My mentor, Dr. W.E. Deming used to say, “Put a good person in a bad system and the system will win every time.” The latest cop fiasco with five Black men beating a young Black man to death no doubt has many people either scratching their heads or gloating. Those scratching their heads are trying to understand how it can be that so many officers would beat a helpless man to death. Those gloating are no doubt saying “See, it was Black cops beating one of ‘Their’ own to death.” Still others are saying that if it were White cops, they would not have been charged with anything. The problem with each of these perspectives is that they ignore the system. Police operate within a system. A bad system produces bad results. Let me explain further.
We need to start off by understanding what a system is. Some definitions that work for me are as follows:
1.
A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.
“The state railroad system”
2.
A set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method.
“The public school system”
3.
Deming defined a system as ‘a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. The aim for any system should be that everybody gains, not one part of the system at the expense of any other’
A friend of mine said that the purpose of a police system is to to protect and serve the public.
Systems can be very complex and difficult to understand. When I was doing my management consulting, I would often bring a large group of senior managers from a company together to chart or map the “system” that they worked in. This was usually a prelude to defining objectives and looking at “systemic” problems more wholistically. That is a way of saying I wanted them to see the big picture. We could do the same thing with any system. In what is a very cursory or limited analysis of a “police” system, I offer the following factors or components. These four factors make up a large portion of the system that police work in every day. I would like to explain each and give my thoughts on how they create the dysfunction that seems to be prevalent in so many law enforcement agencies. ‘
- Authoritarianism
- Exclusion
- Jeopardy
- Fascism
I do not claim that all police systems are dysfunctional. I also do not claim that cops do not have a very difficult and demanding job. There is perhaps no job in America that is more difficult than being a police officer. Nevertheless, parts of the police system while designed to protect officers have been and still are major sources of dysfunction.
- Authoritarianism
There is a saying that “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I speak from experience that many officers get corrupted by the power that the gun, badge and night stick welds. Growing up on a street corner society, I had my share of run in with cops. I was arrested before I was 18 for assault and battery and for felony larceny. This does not count my numerous other altercations with police for which I “escaped.” When I was young, I used to say that “The only good cop was a dead cop.” Later, my opinion changed 180 percent and I began to appreciate the need for good policing.
The problem though is that in many cases, police let the power that they are given go to their heads. This problem does not exist in isolation from the other factors that I will discuss but it is exacerbated by the tendency for police to think that they are above the law or that they do not have to answer to the public they serve. Many cops take umbrage at being questioned as they act like they have the absolute right to ask questions but not to answer them. How often have you heard in TV dramas the officer say, “I am asking the questions here.” The person who asks the question has the power and is the authority. The person answering is “powerless.” TV is not reality, but it reflects some of the attitudes that exist in law enforcement.
- Exclusion
Cops are for the most part isolated or segregated from the public. The old days of Officer O’Malley walking a beat and talking to kids and neighbors in a friendly demeanor no longer exists. Talk of “community policing” is for the most part a myth or a relic of a bygone age. We seldom see a cop unless we are in trouble, or we need something, or we are watching the 10 o’clock news.
Isolation is not a good thing. It creates an “us-them” atmosphere. We don’t see police as belonging to our neighborhood or as being “friends.” We view them with hostility and suspicion when they knock on our front doors. It does not matter whether they are Black and we are Black or whether they are White and we are White. They knock on our door and we immediately feel threatened.
- Jeopardy
A police officer is in life threatening jeopardy every single moment of every single day. Perhaps, never in history have cops been so threatened. Their lives are on the line twenty-four seven. A cop can be blown away going to a domestic dispute or merely stopping a car to give a ticket or a warning. The proliferation of weapons has made police more vulnerable. The bad guy always gets the chance to shoot first and the cop must give a warning before he/she shoots. It is easy to see why some cops go over the edge and shoot first without asking questions. I do not say that this is justified but how would you like to go out every day not knowing whether or not you would be shot dead by some crazy who had an AK 47 or a AR 15 or a Glock 17.
- Fascism
Before exploring this facet of law enforcement, we need to define fascism. One definition from Wikipedia is as follows:
“Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition.”
Police exist to protect the status quo. There are many who mock the “Golden Rule” with, “Those who have the gold make the rules.” Cops are on the side of the system that pays the bills. They protect the government against protestors, marchers, and often peaceful gatherings of citizens who they think pose a threat to “law and order.” They also protect the government, companies and society against rioters, looters, thieves and not so peaceful protestors.
The major problem with cops is that they are on the other side of the equation when it comes to social upheaval and change. They did not see Civil Rights as a necessary antidote to racism. They did not see the suffragettes as giving women the right and dignity to vote. They often were and still are on the other side of the union-management divide during strikes and labor protests. It would seem to many people that cops work for corporate America and not the citizens of America.
I have pointed out four elements that in many cases define law enforcement to many Americans. There are many other elements that make up the law enforcement system in the USA. I have written several other blogs on this subject. The four elements that I described are the most problematic and I think help to best answer the questions that this blog started with. “How could five Black officers beat a young Black man to death.”
If you follow what I am proposing, you can understand that these five men were “just doing their job” as the system defined it. I am sure that any one of these five men would define virtues that many would call exemplary. I have no reason to think that they were “bad” men wanting to do bad things. Caught up in a bad system, you and I would more than likely have done exactly what they did. You can argue this latter point with me. But in my experiences, I have seen too many “good” people do bad things when working in an environment that fostered either negative, immoral or unethical behaviors.
PS: I watched the video today (Jan 28) of the beating that Tyre Nichols received. At first, I did not want to watch the video. I have seen too many videos of police brutality in the past. They are sickening, sad, tragic and pitiful. I did not think that I could bear to watch yet another one. However, I did. I do not feel that I have the right to comment on such cases if I do not see what has actually happened.
The one thought that I got out of this video was that it could have been YOUR SON, Your FATHER, YOUR BEST FRIEND, YOUR MOTHER, YOU or ME that was on the ground and beaten to death. Tased, Confused, Disoriented, Maced, Kicked, Punched, and Battered, would you have run? Would you have been able to comply with commands screamed at you?
In my next blog, I will offer some ideas that might help to change the system. Changing the system is the only way to change results. Dr. Deming insisted that 94 percent of variations observed in workers’ performance levels have nothing to do with the workers. Instead, most performance problems are caused by the system, of which people are but a part. “People cannot perform better than the system allows”, which he explains in his book, “The New Economics.”
For further thoughts on this subject of police violence, an excellent article that I came across is
Brink: I might put it a little different way. I think those of us who are such strong supporters within the U.S. government, within the American population, for Ukraine, support Ukraine because we see, or we think we see, and understand the future that Ukrainians want. And that is a future where Ukraine is free, independent, prosperous, sovereign and gets to decide its own future. To us, as Americans, it really appeals to also who we are. So, what I would hope, what I plan to do and what we are doing is supporting Ukraine in this immediate task of prevailing in its effort to defend itself that is crucially important. I think everybody would agree. And I think the government here and the people here would agree that another important task is and will be and will remain the reform effort, which will secure Ukraine for a future for Ukrainian children and their children.
Integrity is everything to lose and nothing to gain, except your self-respect. Integrity is standing up for what you believe is right even when everyone is against you. Integrity is the ability to put compassion and kindness ahead of self-interest. Integrity cannot co-exist with greed. It cannot co-exist with lust. It cannot co-exist with a thirst for power. It cannot co-exist with a drive for money, fame, or fortune. All of these elements are like Kryptonite to Integrity. Kryptonite was the one thing that could rob Superman of his powers. Lust, greed, money, fame, and power all have the ability to rob one of his/her integrity.
Politics is a sham in America today. We have men and women who are elected for life and spend more time campaigning then they do in serving their constituents. Public servants who start collecting money to run their next campaigns within days of winning their present office. We have a system of government where money is the most important factor in who gets elected and who gets reelected. Our politicians are more worried about losing votes than they are in the constitution or in protecting our democracy. What Integrity is there in supporting a riot to overthrow a fair election that every court and every state in America found was fairly conducted? The media seized on the outrageousness of the Big Lie to sell news. The losing party seized on the credibility of millions of gullible supporters to buy the Big Lie and try to maintain their power.
The media in America has become another hallowed institution gutted by greed and a desire for more and more money. Reporters, writers, and journalists in America today are more interested in selling advertising than they are in balanced objective reporting. You can divide the news up by whether they lean Right or Left, Liberal or Conservative, Democrat or Republican. Each side has a mirror image on the other side of the political spectrum. CNN is opposed by Fox News. The New York Times is opposed by The New York Post and the Washington Post is opposed by the Washington Times. One side supports the Right and the other side supports the left. This is not balanced reporting, and no truth comes out of the dynamic between the two sides. What both sides have in common are reporters who will report the most useless, tasteless, uninformative stories if they perceive that these stories will sell advertising or if they can figure out a clickbait title that will attract readers and thereby expose them to paid commercials.
f you want more of a description of each scale you can follow the hyperlink above. The USA ties for 10th place with Great Britain on this index. I can see some correlation with Integrity, but I can see many differences. I think honesty is one component of Integrity, but Integrity is more complex than being simply honest. An honest person can still lack integrity if they are unwilling to stand up for what they believe. Cowardice and Integrity are incompatible.
I am surrounded, inundated, besieged by cancel requests. The Republican lamebrains such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz repeatedly scream “cancel culture, cancel culture, cancel culture!” I have not witnessed as much animosity towards a phenomenon since the zeitgeist of Political Correctness (PC).
I look around me today and I do not understand the world. I do not understand the decisions that our leaders make. It seems we have a moral disease. The symptoms of this disease are short-term thinking and greed. Arizona is suffering from an unprecedented drought and heat wave. The water levels in both the Central Arizona Project and aquifers are dangerously low. Yet when asked to cut back water usage by 3.8 percent, the golf course owners in Phoenix created an association to oppose such a “drastic” cut. Their counter proposal was for a 1.6 percent cut in water usage. The Governor of Arizona was the keynote speaker for the associations kick off meeting. Am I crazy? Do you believe this? Are golf courses more important than drinking water and water for farm crops?
A Rabbi, Iman, Pastor and Buddhist Priest were all discussing the issue of peace in the world and in particular peace in the Mideast. The Rabbi said there could only be peace in the Mideast if all the Muslims left. The Iman said that there could only be peace if all the Jews left. The Pastor jumped into the argument and said there would only be peace if all the non-Christians left. The Buddhist cleared his throat to interrupt the argument and said, “There will never be peace anywhere as long as there are Muslims, Jews, Protestants, Catholics and even Buddhists in the world.” 
The peaceful person does not use violence against others. The peaceful person is a diplomat who solves problems with his/her brain and not with tools of aggression. The peaceful person is confident because they have integrity. The peaceful person has serenity because they have no fear. Fear is the enemy of peace. When the world is on red-alert, people live in fear. People become fearful of others and fearful of living. Racism, sexism, discrimination, greed, and militarism create fear. With fear, no one can be at peace. 
We should all be grateful for peace. This means we need to appreciate peace and understand that it cannot be taken for granted. Peace is up to us to create. It is too important to leave to religious leaders and politicians. If we want peace in our lives and peace in the world, we must create it. There can never be peace for anyone if there is not peace for everyone. 
Ladies and Gentlemen. How can you have a government of the people, by the people and for the people when it is a government of the rich by the rich and for the rich? A government of lawyers, political science majors and corporate people. An interlocking network of proponents who have a self-interest that nowhere matches the nature and interests of the general public of America. 
Many of the board members in the rural counties are farmers or laborers or educators who have little or no training in the laws that they are sworn to protect. Thus, they rely heavily on the lawyers that they hire to provide advice and perceived protection from lawsuits. This renders the board members subject to the legal opinion of the lawyer which is quite often at odds to what the public wants. The boards are frequently fearful of a lawsuit (often offered by the lawyer as a possibility) and will forego making an informed decision based on evidence that is presented at the hearings. 
We need less lawyers. Lawyers and lawsuits are destroying America and Democracy. We need leaders with more diversity in education. We need leaders with more ethnic diversity. We need leaders with more gender diversity. We need greater representation that reflects the demographics of America. We need less lawyers. We need more justice and we need more fairness. 
Twenty-three years later, when Douglass gave his speech, the turmoil in the United States over the issue of slavery was growing. It had always been a major source of dissension in the United States, but things were coming to a boiling point. The Dred Scott decision had recently been rendered by the US Supreme Court. This decision held that black people were not citizens and that slaves could not sue for freedom. In March of 1857, James Buchanan was sworn in as the 15th President of the USA. Buchanan was no friend of the abolitionists and he joined the Southern leaders in attempting to admit Kansas as a slave state. He strongly supported the Dred Scott decision and today he would be considered an ardent racist. The contrast between Lincoln who was elected four years later and Buchanan in terms of their policies towards slavery was the final straw that led to the Civil War.
Today we are witnessing a descent into tyranny and demagoguery the likes of which have never before been seen in America. We have a President who lies whenever he speaks. We have a Republican party that abhors social justice and will do everything they can to suppress the rights of Americans to vote. We have a base of supporters for Trump that are racist, fascist, and anti-democratic. Lured by whatever sirens they listen to; they support the right of Trump to do whatever he wants to do. They call him their Messiah and voice unconditional support for his attacks on the press, minorities, immigrants, women, blacks, Latinos, disabled, foreign countries and even the disabled. A President who is willing to sacrifice thousands of lives to support his quest for a second term.
Aging Capriciously 