DIY Monster: The Nuts & Bolts
DIY Monster: The Nuts & Bolts Dr. Frankenstein knew how to make a monster: Take one body and add power. in Mary Shelley's classic story, the power came from lightning. But give any person unrestrained power and you have a monster in the making.
In the famous Stanford prison experiment, researchers assigned students the roles of prison guards. After 6 days, the scientists had to discontinue the experiment because the guards were becoming sadistic.
Other psychologists have criticized the experiment's methodology. but our criminal justice system has proven the general principle: Give human beings power without accountability and it will be abused.
The authors of the U. S. Constitution, aware of human nature, divided power into three separate branches and included checks and balances in our system of government. But when they wrote the Constitution, the modern police force had not yet been invented.
When Sir Robert Peel established the London Police Department in the 1820s, many in the public feared it would become like redcoats imposing British rule on a distant land. Peel shaped the force in a manner he hoped would gain public acceptance. He armed the officers not with guns but clubs and emphasized their connection with the community.
Today in America, police often resemble an occupying army. They work largely without accountability and keep to themselves, apart from the rest of society. When a cop acts badly, other officers cover it up.
When one officer killed George Floyd, others stood around, not intervening even though Floyd kept saying "I can't breath."
We shouldn't be surprised. In allowing police departments to become insular, set apart from the rest of society, and in permitting police officers to escape legal accountability, we have created the perfect culture medium to grow monsters.
Prosecutors also act largely out of public view. Grand jury proceedings are secret. Prosecutors also have immunity from lawsuit, indeed, even greater immunity than police officers.
Although cellphone cameras can sometimes record police violence, the harm prosecutors can do goes unrecorded and noticed only by those affected. Their misconduct may not be as dramatic as killing someone by choking or bullet, but it can result in innocent people spending years in prison.
This blog will focus on the official misconduct which is turning our criminal justice system into a monster far worse than Dr. Frankenstein ever could have imagine.
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