"Police Chauvinism" Produces Derek Chauvins
According to legend, one of Napoleon's soldiers continued to display a patriotism so extreme his name became the basis for a new word. The Encyclopedia Britannica records that Nicolas Chauvin "came to typify the cult of the glorification of all things military" and the word chauvinism came to connote "an undue partiality to a group or place."
In recent decades in America, the impulse to hero worship has expanded to include the glorification of police. But what happens if you tell any group of people that they are good guys fighting evil, imply they can do no wrong, then overlook their misdeeds and impose no punishment for bad behavior?
Every human being will become a little intoxicated by that power. Some will grow not just callous but smugly callous. There will be moments when a few get really, stinking out of control. And a very few will become so deadened by righteous entitlement they're willing to snuff out a human life while bystanders watch and record it on video.
Derek Chauvin murdered a man in Minneapolis. But how did he acquire the power to commit such a crime? And why did other officers, who could have stopped him, just stand around and let it happen?
Our society's police chauvinism, its glorification of those behind the badge, has created am environment which not only tolerates bullies but allows them to grow in power. And our society has allowed police officers to create and live in a separate, private world where their unspoken rules take precedence over written laws.
Since the beginning of commercial television in the late 1940s, at least 340 cop shows have appeared on America's screens. The Internet Movie Database made a list.In the 1950s, Dragnet, a highly popular police procedural, set the pattern. Like many of the television westerns of that decade, Dragnet neatly divided the world into good guys and bad guys.
The Los Angeles Police Department exercised considerable creative control over the program, assuring a favorable portrayal. The show put makeup on the less attractive aspects of law enforcement while fascinating the public with many technical details of police procedure.
The LAPD's close relationship with the producers infused Dragnet with a particular mindset and attitude, a righteous obsession with getting the bad guy, no matter what. The officers didn't slow down much to consider Constitutional niceties.
But a sizable chunk of the public desired tough policing with not too many rules. During the 1960s, television increasingly brought viewers footage of unsettling real–life events. Many people, feeling a greater need for police, wanted cops to have more power and fewer constraints.
This seductive self image - the cop as lonely warrior, often misunderstood, struggling to preserve society against growing lawlessness - offers psychological benefits. It defines the officer as a member of a special group, apart from society, an elite.
It also hardens an officer against outside criticism, which can be dismissed saying "You don't understand. You weren't in my situation."
By similar logic, rules made by outsiders, who neither share their experiences nor face their challenges, can be ignored. And, since the outsiders can't understand, lying is not only expedient but necessary.
The highest duty, felt even if not acknowledged, becomes conforming to the group's norms, and betraying another group member amounts to treason.
Such loyalty to a group and its members is a form of chauvinism. In the original form, the group was the military. When it expanded to include a whole country, "chauvinism" became almost synonymous with nationalism.
Feminists described another species: male chauvinism. But the word "chauvinism" rightly can be applied to any form of toxic loyalty to an insular group.
And it's powerful Woe to the person who belongs to an insular group and breaks its norms! Consider what happened to Cariol Horne.
Such loyalty to a group and its members is a form of chauvinism. In the original form, the group was the military. When it expanded to include a whole country, "chauvinism" became almost synonymous with nationalism.
Feminists described another species: male chauvinism. But the word "chauvinism" rightly can be applied to any form of toxic loyalty to an insular group.
And it's powerful Woe to the person who belongs to an insular group and breaks its norms! Consider what happened to Cariol Horne.
First, she tried to persuade the white officer to stop but he didn't let go. Then, Horne physically fought with the white cop, forcing him to release the choke hold.
Later, the man Horne rescued said that she had saved his life. But the police department fired her.
Then, Kwiatkowski sued Horne for defamation and won.
Eventually, Kwiatkowski's brutish modus operandi caught up with him. He spent 4 months in federal prison for using "unlawful and unreasonable force against four black teenagers."
Horne became an advocate for criminal justice reform. It took years, but she, along with others, convinced the city of Buffalo to enact a "duty to intervene law."
Buffalo took that action last year, after the video of George Floyd's death prompted shock and outrage. That video, showing other Minneapolis cops standing around doing nothing while their fellow officer killed a man, demonstrated the importance of a law requiring them to act.
Yet, it seems strange that such a law would be needed. Police officers already have a legal duty to act when they see a crime being committed. But the Buffalo law makes it explicit, and should discourage cops from letting peer pressure outweigh justice.
Under a provision of the new law, Horne filed suit for wrongful termination. This month she won.
Her experience shows that there are not one but two pervasive problems which must be addressed within police departments. They are comorbidities.
Racial prejudice certainly must be addressed and eliminated. But even after that hard, necessary work, another problem will remain: Eliminating the peculiar chauvinism which insularity breeds. Will that be the more
difficult task?
Horne became an advocate for criminal justice reform. It took years, but she, along with others, convinced the city of Buffalo to enact a "duty to intervene law."
Buffalo took that action last year, after the video of George Floyd's death prompted shock and outrage. That video, showing other Minneapolis cops standing around doing nothing while their fellow officer killed a man, demonstrated the importance of a law requiring them to act.
Yet, it seems strange that such a law would be needed. Police officers already have a legal duty to act when they see a crime being committed. But the Buffalo law makes it explicit, and should discourage cops from letting peer pressure outweigh justice.
Under a provision of the new law, Horne filed suit for wrongful termination. This month she won.
Her experience shows that there are not one but two pervasive problems which must be addressed within police departments. They are comorbidities.
Racial prejudice certainly must be addressed and eliminated. But even after that hard, necessary work, another problem will remain: Eliminating the peculiar chauvinism which insularity breeds. Will that be the more
difficult task?
Publicity photograph of actors Jack Webb and Harry Morgan playing Sgt. Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon in the 1967-70 version of Dragnet (via Wikimedia Commons). Photo of former officer Cariol Horne from her website. Drawing of Nicolas Chauvin by unknown artist.
April 24, 2021
(WESTMINSTER, CALIFORNIA) Two police officers intervened when a
fellow officer began hitting a woman who, although handcuffed,
apparently had kicked him. Although he appears to have struck her
twice, the other officers stopped him from hitting her further. See
story and video here.
The woman had been arrested on an outstanding warrant. She may have been intoxicated.
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(NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE) On April 19, 2021, the Tennessee State Senate unanimously passed a criminal justice reform bill that makes several important changes, including creating a duty to intervene: If a law enforcement officer sees other officers using excessive force, and if the officer has an opportunity and means to prevent the use of such force, the officer must act.
The bill also prohibits retaliation against an officer for intervening to prevent the use of excessive force, for reporting the incident or for providing information about it the investigators.
Additionally, the bill would require all law enforcement agencies to report uses of force to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which would place that information in a database.
Other provisions of the bill prohibit judicial magistrates from issuing no-knock search warrants and provide that law enforcement officers can use a "choke hold" only if they reasonably believe that the circumstances permit the use of deadly force.
The bill now goes to the Tennessee House of Representatives.
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(SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS) This week, the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled in a civil case that San Antonio police officers are not entitled to qualified immunity for their actions leading to the death of a man who may have been on drugs or mentally ill. Video of the incident, similar in some ways to George Floyd's death, may be seen here.
Police had received reports that a man was walking down the median of an 8-lane expressway and waving his arms. When officers handcuffed him, he did not appear to resist. Nonetheless, they forced him to lie face down, pulled his legs up into a hog-tie position and applied pressure. After 5-1/2 minutes in this position, the man, whose name was Jesse Aguirre, stopped breathing.
During those minutes, Aguirre's lips turned blue. One officer noticed but, because Aguirre had injection marks on his arm, believed drugs were causing the cyanotic reaction.
After Aguirre stopped breathing, an officer named Juarez, who had trained as a medic, jogged back to his car to get his medical gear. The court wrote: "At this point, the Officers appear to be in good spirits; according to the Plaintiffs, in the dashcam videos, Juarez can be seen smiling as he jogs to his vehicle, and several other Officers likewise appear to be smiling and laughing as they await Juarez’s return around Aguirre’s body"
The mood turned less festive when Aguirre did not respond. The court held that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity.
A finding of immunity spares an officer not only from liability but also from the ordeal and expense of a trial, so courts decide the immunity issue first. Denied immunity, the officers will now have to defend their actions in court.
Police had received reports that a man was walking down the median of an 8-lane expressway and waving his arms. When officers handcuffed him, he did not appear to resist. Nonetheless, they forced him to lie face down, pulled his legs up into a hog-tie position and applied pressure. After 5-1/2 minutes in this position, the man, whose name was Jesse Aguirre, stopped breathing.
During those minutes, Aguirre's lips turned blue. One officer noticed but, because Aguirre had injection marks on his arm, believed drugs were causing the cyanotic reaction.
After Aguirre stopped breathing, an officer named Juarez, who had trained as a medic, jogged back to his car to get his medical gear. The court wrote: "At this point, the Officers appear to be in good spirits; according to the Plaintiffs, in the dashcam videos, Juarez can be seen smiling as he jogs to his vehicle, and several other Officers likewise appear to be smiling and laughing as they await Juarez’s return around Aguirre’s body"
The mood turned less festive when Aguirre did not respond. The court held that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity.
A finding of immunity spares an officer not only from liability but also from the ordeal and expense of a trial, so courts decide the immunity issue first. Denied immunity, the officers will now have to defend their actions in court.
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