the_scaffold

Authoritarian Spill-over
Professional: When an officer gives directions or orders to a person they expect immediate compliance. Failure to comply with an officer's commands can be cause for the issuance of a citation or a physical arrest.

Personal: Some officers cannot separate their career life from their personal life. They "eat, live, die" police work. Their identity is defined by their uniform. Any conflicts in their personal life are seen as a challenge to their dominance, authority, power, or control over the other person and the situation. He views everything in a black and white perspective. It is either wrong or right. There are no gray areas, leaving no room for the victim to voice her opinion or position.

Surveillance
Professional: When the police identify a suspect, they begin surveillance to gain information and to attempt to catch the suspect in criminal behavior. Once the suspect realizes he is being watched, he will alter his behavior.

Personal: Allowing the victim to know that she is being monitored is an effective means of control. She will alter her behavior to avoid disapproval, isolation, or physical punishment. Stalking is a perverted form of surveillance. Stalking her physically, telephonically, or electronically robs the victim of her sense of privacy and control over her life. She alters her behavior based upon the possibility that he is watching. The abuser gains information about her schedule, activities, associates and movements. He is able to intrude upon he life whenever and wherever he pleases.

Information
Professional: Police officers have access to numerous local, state and national databases containing confidential information, such as the National Crime Information Center, banking, telecommunications and credit bureaus.

Personal: Although officers are only permitted to access these files in official investigations, some officers use the databases for personal reasons: "running a plate for a date" is not uncommon. Previous police reports, orders of protection, even victim-witness security information can be accessed. He may access a victim's financial, phone or employment records. The officer-abuser can use this information in countless ways to harass or harm the victim, her family or her friends.

Interrogation
Professional: Verbal judo tactics ranging from persuasion to intimidation enable officers to manipulate and control the level of interaction with suspects to solicit cooperation and information.

Personal: He can intimidate the victim emotionally and physically, gradually increasing the threat of force. He can treat her as a suspect in her own home, interrogating her and the children about any suspicions he may have concerning finances, infidelity, or friendships.

Deception
Professional: Deception is vital in many policing situations. Police officers pretend to be prostitutes, traffickers, drug dealers, gang members and militants to facilitate the arrest of individuals involved in illegal activity. They hide their true identity and intentions through disguises, changing their physical appearance, style of speech, dress and even their personal associates in order to gain the trust of their targets.

Personal: He enjoys how easy it is for him to manipulate and deceive people. He can lie to the victim and then accuse her of being gullible for believing him. He has learned to be quick on his feet and can lie his way out of anything. Abusive officers also manipulate and abuse the trust of fellow officers, betraying not only their oath but also violating the spirit of the brotherhood.

Continuum of Force
Professional: Law enforcement officers are trained in the use of force continuum: to use only the amount of force necessary to control the situation and the suspect. Although the goal is to bring the resistive person into compliance without injury, most physical techniques will cause pain. The continuum begins with officer presence, verbal direction and soft empty-hand techniques. If resistance continues, the officer may escalate to hard empty-hand techniques, chemical agents and upwards toward lethal force.

Personal: The same techniques used while policing the streets can be used in an abusive officer's home. A continuum of abuse often involves verbal, emotional, psychological, sexual and physical violence. Physical abuse, however, is not always necessary to control the victim. Many abusers maintain control through intimidation and threats, or a reminder of the "last time." She knows what he is physically capable of, his expertise with a variety of techniques and weapons, and the availability of weapons within the home, vehicle, or workplace.

Examples where the police

crossed their guidelines

POLICE BRUTALITY SUPPRESION OF VOICES

why do protets against police brutality so often end in more police brutality?

Examples of violating their guidelines:

- Pulling down someone’s mask to spray them.

- tear gas and "less than lethal" measures have been lethal many times, and left permanent disabilities others.

Victom of Police crossing their guidelines.

Scar on right cheek cause of tear gas grenade being shot into the growd

K-9 DOGS
ARE
UNGUIDED MISSILES

Dogs that do not let go on the handler's command must be rejected by the police. But the police do not register which dogs do not let go. The police also have no figures on the number of dogs that are rejected. Commissioner Ronald Verheggen, who advises the police force management on the use of police dogs: “Not being able to control the dog 100% is part of the dog's means of violence. And we have to accept that or we have to stop ”.

Illusion of control

Richard Polsky, who holds a doctorate in animal behavior and has served as an expert witness in K-9 court cases, said the dogs are referred to as “officers” but do not have the ability to make judgment calls like their human counterparts. They often bite without releasing, even after repeated orders to do so, and sometimes bite the wrong person.

Their handlers, he said, often cannot manage them.

“These dogs are already genetically programmed for aggression, and then they put them through attack training,” Polsky said. “They can’t be controlled.”

Charlie Mesloh, a former K-9 handler and professor at Northern Michigan University, said this lack of control is evident in the types of tools now sold to K-9 officers, including a “breaker bar” that Mesloh said officers use on “the lowdown.”

The metal bar is slipped between the dog’s teeth by the K-9 handler, one supply company says on its website, because “many dogs will refuse to ‘out’ off the suspect,” meaning they will not release.

“In this day and age when everything is videotaped and uploaded to social media, the noncompliance of the dog to release on command can cause problems in the courtroom and with administration,” the advertising pitch continues.

Mesloh said if this tool is needed, it means the police dog is poorly trained and “should have never become a K-9 in the first place.”

Humans are hard-wired to actively fight an attack that might lead to serious injuries or death. Many Black suspects also have frightening personal histories of ancestors being hunted by canines. Enslaved people who fled plantations were tracked down and mauled by dogs, sometimes to death, their bodies brought back as a warning to other enslaved people. K-9s were also routinely used in the 1960s on civil rights protesters.

Psychologists say such attacks typically affect our sympathetic nervous system, triggering a fight-or-flight response. This makes it difficult for someone who is being attacked by a dog to remain motionless as officers command them to do just that. It also makes it hard for them to hear police commands, because hearing can also be diminished while in this state.

“Our brains are responding and reacting instinctually. Our heart starts beating faster. Our blood pressure goes up,” said Roxanne Donovan, a psychology professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. “We get tunnel vision, homing in on the threat or perceived threat that we need to eliminate.”

Pulling mask down and spraying them point blank.

Mental Health Issues

The mental health of the offending officer may play a role. A 2019 study found that officers who self-reported engaging in abusive police practices tended to have higher levels of PTSD symptoms.3

It is possible that officers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from job-related stressors and trauma may have an increased startle response, a tendency toward suspicion, and problems with aggression. These traits can make it more likely that they will overreact and use deadly force when not necessary. However, it is also possible that engaging in excessive force results in a sense of profound guilt and moral injury that in turn lead to PTSD symptoms.

Some researchers theorize that traits of "psychopathy", also called antisocial personality disorder (APD), may be more prevalent in police officers than the general population. Traits such as "fearless dominance" or "cold-heartedness" can be adaptive in dangerous or emotionally charged situations, but they can also make an individual more likely to engage in excessive use of force or to feel that they do not need to follow the rules.

That said, research on this theory is limited. It is unlikely that APD, which is very rare, could explain most police brutality cases.

Personal problems experienced by police officers may increase the likelihood of them engaging in excessive force, such as relationship problems or other stressful life events.

What is the relation between police brutality and skin colour.

In 2019 police in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killed 1,810 people - an average of five per day
In 2019, Kenyan police killed 122 people
Between October 2019 and January 2020, police in Iraq killed around 600 protesters
Between 2015 and 2018, over 500 people were fatally shot by the police in Jamaica, and over 300 shot and injured
Around 1000 people are killed by police in the USA every year

Breonna Taylor
Breonna Taylor was a 26-year-old Black woman who died after being shot in her apartment on March 13, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her death was the result of a search warrant that was being executed by white police officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department.

The raid began shortly after midnight. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought the officers entering the apartment were intruders and fired a warning shot at them, which hit one officer in the leg. In return, the officers fired 32 shots, leaving Breonna Taylor dead and Walker physically unharmed.

While the City of Louisville agreed to pay $12 million to Taylor's family, the three police officers involved were not indicted on charges related to Taylor's death. The incident led to subsequent protests throughout the United States.7

George Floyd
George Floyd was a 46-year-old Black man who died on May 25th, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota after being arrested for using a counterfeit $20 bill. During the arrest, former police officer, now convicted murderer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck while Floyd was handcuffed and lying on his face.8

Bystanders who tried to intervene were prevented from doing so by other officers. Prior to his death, George Floyd pleaded for relief, saying that he could not breathe and that he was going to die. The entire incident became public when video footage shot by onlookers was released to the public. Autopsies revealed Floyd died as a result of the actions of the officers, and worldwide protests were sparked by the incident.

While these incidents occurred in 2020, police brutality has been a problem for decades. Below is a list of incidents from 2014, at the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement that brought police brutality to the forefront of public discourse.

Dontre Hamilton
On April 30, 2014 Dontre Hamilton was killed after being shot 14 times by a police officer in a Milwaukee park. Local Starbucks employees had called the police for a wellness check after seeing Hamilton sleeping on a park bench. The officer who responded to the call, Christopher Manney, began what would later be described by the Police Chief Edward Flynn as an "inappropriate pat-down."9

Hamilton woke up and began to struggle. Manney's defense team would later use Hamilton's prior diagnosis of schizophrenia to suggest that he was dangerous, but Flynn would later justify his firing of Manney by saying the officer ignored departmental policy and instigated the fight.

Eric Garner
Eric Garner was killed on July 17, 2014 in New York after he was put in an illegal chokehold by a white police officer. Garner said "I can't breathe" 11 times while he was held down.10 The officer involved, Daniel Pantaleo, was not charged with a crime. His death sparked protests and "I can't breathe" as a slogan for protest.

John Crawford III
John Crawford III was killed on August 5, 2014 after being shot by a police officer at a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio.11 He had been holding a pellet gun, which the store had advertised as being on sale, and there was no confrontation. The officers involved were not charged.

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-behind-police-brutality-5077410
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/police-brutality/
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/10/cover-police-brutality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_brutality_in_the_United_States
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01846-z
https://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-police-violence-problem-protest-ibrahima-barrie/

Why Racism Turns to Violence

Racism refers to bias held against a person or group of people because of their race or ethnicity. Why does racism turn into excessive use of force or violence among police officers? There are several factors to consider.

Prevalence of Deaths Due to Police Brutality
Research has demonstrated that the risk of being killed as a result of the use of excessive force by police in the United States varies by racial and ethnic group membership.12

Specifically, Black men and women, American Indian/Alaska Native men and women, and Latin American men were shown to have a higher lifetime risk of dying due to police violence compared to their White counterparts.

In contrast, Latin American women and Asian/Pacific Islander men and women had a lower lifetime risk of dying due to police violence than White counterparts.

The overall lifetime odds were shown to be 1 in 2,000 for men and 1 in 33,000 for women. Overall, the highest risk was shown for Black men, who faced a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by a police officer over the course of their lifetime.

Racial Profiling
Why are Black men and other minorities at a higher risk for dying due to an excessive use of force by police than their White counterparts? Racial profiling may help to explain this phenomenon.13

Racial profiling refers to assuming guilt based on race or ethnicity, a problem that mostly affects those individuals who have a higher lifetime risk of dying as a result of police brutality.

For example, police officers may use stereotypes when trying to determine the suspects in a crime, or they may perceive persons of certain races (such as Black men) as more aggressive or threatening when faced with a confrontation.

Examples of police brutality
against the colour of someones skin

In countries with high rates of killings by police, there is often a combination of factors including inadequate laws, racial or other forms of discrimination, insecurity or conflict, and entrenched impunity.

Governments who routinely trample on other human rights like freedom of expression and peaceful assembly often authorize heavy-handed police responses to protests and demonstrations. We’ve seen this recently in Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Hong Kong and Nicaragua.

Impunity for killings by police often leads to a deadly cycle of violence. In Brazil for example, officers routinely kill people who pose no threat – mostly young Black men – safe in the knowledge that these killings are rarely investigated or prosecuted.

What is the relation between police brutality and your sexuality and political beliefs

A POLICE OFFICER OR A VIOLENT CRIMINAL?

During a protest in Warsaw unmarked police officers with metal batons stormed amongst peaceful protesters who were already held in a police "kettle".
They tried to escalate the situation in order to create an image of a violent protest - an excuse to arrest the protesters

The aggressors in civil clothing had no visible police marking. The crowd had no idea that those people were with the police and they tried fighting back. As soon as they did, the aggressors put on arm bands with the word "police" on them.

KETTLING
(also known as containment or corralling)

is a police tactic for controlling large crowds during demonstrations or protests. It involves the formation of large cordons of police officers who then move to contain a crowd within a limited area. Protesters either leave through an exit controlled by the police, leave through an uncontrolled gap in the cordons, or are contained, prevented from leaving, and arrested.

THE POLICE - LAW ENFORCEMENT

BADGE / UNIFORM - PERMISSION TO USE FORCE

BUT WHEN SHOULD BE THE FORCE USED?

The police have powers that ordinary citizens do not have. For example, a police officer may ask to see a person’s identity documents while conducting drink-driving checks. Officers may also break certain traffic rules if they need to. The police are allowed to use force if necessary.

Two weeks ago, two police officers in Buffalo, New York were caught on camera shoving an elderly Black Lives Matter protestor named Martin Gugino to the ground. The injured man collapses out of the frame, we hear a loud smack as his head hits the pavement, and the shaking camera pans back to reveal an unmoving body, blood pouring out of his ears. One of the officers takes a step back, possibly to help the now unconscious protestor, but the other officer — later revealed by savvy Twitter users to be Aaron Torgalski — holds him back as he reaches for his radio. The other 20 or so officers on the scene seem to barely register what has happened, and continue walking.

The video quickly went viral and the two officers directly involved were suspended without pay. Then, in protest of the suspension, all 57 of their fellow officers in Emergency Response resigned ”in disgust” from the special squad.

The 57 officers’ explanation? “They were just executing orders.”

[...]

For the Buffalo Emergency Response squad, the same principle holds true. Even in the case of an obvious ethical wrong (shoving an elderly civilian into the sidewalk) and fighting a losing war (as many activists and some political leaders are now calling for a total abolition of the police force), the police will continue to defend their own. Especially on the level of their primary group, or squad.

As Shils and Janowitz said, “As long as he felt himself to be a member of his primary group and therefore bound by the expectations and demands of its other members, his soldierly achievement was likely to be good.”

No matter the facts — 1,098 people shot dead by the police in 2019 — so long as an officer has their emotional needs met by their squad, there is no incentive to leave, even if they start to question their own morality. Morality just doesn’t seem to matter as much as feeling part of a group. Shils and Janowitz found that “the values involved in political and social systems or ethical schemes do not have much impact on the determination of a soldier to fight to hold out as long as possible.”

Another lens with which to look at the Buffalo incident is one that their own Emergency Response team elucidated: “They were just executing orders.” Perhaps they don’t recognize that this is an example of “the Nuremberg defense.” During the Nuremberg trials, military tribunals held after World War II, Nazi officials and collaborators used this defense. Needless to say, it did not work.

The guidelines set by the United Nations’ International Law Commission in 1947 preemptively addressed the possibility of Nazis using this defense, saying, “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”

It’s been reported that Gugino, the veteran peace activist, has a fractured skull and has been unable to walk since the assault. While sociology might help us understand why the Buffalo Emergency Response team stands in solidarity with their so-called teammates, the choice to support police brutality is an absolute moral failure on their part.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BADGE

Police misconduct encompasses illegal or unethical actions or the violation of individuals’ constitutional rights by police officers in the conduct of their duties. Examples of police misconduct include police brutality, dishonesty, fraud, coercion, torture to force confessions, abuse of authority, and sexual assault, including the demand for sexual favors in exchange for leniency. Any of these actions can increase the likelihood of a wrongful conviction.

More examples of Police Misconduct

22 rounds shot by police

police not announcing theirselves clearly

blindfire through a dark hallway and closed curtains

endangering the neighbours.
(rounds penetrating walls and ending up in other appartments)

drunk driver encounter

41 min calmy. 45 sec escalated into death

Police shot an unarmed man

Police can only shoot if there is a coming threat (Brooks was running away)

Guidelines
While with other police weapons, such as the firearm and pepper spray, it is precisely recorded how and against whom these weapons may be used, there is hardly any legal regulation for dogs, says Zembla.

The police recognize that there are no official instructions for the use of dogs. There are guidelines. "For example, the police must warn before a dog is used against a suspect," says Verheggen. "That has to be done loud and clear."

357 biting incidents involving police dogs

Zembla points to several incidents in which a police dog did not listen to the command to release during an arrest. According to the TV program, its own research shows that the dogs rarely let go on a first command and in some cases even bite for minutes on end. The police do not register which dogs do not let go.

"Every means of violence that we use involves risks," says policeman Ronald Verheggen on police.nl. "The dog is and remains an animal. There is always an element of unpredictability in it."

Even if magic is real, there is nothing magical about policing. The structures that policing protects and that empower them are real. They are not phantoms, nor are they natural features of the environment. The actions leading to deaths at the hands of cops must be understood with an acknowledgment that policing is actively empowered and legitimated by real people and institutions and implemented through real policies and practices. And as terrible and heart-stopping as the deaths of our loved ones by agents of the state are, they are also not the mainstay of policing. Equally terrible are the slow, grinding social and literal deaths that so many people experience as a result of policing, especially zero-tolerance policing. This type of law enforcement destabilizes our social networks, increases our suspicion and erodes our empathy for each other, creates fear of dissent, and encourages us to capitulate to social control in the guise of protection and care. It suggests that the structural inequities maintained by capitalism, white supremacy, and hetero-patriarchy are simply our individual pathologies and lack of self-control. It paints those most vulnerable to the ravages of these inequities as nuisances to be swept away. Policing is also not a broken system in need of repair. It is a highly accurate and efficient means of protecting state interests and maintaining social control. The goal must not be to help policing become more efficient, but rather to erode the power policing has over our lives. The clearest way to eliminate the harms so many of us suffer from the violence of policing is to eliminate our contact with it. Understanding the function of policing then requires recognizing that when cops persistently harass members of a local community for loitering, when they follow young Black people because they deem them suspicious, when they use maximum force to resolve routine matters even when that force results in death, these are not the acts of bad apples, cops taking matters into their own hands, or exceptional incidences of policing. This is what policing is.