A Flaw in Hiring, Training

Everyone understands that there are some bad cops, just as there are some bad preachers, teachers or businessmen. Still, how do the Establishment spin-artists account for the fact that a dozen officers not involved in the actual beating of Rodney G. King stood by and did not intervene?

Would a few aberrant policemen have done what they did unless they knew they would not be restrained or reported by other officers? Remember, we are talking about a dozen individual officers, not an organized hate group. What set of norms or values led them to be paralyzed in the face of atrocity?

The media has weighed in with a search for “balance,” quoting some police officers who were disheartened by the event, or at least its exposure, and lamenting that the bad publicity will affect morale among Los Angeles’ finest. Look for the Establishment figures to be out in force trying to persuade middle-class Americans that innocent people have nothing to fear. An investigation has begun, city officials assure us, and anyone who is guilty will be prosecuted or at least disciplined.

In the words of Archie Bunker, “whoop-de-do!”

Police officers are theoretically more or less representative of the population at large, with a variety of backgrounds, personalities and beliefs. If this is true, does it mean that any 12 people who I randomly encounter are likely to stand by passively while such a beating takes place? If, on the other hand, police are not representative, but somehow more inclined to such acts, what has society created and unleashed?

The broader community needs to ponder what poor black and brown urban residents have understood about police attitudes and behavior for some time. They know that were it not for an amateur videotape, the King case would have been treated as just another “resisting arrest.” Complaints by the victim or his family would have been characterized as another case of minority or anti-police whining. It is profoundly revealing that while middle-class viewers recoiled in horror at the brutal footage, the victim, like many others familiar with police behavior in poor and minority neighborhoods, considered himself lucky that the police did not kill him.

The officers involved all passed entry exams and received extensive training in law enforcement. They were commanded by individuals who were promoted on the basis of “objective tests” that we are told reflect “merit.” There is something fundamentally wrong with criteria and training that did not deselect these officers or prevent them from becoming the people we saw on that videotape.

More than 25 years ago, Los Angeles exploded over an incident far less flagrant. The black community has apparently concluded that such rebellions have limited usefulness. What has the police department learned?