JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: AMERICAN RACISM AND POLICE BRUTALITY – BUT THERE ARE OTHER TOXIC INGREDIENTS IN THE SOCIAL MIX PRODUCING WHAT WE’VE SEEN ON AMERICA’S STREETS – A LIST OF TERRIBLE PRACTICES IN AMERICAN POLICING, INCLUDING ITS MILITARIZATION AND HIRING SOLDIERS FROM AMERICA’S BRUTAL COLONIAL WARS AS POLICE - TERRIBLE PRACTICES USED TO RUN A VAST PRISON SYSTEM WITH THE WORLD’S LARGEST POPULATION OF PRISONERS – THE NEGLECT OF ORDINARY PEOPLE AS NATIONAL GOVERNMENT FOCUSES ENTIRELY ON THE MEANS OF WAR AND EMPIRE AND SERVING WEALTH – THE IMMENSE DISPARITY IN AMERICAN SOCIETY CREATED THROUGH ITS POLITICS - THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE WORD “CITIZEN” IN AMERICAN POLITICS - ORDINARY AMERICANS INCREASINGLY SEEN BY THE ESTABLISHMENT AS A HERD

John Chuckman


COMMENT – AMERICAN RACISM AND POLICE BRUTALITY


Racism is certainly a problem in America, a profound and very longstanding one. Its origins trace their roots to the very Founding.

But events like the gruesome police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis bring other harsh matters to our attention.

A crucial one is the very nature of policing in America, and I discuss that below.

Another important one, closely related to the quality of policing, is the immense disparity that has mushroomed in American society. It has been created by wrongheaded laws and tax “reforms” of recent decades. Created by selfish politicians serving selfish elites who assume little-to-no responsibility about the society in general, including the astounding debts they are largely responsible for incurring and even the society’s basic healthiness.

The country, while never a democracy, unquestionably has moved steadily towards being an outright plutocracy, a state which further corrupts and distorts all politics, leaving no room for proper representation of the interests of the vast majority and keeping government closely tied to the service of the privileged.

Both major parties, dependent on wealth for their immense funding needs, effectively have no independence and offer little in the way of genuine alternatives. It is extremely costly to run large political campaigns in America, at least given the way it is done with huge amounts of first-class travel and countless polls and never-ending advertising, and laws and court rulings have only served to keep it costly. That fact also makes it almost impossible for anyone outside the two establishment parties to even think of seriously competing.

As I’ve said before, that political structure is what ties America to a gigantic military, intrusive security agencies, and global empire, an empire serving the interests of elites. But the existence of empire also very much has an impact on domestic affairs. Big social programs of almost any description are simply out of the question, and legislation to support the always-evolving domestic interests of the source of all political-financing bounty, the wealthy, become a priority. The working of the mechanism over time only more deeply entrenches plutocracy and the lack of political support for any interests of ordinary Americans – eg, as for national healthcare.

Much of the harshness of American law enforcement reflects a focus on protecting those with wealth, both individuals and corporations, and promoting an attitude of indifference or contempt for a great many other people. The mass of Americans is treated increasingly as though it were a herd of some kind. Just minimal efforts and precautions are taken for its benefit and general social order. We no longer even hear the word “citizens” even used in political speech, a word that has historic resonance and implies obligations.

Police officers, while largely originating from ordinary people, are encouraged to think of themselves as having been raised out of that status, almost as being “knighted” for the special front-line service of America’s most privileged. Most people like the idea of being considered special and jealously guard their status, and America’s public culture almost deifies police work.

American law enforcement has an international reputation for brutality. Years ago, it was cited by Amnesty International for dark excess.

On average, American police kill 3 citizens each day, and that’s apart from the far greater number they assault and injure and terrify.

Use of choke holds, like the one that killed George Floyd, is common.

Many police departments are heavily militarized. The Pentagon has a regular program for distributing unneeded military supplies to local police. Some departments can put on displays similar to those of some small nation-state militaries, complete with armored vehicles, machine guns, helicopters, and drones.

The attitudes of military thinking come with the supply and use of that equipment, as well as from the nature of training and recruiting (mentioned below), and they are not attitudes to be encouraged in a civilian force.

Men leaving the military after their term often become police officers. America has a very large military, so there is a constant flow of police recruits. Of course, the record of the American military abroad in its many brutal colonial wars – as, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, etc. - is not one of civilian-oriented restraint or caution. It is one of “shoot first, ask questions later.”

Those ugly imperial wars saw countless atrocities and war crimes, but remarkably few soldiers ever were held accountable. American police-hiring practices bring something of that war-time sense of atrocity-with-impunity entitlement to the streets and citizens of America.

Many police forces do not even use all the safeguards available to them in hiring, as always testing candidates for sociopathic or sadistic tendencies. Police work, like the military, is a natural attractant for sociopaths and sadists.

As a recent trend, many local American police forces receive some training in Israel. Israel earns a good flow of funds from the contracts. Since Israel occupies a large population against its will, a population with no citizenship or rights, it is a very questionable practice to send civilian police there for training – at least if your intention is just fair and capable law enforcement by American police.

America's prisons are notoriously violent places where prisoners can die mysteriously. One study a while back counted 800 such deaths in a year.

Solitary confinement, virtually a form of torture, is widely practiced in America. And the country has a set of hideous institutions called “Super-max prisons” where the conditions are severe and frightening.

A number of American states contract-out running their prisons to private companies to save money, and you can imagine the quality of staff and supervision when saving money is the goal.

America has the largest number of incarcerated people in the world.

Compared to their share of population, heavily disproportionate numbers of blacks are incarcerated in America. I am not arguing about the fairness of their charges or sentences, of which I know nothing, but given America’s endemic and intense racism, you can imagine the harsh conditions for many of them as prisoners. Prison guards, of course, do not tend to come from an educated or refined pool of people.

Training for prison guards is often poor, as it very much is for the local police in America’s huge number of towns incorporated out of suburban sprawl, a distinctly American phenomenon.

It is important to recognize that America, contrary to many pleasant stories told about it, is an extremely harsh society. You could not have the kind of imperial wars America has otherwise. You cannot have an empire without brutality. Empire and militarism fundamentally negate all principles one may claim to embrace, such as human and democratic rights. Millions of people are treated like crap around the world by America every year.

The state of American society not only is affected by the military and empire, it almost serves as a proving ground in the production of soldiers and leaders and public opinion for all that aggression and hostility.

I’ve said it many times, but it is a fundamental truth not widely understood: you cannot have both a decent society and an empire. You must choose, and America’s choice has been clear for a very long time.

You do have to ask yourself, “Do the people who truly run America, those who profit from its wars and empire, have any serious interest in changing those arrangements?”