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Police Have Been Overly Aggressive
The latest police murder of a black person, George Floyd, has caused a larger and more prolonged protest than previous ones. As usual, it is hoped that this moment will result in positive changes in race relations in our country, and hopefully it will. Our country's problems with race relations contribute to the unfortunate attitudes of some police officers, and laws that are passed to create more accountability for our police forces haven't solved the problem because of these underlying attitudes.
But there are other factors that contribute to the problem of police violence. After all, during the recent unrest, the police have assaulted white people as well as those of color. This aggressive attitude is widespread within the police community. When two police officers in Buffalo were charged with assault (of a white man), their whole “special response squad” of 75 resigned en masse in protest. And as the two charged officers left the courthouse, they were applauded by members of the police and fire unions.
Why did this happen?
Police work is dangerous. When police officers go to work, those left at home often live in fear that their loved ones will be hurt or killed on the job. And some are. But the police, themselves, can't show their fear, and it may become generalized. A police officer may come to view anyone and everyone as a threat, an enemy.
One defense mechanism against fear is "identification with the aggressor." (As one soldier in Vietnam put it, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for I am the meanest @#! in the valley.") When a response to a threat is incompletely successful (identification with the aggressor doesn't, in fact, fully protect against the aggressor) that response will be intensified and generalized in an ongoing attempt to solve the problem. Thus, a police officer may come to view himself or herself as increasingly entitled to crush the "enemy."
What Can Be Done?
Hopefully, this understanding will be taken into account as needed changes are planned. And ifyou have distressing feelings about these recent events, my complimentary Tool will provide feelings of peacefulness and calm.
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