Police officers of all ranks/titles are either loved or hated. Its been that way since BCE times. No amount of reform, revamp, criminal charging, etc. will ever stop people viewing cops in only one of those two ways.
Greene is upset that President Biden lowered gas prices prior to the mid-term elections, in essence, to swing public opinion over to the Democratic way of thinking. Well maybe the rest of us should be upset with the huge oil concerns, that exist only to mingle with the Republican way of not thinking, artificially raising gas prices to make the Biden administration look bad during the same mid-terms election cycle. Ms. Greene, it's all in how you look at it. The end result was the lowering of the gas prices at the pump. What's your problem, besides a missing mass of fatty material lodged loosely between your ears? The stupidity this woman exhibits every time she opens her mouth is only surpassed by the emptiness of the thought she is trying to convey. Georgia must be suffering from "Peach Pit Poisoning" (I think that qualifies as being alteration) and this fool must have swallowed a belly full. The House has a quantity of honest elected officials that are being forced to listen to Greene's ridiculous rantings centered around her flagrant inability to act in a responsible manner. Her female bulldog mentality, that we all know by another name, stands as a testament to her lack of understanding of why she is and where she shouldn't be. If her state reelects this woman in the next election cycle maybe 49 is a more significant number than 50. She ain't no Georgia Peach and that's a pity.
"Perhaps we might follow the lead of another field where public safety is at stake: civil aviation. When a plane crashes, the catastrophe is followed by rigorous self-examination over what systems failed and who was to blame. We need that same spirit around how the police interact with the public, especially with members of marginalized groups."
YES. I'm a huge fan of TV shows and podcasts about air accident investigations because they make me much more comfortable about flying. The NTSB and similar agencies go to great lengths to track down relevant details and determine the factors at play, and then manufacturers, regulators, airlines and others implement changes so that the same accident can't happen again. Why can't we take this same sort of investigative, evidence-driven, problem-solving approach for other types of crises, starting with police brutality and going on from there?
To Dan Rather and fans. There is a book called A Hidden Wholeness, The Journey Towards an Undivided life by Parker Palmer describing a Third Way in Chapter X about standing in the Tragic Gap, and holding tensions, holding two truths at the same time and finding another way, a better way. Worth the read.
SUBMERGED FEELINGS OF PAIN IN MEN (and in some women, and with people in general who lack the hard-learned skill of emotional literacy) -- often emerge as anger towards others. This I believe was at least part of the case with the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols. "Pain that has not been transformed, is transmitted on to others." Many of the beautiful men I worked with in our men's counseling group for 7 years had no language for their own pain, they could not even recognize their own pain, let alone acknowledge it or verbalize it to their peers or to their spouses. It never occurs to them to say: "I'm sad" or "I'm hurting" because they have little experience or awareness of it. It's just "0" to "60 mph" -- unverbalized, unacknowledged hurt turns right into to anger as the default emotion in nearly every case.
We often started counseling men with a list of words describing different nuanced emotions. We slowed men down from their expression of anger towards their spouses or others, and backed them up to discover and describe the fear, hurt, pain, or the shame that precedes and underlies their anger. And as we learned from Yoda, just put a tazer, a fist, or a gun in the hands of the hurt, and their hurt which turns into anger and hate can then turn into violence towards others. Yoda said it pretty well -- "Fear is the path to the dark side...fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate...hate leads to violence and suffering." In the case of those 5 police officers who brutalized Tyre Nichols, I believe it was a complex pattern of submerged and unrecognized emotions in those football player warrior policemen that turned into their hate and anger, and their undifferentiated blind violence perpetrated on that beautiful young black man who was just on his way home.
Jen Hood and many others here have said it exactly right -- submerged feelings of pain in men (and in some women, and with people in general who lack the hard-learned skill of emotional literacy) -- often emerges as anger towards others. This I believe was at least part of the case with the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols. "Pain that has not been transformed, is transmitted on to others." Many of the beautiful men I worked with in our men's counseling group for 7 years had no language for their own pain, they could not even recognize their own pain, let alone acknowledge it or verbalize it to their peers or to their spouses. It never occurs to them to say: "I'm sad" or "I'm hurting" because they have little experience or awareness of it. It's just "0" to "60 mph" -- unverbalized, unacknowledged hurt turns right into to anger as the default emotion in nearly every case. We often started counseling men with a list of words describing different nuanced emotions. We slowed men down from their expression of anger towards their spouses or others, and backed them up to discover and describe the fear, hurt, pain, or the shame that precedes and underlies their anger. And as we learned from Yoda, just put a tazer, a fist, or a gun in their hands and their hate can turn into violence towards others. Yoda said it pretty well -- "Fear is the path to the dark side...fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate...hate leads to violence and suffering." In the case of those 5 police officers who brutalized Tyre Nichols, I believe it was that complex pattern of submerged and unrecognized emotions in those football player warrior policemen that turned into their hate and anger, and their undifferentiated blind violence perpetrated on that beautiful young black man who was on his way home.
We seem to have a problem with misfits being hired into critical roles in our inclusive society. Human Resources is failing to weed out these people. It's literally killing us.
I think it's important that we recognize that for every one of these cases we need to do our full research and wait for all the evidence and footage to be released before going for our pre conceived emotions. However this case seems like one of those where even with the limited info we have available, it's clear there is no reasons besides murderous intent for what these officers did.
I think it's important that we recognize that for every one of these cases we need to do our full research and wait for all the evidence and footage to be released before going for our pre conceived emotions. However this case seems like one of those where even with the limited info we have available, it's clear there is no reasons besides murderous intent for what these officers did.
Our social system is like a toddler compared to most of the others already out there. There hasn't been a society that's risen to its pinnacle without crumbling at some later point in time. Rise and fall the process never ends because change never stops. From each disaster there emerges something new, eventually the end product will yield something we all can live with. Our problem lies in our limited mortality, most will never live long enough to reap the rewards. One generation sows what the next must harvest. Question, will the effort be worth the product? Clawing at each other the way we do will only culminate in our mutual extinction. Are we smart enough to see it before it happens?
Every law enforcement agency needs to implement three critical written policies and procedures to start dealing with the toxic police culture that exists. These are:
1. Duty to Report Misconduct
Every police officer should be required, as a condition of employment, to report conduct of fellow officers that violates any statue, ordinance or policy related to the use of physical force or the false reporting or misrepresentation of the facts surrounding that misuse of force. It should also include a duty to report integrity violations that relate to honesty. Failure to report these acts of misconduct qualifies the officer as an active participant in the misconduct.
2. Duty to Intervene in Law Enforcement Misconduct
Every officer, as a condition of employment, has an affirmative obligation to intervene and stop the illegal and improper use of physical force by any officer. Failure to intervene or attempt to intervene qualifies the officer as an active participant in the misconduct.
3. Anti-Retribution for Reporting
One of the most serious impediments law enforcement agencies faces is the "Code of Silence." Police officers believe if they report misconduct of fellow officers, they face retribution from fellow officers by way of not getting backed up on the street if they need assistance or by being ostracized by fellow officers as being a "rat". There needs to be meaningful sanctions for any officer that engages directly or indirectly in retribution against any officer or civilian employee in the agency that has properly reported any incident of police misconduct.
Law enforcement agencies should also appoint a professional standards officer who answers directly to the agency administrator to take reports of police misconduct originating from police officers and to thoroughly investigate and adjudicate these incidents in an expedited manner. This would be outside the purview of the regular Internal Affairs Unit that takes reports from the public about police misconduct and are often accused of slow walking or burying police on police cases.
What’s in a name? They are called Police FORCE. And while the job they do may require force in certain situations, force and militaristic actions should not be emphasized. But they seem to be. They aren’t all bad or aggressive individuals by a long shot. But there is definitely an atmosphere and environment that promotes behavior that would not be tolerated in other professions. Covered the police beat as a young reporter and most of the cops were good, dedicated people. Sure, some stole controlled substances from the evidence room, some stopped vehicles with a certain type driver, others overly enthusiastically wrote traffic tickets, but most did their job without malice and aforethought. Worked in City of 59k in a major metro and saw about 33% of the budget given to Public Safety. And starting salary is now $58k to attract more to the job. Don’t think funding is always an issue. But psych evaluations prior to joining the “Force” is an idea worth implementing. And maybe we should think of another name for these departments. Never heard of a Fire Force, you know.
Excellent commentary. Might also want to take a look at what is happening near Atlanta where the police have killed one protestor and jailed 19 others on state terrorism charges. These persons are protesting the destruction of a forest to build a police training center. The violence increases.
Police officers of all ranks/titles are either loved or hated. Its been that way since BCE times. No amount of reform, revamp, criminal charging, etc. will ever stop people viewing cops in only one of those two ways.
This is as America as it gets.
Is she serious?
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
8:58 AM (0 minutes ago)
t
Greene is upset that President Biden lowered gas prices prior to the mid-term elections, in essence, to swing public opinion over to the Democratic way of thinking. Well maybe the rest of us should be upset with the huge oil concerns, that exist only to mingle with the Republican way of not thinking, artificially raising gas prices to make the Biden administration look bad during the same mid-terms election cycle. Ms. Greene, it's all in how you look at it. The end result was the lowering of the gas prices at the pump. What's your problem, besides a missing mass of fatty material lodged loosely between your ears? The stupidity this woman exhibits every time she opens her mouth is only surpassed by the emptiness of the thought she is trying to convey. Georgia must be suffering from "Peach Pit Poisoning" (I think that qualifies as being alteration) and this fool must have swallowed a belly full. The House has a quantity of honest elected officials that are being forced to listen to Greene's ridiculous rantings centered around her flagrant inability to act in a responsible manner. Her female bulldog mentality, that we all know by another name, stands as a testament to her lack of understanding of why she is and where she shouldn't be. If her state reelects this woman in the next election cycle maybe 49 is a more significant number than 50. She ain't no Georgia Peach and that's a pity.
"Perhaps we might follow the lead of another field where public safety is at stake: civil aviation. When a plane crashes, the catastrophe is followed by rigorous self-examination over what systems failed and who was to blame. We need that same spirit around how the police interact with the public, especially with members of marginalized groups."
YES. I'm a huge fan of TV shows and podcasts about air accident investigations because they make me much more comfortable about flying. The NTSB and similar agencies go to great lengths to track down relevant details and determine the factors at play, and then manufacturers, regulators, airlines and others implement changes so that the same accident can't happen again. Why can't we take this same sort of investigative, evidence-driven, problem-solving approach for other types of crises, starting with police brutality and going on from there?
To Dan Rather and fans. There is a book called A Hidden Wholeness, The Journey Towards an Undivided life by Parker Palmer describing a Third Way in Chapter X about standing in the Tragic Gap, and holding tensions, holding two truths at the same time and finding another way, a better way. Worth the read.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
- RUMI
SUBMERGED FEELINGS OF PAIN IN MEN (and in some women, and with people in general who lack the hard-learned skill of emotional literacy) -- often emerge as anger towards others. This I believe was at least part of the case with the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols. "Pain that has not been transformed, is transmitted on to others." Many of the beautiful men I worked with in our men's counseling group for 7 years had no language for their own pain, they could not even recognize their own pain, let alone acknowledge it or verbalize it to their peers or to their spouses. It never occurs to them to say: "I'm sad" or "I'm hurting" because they have little experience or awareness of it. It's just "0" to "60 mph" -- unverbalized, unacknowledged hurt turns right into to anger as the default emotion in nearly every case.
We often started counseling men with a list of words describing different nuanced emotions. We slowed men down from their expression of anger towards their spouses or others, and backed them up to discover and describe the fear, hurt, pain, or the shame that precedes and underlies their anger. And as we learned from Yoda, just put a tazer, a fist, or a gun in the hands of the hurt, and their hurt which turns into anger and hate can then turn into violence towards others. Yoda said it pretty well -- "Fear is the path to the dark side...fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate...hate leads to violence and suffering." In the case of those 5 police officers who brutalized Tyre Nichols, I believe it was a complex pattern of submerged and unrecognized emotions in those football player warrior policemen that turned into their hate and anger, and their undifferentiated blind violence perpetrated on that beautiful young black man who was just on his way home.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-police-folklore-that-helped-kill-tyre-nichols
Jen Hood and many others here have said it exactly right -- submerged feelings of pain in men (and in some women, and with people in general who lack the hard-learned skill of emotional literacy) -- often emerges as anger towards others. This I believe was at least part of the case with the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols. "Pain that has not been transformed, is transmitted on to others." Many of the beautiful men I worked with in our men's counseling group for 7 years had no language for their own pain, they could not even recognize their own pain, let alone acknowledge it or verbalize it to their peers or to their spouses. It never occurs to them to say: "I'm sad" or "I'm hurting" because they have little experience or awareness of it. It's just "0" to "60 mph" -- unverbalized, unacknowledged hurt turns right into to anger as the default emotion in nearly every case. We often started counseling men with a list of words describing different nuanced emotions. We slowed men down from their expression of anger towards their spouses or others, and backed them up to discover and describe the fear, hurt, pain, or the shame that precedes and underlies their anger. And as we learned from Yoda, just put a tazer, a fist, or a gun in their hands and their hate can turn into violence towards others. Yoda said it pretty well -- "Fear is the path to the dark side...fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate...hate leads to violence and suffering." In the case of those 5 police officers who brutalized Tyre Nichols, I believe it was that complex pattern of submerged and unrecognized emotions in those football player warrior policemen that turned into their hate and anger, and their undifferentiated blind violence perpetrated on that beautiful young black man who was on his way home.
We seem to have a problem with misfits being hired into critical roles in our inclusive society. Human Resources is failing to weed out these people. It's literally killing us.
I think it's important that we recognize that for every one of these cases we need to do our full research and wait for all the evidence and footage to be released before going for our pre conceived emotions. However this case seems like one of those where even with the limited info we have available, it's clear there is no reasons besides murderous intent for what these officers did.
I think it's important that we recognize that for every one of these cases we need to do our full research and wait for all the evidence and footage to be released before going for our pre conceived emotions. However this case seems like one of those where even with the limited info we have available, it's clear there is no reasons besides murderous intent for what these officers did.
Our social system is like a toddler compared to most of the others already out there. There hasn't been a society that's risen to its pinnacle without crumbling at some later point in time. Rise and fall the process never ends because change never stops. From each disaster there emerges something new, eventually the end product will yield something we all can live with. Our problem lies in our limited mortality, most will never live long enough to reap the rewards. One generation sows what the next must harvest. Question, will the effort be worth the product? Clawing at each other the way we do will only culminate in our mutual extinction. Are we smart enough to see it before it happens?
Every law enforcement agency needs to implement three critical written policies and procedures to start dealing with the toxic police culture that exists. These are:
1. Duty to Report Misconduct
Every police officer should be required, as a condition of employment, to report conduct of fellow officers that violates any statue, ordinance or policy related to the use of physical force or the false reporting or misrepresentation of the facts surrounding that misuse of force. It should also include a duty to report integrity violations that relate to honesty. Failure to report these acts of misconduct qualifies the officer as an active participant in the misconduct.
2. Duty to Intervene in Law Enforcement Misconduct
Every officer, as a condition of employment, has an affirmative obligation to intervene and stop the illegal and improper use of physical force by any officer. Failure to intervene or attempt to intervene qualifies the officer as an active participant in the misconduct.
3. Anti-Retribution for Reporting
One of the most serious impediments law enforcement agencies faces is the "Code of Silence." Police officers believe if they report misconduct of fellow officers, they face retribution from fellow officers by way of not getting backed up on the street if they need assistance or by being ostracized by fellow officers as being a "rat". There needs to be meaningful sanctions for any officer that engages directly or indirectly in retribution against any officer or civilian employee in the agency that has properly reported any incident of police misconduct.
Law enforcement agencies should also appoint a professional standards officer who answers directly to the agency administrator to take reports of police misconduct originating from police officers and to thoroughly investigate and adjudicate these incidents in an expedited manner. This would be outside the purview of the regular Internal Affairs Unit that takes reports from the public about police misconduct and are often accused of slow walking or burying police on police cases.
Five black cops should not have killed that one black man. Say it loud and clear. This is not racism. What is it?
Bad police work without regard to race. It is conduct by rogue officers who saw themselves as judge, jury and executioner and acted with impunity.
What’s in a name? They are called Police FORCE. And while the job they do may require force in certain situations, force and militaristic actions should not be emphasized. But they seem to be. They aren’t all bad or aggressive individuals by a long shot. But there is definitely an atmosphere and environment that promotes behavior that would not be tolerated in other professions. Covered the police beat as a young reporter and most of the cops were good, dedicated people. Sure, some stole controlled substances from the evidence room, some stopped vehicles with a certain type driver, others overly enthusiastically wrote traffic tickets, but most did their job without malice and aforethought. Worked in City of 59k in a major metro and saw about 33% of the budget given to Public Safety. And starting salary is now $58k to attract more to the job. Don’t think funding is always an issue. But psych evaluations prior to joining the “Force” is an idea worth implementing. And maybe we should think of another name for these departments. Never heard of a Fire Force, you know.
Excellent commentary. Might also want to take a look at what is happening near Atlanta where the police have killed one protestor and jailed 19 others on state terrorism charges. These persons are protesting the destruction of a forest to build a police training center. The violence increases.
You guys always get it perfectly right.