Newspapers / Black Ink (Black Student … / March 25, 1991, edition 1 / Page 12
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On Police Brutality Principles of the "slaughter mentality." By Chris Bracey Contributor Poor Rodney King. Shot with a “stun gun” and electrocuted until he collapsed onto the asphalt, he lay while five officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) proceeded to kick and beat him with nightsticks, break ing his leg, shattering his jaw, knocking out his teeth and bruis ing his kidneys while other offi cers watched and snickered with glee. With each of King’s pleas to stop the abuse, the officers re sponded with more brutality, like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Rodney King now sits in his wheelchair, vindicated from all police charges, but suffers from permanent brain damage after being “arrested and taken into custody” by these offi cers of the law. The following week, another group of officers in the Los Ange les PoIkc Department responded to a reported domestic dispute. What incidents occurred upon their arrival are unclear, but their visit resulted in the shooting deaths of two Samoan men. What is more interesting is that these men were each shot more than eight times. Most of their wounds were in their backs. Like King, these two men were both unarmed. What is going on here? What possessed these officers to com mit such atrocious acts of brutal ity? What has instigated this slaughter mentality? Many people totd to write such incidents off as extraordinary occurrences. Others tend to think that it is a sign of the times — that hard times breed hard men. But these events can hardly be passed off as such. Surveys indicate that more than 60 percent of Los Ange les residents think their city’s po lice department uses unreasonable force. Furthermore, their victims were unarmed and had no inten tion of responding with violence. Yet they were still brutalized. The defenseless nature of these vic tims means these officers were not merely in possession of a forceful mentality, but a slaughter mental ity. Dr. William Gault has com piled some horrific accounts of violence and information concern ing the slaughter mentality inter nalized by the soldiers fighting in the Vietnam conflict. From these facts, he has devetoped six prin ciples that contribute to the crea tion of aslaughter mentality. Mc»e importantly, however, is that these principles contributing to slaugh ter are not unique to combat sol diers but are applicable to the offi cers of the LAPD as well. Given the LAPD’s model status in law enforcement, the pervasiveness of this slaughter mentality in the United S tales is a frightening pros pect On inspection of the prin ciples, it becomes terrifyingly clear that some, if not all, police depart ments in urban areas have em braced and implemented this model of enforcement The prin ciples are as folk)ws: 1. The enemy is everywhere. It seems as though the white LAPD officer feels intense hatred for the residents of the urban districts. With N.W.A’s popularization of the phrase, “F— tha Police,” and a growing sense of disrespect for the law in general, the officer may feel as if his life is always in peril. The officer quickly seizes upon a sense of trust with his fellow offi cers and “unswervingly identifies everything else, young or old, male or female, animate or inanimate, as his ubiquitous, murderous en emy.” 2. The enemy is not human. The labeling of young, urban blacks as savage beasts or blood- lusting animals by the white press has done much to support ofllcial justification of violence against such individuals. Their perverse fascination with the dehumaniza tion of the black male only serves to create a “us vctsus them” men tality among officers of the law. And after all, it is easier to sleep at night knowing we killed an animal instead of murdering a fellow human being. 3. Dilution of responsibility. The individual officw often be lieves the responsibility fw the beating or slaughter of aparticular victim rests not exclusively on his or her shoulders, but is shared by the other participants as well. In the groiq) beating of Rodney King, rest assured that the officer who kicked him and beat him in his head will not step f(wward and claim responsibility for the brain damage Mr. King will suffer from for the rest of his life. 4. The pressure to act. Despite popular views of polKe officers as community servants and other whitewashed images, it is clear that police officers generally ex- pecteach other to act aggressively. Like the military, cops are expected to act swiftly and decisively and maintain control of any situation. Images of “animals” running wild in the streets selling drugs, shoot ing innocent people and promot ing the CTOsion of the Eurocentric moral structure of society inevita bly force the hand of the law to take action. 5. The natural dominance of the psychopath. During a shoot out, raid, or any violent confronta tion, trust, decency, restraint and gentleness are of litde use as the pressure to kill or be killed over rides civilized conventions. As Dr. Gault remarks, “In such an atmos phere, the man of blunted sensi bilities and ready violence, unbur dened by empathy or compassion and seeing others as merely ob jects [the psychopath] . . . often prevails.”These types of situations re-assert the old notion that might is right and the rest is nonsense. 6. Firepower. Claims of being “outgunned” by the urban deviant subculture, LAPD officers insti tuted the 9mm automatic handgun as the standard weapon to be car ried. Butas we have seen, many of the killings by officers are com mitted against unarmed victims. This steady upgrading of technol ogy in weaponry certainly in creases the chance of violent de struction. Often, this firepower is judiciously misused. The slaughter mentality, as internalized by police officers everywhere, has manifest itself in the brutal and senseless beating of Rodney King and the shooting deaths of the two Samoans. Yet we are lucky that someone man aged to videotape the beating of King and expose this tendency toward lMTJtality.Often,complaints of police brutality and cases brought against the police go imheard precisely because they lack the necessary evidence for conviction. As a result, many people have been beaten and killed by the police with minimal repCT- cussions. And guess who is most often on the receiving end of such brutality? However, the debate has been sparked. With the introduc- i tion of this videotape, we now have nationwide acknowledgment that there is something dreadfully . wrong with our law enforcement system. More importantly, people j have come out in large numbers against the police and the exces-: sive use of force. We can only pray ! that something be done to stop this i violence. Until then, many urban ^ dwellers will continue to view an | officer’s badge as the mark of the j beast. Th« Mu Z«ta Chapter of ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY, INC presents SaeniMtg, e*i the, GtiU." 15th Anniversary Formal Ball Saturday, April 6, 1991 - 8 p.m. - 1 o.m. The Corotino Inn, Chop«l Hill • $8.00/*ingl« $ 15.00/coupl«
Black Ink (Black Student Movement, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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March 25, 1991, edition 1
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