This correspondent abhors violence in any form, let alone what is happening on the streets of Baltimore. But he concludes that civil unrest may be the only way to provoke meaningful and lasting police reform, including an end to the rampant brutality that has been part and parcel of policing in Baltimore and too many other big American cities. (It is highly likely that in the very dead Freddie Gray’s case, police took him for what they derisively call a “nickel ride.”)
Face it, folks, do-gooder reports aren’t getting the job done.
Will Philadelphia be next? As I wrote at my home blog in January:
“I saw enough bad police behavior to last several lifetimes during the 21 years I worked for one of Philadelphia’s two major daily newspapers. This did not make the unjustified and widely publicized killings of black men by police officers in a St. Louis suburb and on Staten Island in the year past any less vile. It merely reconfirmed for me that until the police in this country are brought under control, there can be no racial rapprochement. . . .
“During my two-plus decades in Philadelphia, officers routinely brutalized criminal suspects and innocents alike with little likelihood of their being sanctioned by their department, let alone charged with criminal offenses. Efforts to reform the department through blue-ribbon panels, task forces and legislative fiats came and went with the seasons and today, 13 years after I left the City of Brotherly Love, its police department remains deeply corrupt and rogue officers — taking advantage of a powerful police union, weak laws and compliant district attorneys — continue to terrorize the communities they are sworn to protect.”
How else other than civil unrest to bring attention to and provoke action on this hitherto intractable issue — which has been so much background noise for far too long?
Except at the glacial pace that riots lead to substantive police reforms, the world’s glaciers will be gone before police stop brutalizing the public.
Police and police departments have always been more or less corrupt. They do have a vested interest in a continued level of criminal activity. That is the whole point of the War on Drugs. Whatever was the FBI to do with all its assets and resources when Prohibition was repealed in 1933?
Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act — 1934. Made tougher over the years with other laws. Selective enforcement in minority communities and presto — those kids end up with a criminal record before their brains are fully developed.
In history, when the voices of the people go unheeded, all that rests is revolution. In the US the democratic process is corrupt due to corporate influence and campaign funding, there is no level playing field. Not even all are equal to cast their vote.
Btw how will HC reinvent her poor image, she’s in the same quagmire as Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in 2012.
○ Clinton Foundation Cites Transparency After Donor List Questions
○ Hillary Clinton’s Big Benefactor Has Trade Links with Iran
So far, the reports about the Clinton Global Initiative suggest nothing more than an upscale version of their AR sleazy dealings from decades ago. However, upscale sleaze is SOP for the circles they have been traveling in since leaving AR. More Bush family territory than Romney who remains on the lower rent side.
We’ve come a long way since 1972. “Follow the money” has become close to impossible.
This has been said elsewhere and I agree….the only successful american riot was the Boston Tea Party.
I understand the pessimism, but I think that sustained civil disobedience short of actual riots are the way to provoke police reform.
The very difficult part of this strategy is the fact that he police, politicians, and media want to portray civil disobedience as rioting and will do anything possible to ensure that rioting breaks out including escalating to trigger stochastic violence from the less well-disciplined.