Cops are never wrong
So, interesting reaction to my last post. It turns out – and I did not know this – it turns out that the police are never wrong. Ever. It also turns out that if the perps are wrong, that immediately means that the cops are right. Because two wrongs make a right (which I also did not know).
Let’s recap.
So we have this case of a girl busted for jaywalking. Now she’s obviously not a very charming young lady. According to reports:
The incident began when an unnamed police officer spotted a teen jaywalking across Martin Luther King Jr. Way South around 3:10 p.m., according to a report on the Seattle Police Department Web site.
As he approached the 18-year-old male, the officer witnessed four females do the same thing at the same spot on the road, about 15 feet from a pedestrian crosswalk.
"The officer instructed the females to step over to his vehicle," officials said. "They were verbally antagonistic."
When one of them, a 19-year-old, began to walk away, the officer approached her and escorted her back.
"The female subject began to tense up her arm and pull away from the officer while yelling at him," police said.
The two argued, and the officer attempted to cuff her. That is when, according to officials, another teen interceded.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Now just to clear up a few things: First of all, I don’t think the girls were in the right at all. They were obviously very badly behaved and could have avoided everything except maybe a jaywalking ticket by just being calm and not mouthing off on the police officer. Shame on them. Thank God they’re not on public payrolls and accountable to the taxpayers because they would lose their jobs in a heartbeat. Of course, we have means of punishing this sort of behavior – namely we can fine or arrest them.
So we’ve established that the girls were wrong. But what about the cop? Do the wrong-headed actions and belligerence of these girls justify the punch to the face delivered by the officer?
I have a harder time following this logic. It strikes me that he could have called for back up if he needed to. He could have continued to attempt to subdue and handcuff one or both the girls. I’ve seen police subdue large men before – surely this officer could have subdued these girls, despite their own physical attempts to prevent him.
The point is, we’re paying cops out of public coffers and we hold them to higher standards than we hold stupid teenage girls. Is this an instance of ‘police brutality’ as I indicated in my initial post? Perhaps not. Perhaps this is more a heat-of-the-moment thing. But we still should hold cops to higher standards than this. Commenters have suggested that punching is much better than having tazed or used mace or a gun. Well naturally, but that sort of dodges the whole point, doesn’t it? It was much better that the girl mouthed off than had she used a gun also, but that hardly justifies her actions.
If we don’t hold our police accountable to higher standards, then we’re not going to have very good police, and that leads to communities who don’t trust their police officers which inevitably leads to more crime, more conflict, more tension. Nobody wins. Simply defending the cops no matter what doesn’t help anyone – not even the police. Good cops don’t want bad cops to get off the hook – they want more good cops to get hired to replace the bad ones.
If we don’t hold our police to a high bar, well then the whole country will end up looking like Fairfax County. And that’s a frightening prospect if you ask me.
P.S. – My initial post was actually about how new technologies are changing the dynamic between state actors (in this case, police) and citizens. It wasn’t meant to hone in quite so close on who was right and wrong in this instance.
P.S.S. – Why is it that so many people who rail against Big Government in all its iterations, and who complain endlessly of their rights and freedoms being taken away by said Big Government, then issue a free pass to the police? Are they not part of the state apparatus? Indeed, are they not one of its most essential components, and indeed the part of that apparatus which enforces, through the use of force or the threat of force, all the other aspects of said government?
P.P.S.P.S.S
One more question – don’t you think that punching someone in the face in this manner might actually make things escalate? Isn’t it kind of stupid and dangerous to do that when you’re outnumbered? It just doesn’t seem like something that would improve the situation, even setting aside who is right/wrong/etc.
If we don’t hold our police accountable to higher standards, then we’re not going to have very good police, and that leads to communities who don’t trust their police officers which inevitably leads to more crime, more conflict, more tension.
I think this is a very important consideration. Canadian police (and military) are currently losing their previous good reputation.Report
I am not sure who offered a free pass.
What we have here is one cop and six subjects, all of whom are noncompliant in some fashion or another. You can’t keep track of six people. Then a crowd starts to gather and things get even worse. OK. You can call for back up. How long does that take? Thirty seconds? Too long. Things are very tense. You are trying to subdue one subject when an other subject intervenes and grabs you, breaking your contact with subject 1, making the situation even more dangerous.
I am a libertarian. I am against the drug war. I think citizen journalists do yeoman’s work.
And I think that people who grab a cop when he’s trying to arrest somebody deserve to get punched in the face. I don;t care if the infraction is a seatbelt violation.Report
E.D.
No ever said that, “the police are never wrong.” so please save your hyperbole for someone who cares. You were the one ready to call what the cop did police brutality at the drop of a hat. I suggest that you become a cop or at least talk to one. As for Fairfax County, I grew up there and it is a great place to live.Report
Standards.
Apparently we live in a society where the standards are that if a cop saw you punch a chick in the face after she yelled at you and grabbed your arm, nothing would happen.
This is why we wonder at the idea that cops be held to a higher standard than the one we hold ourselves to.Report
I’m late to this, but my understanding of perps in general is that they get arrested for bad behavior, so they are generally held to a high standard in that way. Usually arrest is a good motivator. About half the things I’d like to do I don’t do for that reason.Report
I think the discussion of this issue at Balko’s site should give you pause, ED.
http://www.theagitator.com/2010/06/16/seattle-cop-punches-woman-in-the-face/
Given his readership is extremely skeptical of police use of power and withering in its criticism of officer conduct, the fact that the reaction seems split 50/50 should give some pause to the idea the officer is necessarily in the wrong here. Any criticism in my mind ought to be about tactics really – though the proper ones were probably more dangerous than taking a swing – ie tasing.
That said, on your actual point, I’m blown away no one is attempting to charge whoever filmed the incident with some kind of crime or at least severe harassment.
The PSS is possibly the great unasked question of the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Tea Party Johnny-Come-Latelies (excepting possibly ‘where you from 2000-2008?’). The reality is, most of the loudest voices are not interested only in freedom from the stuff they don’t like. They see the police as stalwart allies against degenerates and dark-colored drug users.Report
“….namely we can fine or arrest them.”
This is seriously clueless. It implies that the issue was proper punishment of the girls, rather than self-defense for the cop so he could finish carrying out his duties. Just serioulsy removed from and irrelevant to the situation.Report
Sam, let’s make a list of all the things you can do to deserve getting punched in the face.
At the top, we’ll put “grab a cop when he’s trying to arrest somebody.” What else are we going to put on the list?
PS…..I think there are many situations when a cop is justified in punching someone in the face. Many of them.
But a 17 year old girl getting lippy over a jaywalking ticket isn’t one of them. You know what justified in that instance?
Restraint.Report
I always have the mildly creepy sensation that, while everyone appears to be talking about the case in point during these sort of discussions, the mental focus for all of the debaters is their memories of a run in with an authority figure they had as a child. Like there are all kinds of emotions you can’t possibly see or understand without knowing the person’s life history just bubbling under the surface when we see an authority figure using violence.
Makes for interesting debates.Report
@Mopey Duns, Personally I was thinking of the speeding ticket I got last March …Report
@Mopey Duns, it’s weird how the other side always has this weird pathological thing going on while the side that you happen to be on is the one that has not only achieved but is able to maintain emotional health.
Do you think it’s related to the breakdown of the family?Report