bigger issue in the mind of the officer than the problem that he or she was called to the scene to deal with, and (b) causes the officer to "obtain respect" through force while other options remained open, we ought to recognize that the cop has gone too far, and demand better.

I don't think any reasonable person argues that police officers don't deserve respect. They DO have difficult jobs, by and large. But you and I are entitled to respect when APPROACHED by one, too.

Too often, the abusiveness and can't-touch-me arrogance on the part of uniformed cornholes is their default modus operandi, and from there -- unless our response is immediate subservience -- it goes on to illegal beatings, taserings, false arrests, the whole arsenal.

In other words, from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgWrV8TcUc
to this:
http://www.bakelblog.com/nobodys_business/2008/08/acadia-national.html
and this:
http://www.bakelblog.com/nobodys_business/2007/06/the-cop-and-the.html
and a hundred other cases I've written about in this space.

[Jeff Wiebe]

You're right. I am (pretty much always have been) a very diligent law-abider, but even I have had one incident where I experienced the dark side which an officer can slip into. My wife and I were driving along slightly behind and to the left of a police cruiser, and were reluctant to pass, so we held position. The officer slowed and rebuked me quite aggressively for 'driving in his 'blind spot'.

I know that police agencies in my neck of the woods are more and more trying to change the nature/paradigm of police work to a 'service' rather than 'intimidate' model. They are actively recruiting folks with significant life experience at least partially to overcome that tendency towards arrogance which some younger officers might fall into.

Anyway, I especially found your first paragraph (in your response to my comment) very well put. I'm more and more coming to think that cops should be like doctors or nurses, with 'bedside manner' being a crucial suite of skills. ('Curbside manner'?)

[Rogier]

"I know that police agencies in my neck of the woods are more and more trying to change the nature/paradigm of police work to a 'service' rather than 'intimidate' model. They are actively recruiting folks with significant life experience at least partially to overcome that tendency towards arrogance which some younger officers might fall into."

I find that very wise and terrifically encouraging, but should add that I've not found there to be much of a difference between older and younger cops. The obverse of what you say is that rookie officers may in fact bring some wide-eyed innocence about the service nature of police work to the task, while older officers may well have become hardened, cynical, impatient, and rude.

Changing curbside manner (I like the term!) is a big job. Here's hoping it's a long-term trend. I think it will benefit both the police officers and the general public.

[hermesten]

Don't be too encouraged by Jeff's remarks.

In the first place Jeff says "mouthing off" makes you "less than reasonable" --meaning unreasonable, or incapable of being reasoned with-- then provides a definition of mouthing off that includes talking back and expressing opinions in a loud, indiscreet manner. So, in other words, anyone who isn't saying "yes sir" and kissing cop ass is "mouthing off."

Secondly, Jeff didn't say how he knows that the cops in his neck of the woods are trying to change to paradigm, but I had a son go to cop school here, and intimidation was THE model being taught and selected for, so even if Jeff is right, it isn't necessarily anything to get encouraged about.

Thirdly, I reject the notion that all "reasonable people" unanimously argue that cops "deserve" respect. This contention is mystifying in light of all the articles you have featured that argue just the opposite. Many cops don't deserve respect, and in fact I think it can be argued that most don't, since the majority of cops obviously cover for the worst among them, and are thus complicit in their crimes.

That said, stay chilled, because subservience and obedience to any kind of authority is a source of PRIDE to most Americans. Jeff describes himself as a "diligent" law-abider, no mean feat in a country where just about everything is illegal. In fact, I'd say that, practically speaking, being a diligent law-abider requires an attitude of carefully cultivated servility.

So, cops wield the power of life and death, some gleefully, and our culture not only rewards the authoritarian application of this power, but actually applauds it. And given the culture, any encounter with a cop treated with less than total subservience is courting injury or death. You can bet I don't mouth off, 'cause that's a price I'm unwilling to pay.

Finally, whatever is happening in Jeff's neck of the woods, the national and world trend is towards increasing authoritarianism and police violence, whether it's the cops in the UK waterboarding drug dealers and shooting subway patrons, or the cops over here tasering old ladies and shooting Chihuahuas. Obey or pay.

[hermesten]

Just in case anyone is mystified by my Chihuahua remark and cares to find out what I'm talking about: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25615091-38198,00.html

The police excuse is obvious bullshit. There is only one reasonable explanation for what the cops did: they did it because they could, because they enjoy being able to kill. They no doubt were laughing when they did it and have probably laughed it up in the station many times since --especially after it hit the news.

And Rogier, you can't seriously contend that all reasonable people believe cops deserve respect, unless you only mean respect in the same sense in which you'd respect any powerful thug.