I guess "police" is one of those things/phenomena in this world I prefer to avoid normally, unless it is inevitable, like a "mal nécessaire" (necessary evil). Up there with law, paying taxes, bills, working for a boss, or looking for a job in this system, etcetera. I have to consider it simply for living in this society and system, but it does not give me joy.
No enthusiasm or zeal, but neither so much outrage.. one would think. I refer of course to corrupt policemen, but more specifically to police brutality. I have more interest in that, but neither very consistent. I wrote about the Black Panthers for one blog post, related to a documentary I saw, explaining how the Black Panthers formed in California, USA, in direct response to (racist) police brutality.
BRAZIL
I sang/toasted a song about police violence, and later wrote a review of a documentary about it in Brazil, I saw at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam. This was for another medium: the Facebook page of the Netherlands-based foundation Agogo - Brazil News in The Netherlands (https://www.facebook.com/groups/806488343059624/). The file luckily came online publicly, but several restraints - financial, organizational, technical - halted the development of the Facebook page as widely spread and read source.
A pity, because the documentary was educational, and the article a summary that would have fitted on my own page (this one), equally. The documentary opened my eyes. My review can thus be read here, on the mentioned Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/806488343059624/).
The documentary was called - simple and plain, and to the point - Police Killing. It dealt with this, killing by police (not the other way around) in the state of Rio De Janeiro of Brazil. Much police violence there as a response to perceived criminality, often through war-like methods, and consequently unjust killings. Many unjust killings and murders.
Some facts particularly were eye-opening to me. The fact that the total number of unlawful police killings in Brazil is one of the highest in the world. This clearly has racial overtones, many of these Afro-Brazilian/Black teens, in poor neighbourhoods (favela's). Unlawful police violence or brutality, being often both "racist" and "classist". This is also good to emphasize.
Moreover, to illustrate this fact, in the state of Rio de Janeiro alone there were in recent years more unlawful police killings than in the whole (!) of the USA. Rio de Janeiro state has about 16 million inhabitants, the USA about 300 million. This is a staggering figure. With the Right-wing Bolsonaro as current president - even proposing the use of drones to combat crime - this military focus on fighting crime might even increase, and with that the number of unlawful killings.
GEORGE FLOYD
As I write this, there was a quite massive, and international outrage about such an unlawful killing in another country, namely the murder of George Floyd, by policemen in the US city of Minneapolis. Being a suspect for even a petty crime (possible false cheque), he was arrested roughly, and an officer kneeling on his neck eventually choked and killed him. George Floyd, a black man of 46 years of age, did not resist arrest, was not even a (petty or big) criminal, yet lost his life.
Without a doubt murder and unlawful, and most probably racist too, as most of those unlawful killings, elsewhere in the Americas, in Brazil. The policeman ending up killing Floyd was a white man, albeit married to an Asian woman. She divorced him after this, and one of the other officers present (who could have prevented this) was her brother, but that is besides the point. This does not even mean that he could not be racist, or maybe "just" too violent, I think.
It occurred, after all, I think because of racist ideas on the one hand, and of a certain racial logic, including war terminology, I also discussed in my review of the documentary on police killing in Brazil. "War on crime" is taken almost literally, and is furthermore not in an historical and social vacuum. Racial bias decides who some cops are rough on, simply said.
In addition, as was mentioned in that documentary on Brazil: over 96% of the cases of "unlawful killings" in Rio de Janeiro state was not even investigated, just "archived". No justice thus in the large majority of cases. Even less than the fact whether the policeman murdering Floyd should be imprisoned, and not just fired, as he already is. In Brazil, such cases are in most cases not even investigated, safe a few exceptions. A recent requirement in Brazilian law to add camera's in police cars was a well-intended measure, to prevent this evil to continue, but it does not seem to have that effect.
Going on about relative figures is relevant and educational. There are more countries with more unlawful police killings than the US than just Brazil, and the combination with racism, or specific victimizing of racial minorities, is found in the US, but also in several European countries and Latin American countries, and also some Asian countries, for instance. Due to media and cultural dominance, US cases of racist police violence get more attention.
In the Netherlands, where I live, there were a few cases of police brutality (ending up in deaths), and even more complaints of unjust arrests or searches by policemen of black people, just for, e.g. having an expensive car, or behaving supposedly "suspiciously", or being in some place. In other European countries this seems similar. That is international. In Britain, there were even more examples of such unlawful arrests and even police killings of Black people.
Those statistics can be found by people themselves, and are insightful by themselves, but I find it more interesting for my blog to approach it historically, socially, and philosophically, as I so often do on my blog. It is my blog, after all. It is still good to point out, at least, that racist police violence and unlawful police killing is an international, and not an US problem, if there are people stupid enough to think that.
POLICE AND STATE
I have been to police states, places with corrupt police officers, and heard about it.
This made me wonder: what is the function of police for man kind? The idea behind it is "enforcing the law" and a "monopoly of violence", else there would be what they oddly call "jungle law": everyone avenging everyone..
ANARCHY?
I am kind of an anarchist so I sometimes think: do we really need laws above us, and - by extension - officers enforcing them? Do we not innately know what is right, loving, and just? Or is mankind so wicked and corrupted that the absence of higher laws will lead to mass murder, destruction, maiming, rape, theft, exploitation, and negative disorder?
More full-fledged anarchists do not think laws and police enforcements are actually needed in especially small-scale communities, and that in fact the ideal world should be made up of such small, lovingly ordered communities, where the weak are protected. Rastafari adherent and dub poet from Birmingham, UK, Benjamin Zephaniah is one self-declared total anarchist, but I know more, and maybe there is one of them somewhere inside me too, haha. Historically there were also examples in Left-wing circles in e.g. Spain (during its civil war in the 1930s), and France.
BABYLON
I agree with such views, in itself, but we do not live in such an ideal world, that this functioning anarchy should encompass. We live in "Babylon", as Rastafari people say: a large-scale capitalist, Western economic system, based on power and inequality. Most people "have" to work for other people, are dependent on state or commercial resources, and even when achieving self-sufficiency, e.g. with own land and agricultural products, there is still a dependency. Freedom is a beautiful thing - as we had to realize again, and have taken for granted, with the massive "house arrest" - or more moderate confinements - as arguably an overreaction to the new Covid-19 flu virus starting in March in 2020, in several countries across the world.
My parents had to live under dictatorships, of Franco in my Spanish mother's case, and I went on journeys to dictatorships -notably Cuba -, even repeatedly, but could always return to the Netherlands. I got a taste of a police state in Cuba, but was not bound by it, unlike most of the friends I had there.
No, I was used to relative freedom, also of movement. Only money really enslaved me, and was the only force stopping me from doing whatever I wanted - like for many -, e.g. sleep and wake whenever I please, following my heart and true passions: listening to and making music, enjoying life and events, free curiosity, dancing, humour, love, nice tastes and food, love and sexuality, etcetera..
My parents were relatively poor labourers, and could not leave me enough money to just "work on my art" as I call it (which is not the same as being "lazy"). I am in fact forced to find a job, just to get money to survive and pay bills, or else deal with the hassle of being a much-controlled welfare recipient.
So I was still bound to alarm clocks, having to show up for work, report, and earlier going to school: this was neither voluntary, even if I liked that I learned some things at school, being quite curious and inquisitive by nature.
POLICE STATES
Cuba was a police state, e.g. Iran now too, Spain under Franco was too. With odd, ideologically driven, absurd legislation, still strictly upheld by undemocratically operating policemen.
In the case of Spain under dictator Franco (1939-1975), which was basically Fascist, combined with some conservative/Catholic aspects, my mother told me how common labourers did not have any rights vis-a-vis their employers. She got to know that phenomenon of workers' rights when she went to live in the Netherlands in the 1960s. She got some small and big conflicts with bosses under that Fascist regime in Spain, in that period.
Other undemocratic legislation was there in Spain too, such as censorship, against gathering of people (halting unwelcome protests against the regime), and other public behaviour the state wanted to limit or control. Like in present-day Iran, kissing on the street of couples was forbidden and punishable by law; my Valencian godmother was almost arrested for that once in Madrid (she was then joined by my mother): a more zealous police officer could have imprisoned or fined her. In the end, the policeman just gave a firm warning.
CUBA
In Cuba, I later had own experiences, where I travelled several times between 2001 and 2006. The Cuban state - with then still Fidel Castro as leader - needed an economic boost for its still Communist economy, after the supporting Soviet Union was disbanded it 1990.
On the one hand, it started to stimulate tourism to Cuba, but on the other hand wanted to control it for its purposes, weary of too much "dangerous" chaotic - read: freedom-enhancing effects -, not in line with state propaganda.
Several Cubans there told me the same joke: "Cuba has 11 million inhabitants, and of these about 4 million are police".
Indeed, there were quite some police men on the streets, especially in the cities, and even more the very unpleasant "informers" for the state/police, operating in almost every neighbourhood, albeit with differing degrees of intensity or fanaticism. These snitched/informed about what the state made illegal: prostitution, black markets, but also things like having foreigners staying over without government permission.
As can be expected, there was no consistency here, and like elsewhere much was left to the relative (positive or negative) "discretion" in each situation of police officers. This gave them power that could also be abused. In some cases it worked out better, such as the Madrid cop only "warning" my godmother not to kiss her boyfriend in public, instead of detention.
In Cuba, in several busy, tourist spots, semi-informal "prostitutes" or other "hustlers" standardly approached tourists, including me. Sometimes these operated by necessity "sneaky", and hidden from policemen or informers, but in some cases they approached me while police officers were nearby and saw it all, or turned a blind eye.
It could still be capricious. Suddenly, the police or government, could decide to "now come hard" on prostitution and arrest prostitutes being with tourists, or those suspected of it, as I experienced another evening. Someone I knew well got arrested there, together with a friend of hers I knew less well. I even got worried, finding out they took her to the police station. After a few hours she was on the streets again, not knowing quite how she got out (but having some ideas).
As she was with me shortly before she was arrested, I waited in that instant a while outside the police station in Santiago de Cuba where my friend was held, and it became after 1 o'clock at night.. I had an unpleasant conversation with a cop, after I lamented to him about such an arrest, when she was just going out (the plan was with me and some others, to a music club), and not "whoring". "How do you know?", the cop responded to me. Someone I did not know - but knew her and saw us together - came up to me later, and said, softly and carefully: "she got out.. you do not need to wait here" .. Sources say that Afro-Cuban women tend to be arrested in such ways more often, so a racial aspect also in Cuba (where about 70% is either brown or black in different shades).
Sounds like a spectacular film all this, but I could have done without it. It was one of the bitter tastes of an undemocratic " police state" I experienced in Cuba. A society where the state - through police - could do with citizens what it whimsically wanted, limiting their free movement, without any accountability required of them. Controlling people through intimidation and fear, basically.
The police killings in, e.g., the US and Brazil, in some sense have also a "repressive ideology" behind them, including strong, historical racism, and the "whimsical" aspect making a citizen dependent on the capriciousness of particular cops: if that cop is a virulent racist he might just kill you because you are black, irrespective of a crime you (supposedly) did.
ABOVE THE LAW
My point in relation to such personal experiences, is maybe this: in truly democratic societies, police officers should never be above the law. Only being fired for murdering someone is just not fair.
The good example must be given by those with responsibilities within the unfree aspects of this society: bosses should not discriminate for racism or nepotism, but give a job to the most qualified. Likewise, journalists and media should not present lies or half-lies unquestioned. Also, police officers should be just as accountable for their unlawful actions as any other citizen.
It makes this still not an ideal and equal system - with still no full freedom as a birth right as humans for you and I - just a bit more bearable and livable.
The continued police killings, often with racial overtones, but also the excessive ("anti-virus"?) quarantine measures at present, even disregarding fundamental human rights and freedoms, both showed us that even in formally "democratic" societies like the US and the Netherlands, we must remain vigilant, and that things do not always improve over time..
Our freedom, belongings, bodies, and our life, are everything, and should ideally only be under our own control, and strictly our own responsibility, safe very extreme emergencies.
Unless we want to control or take those of others, than we should be held accountable: citizens and "law enforcers" alike..
RACISM
The George Floyd case is of course as much about "police brutality" as about "racism", though. There were wild protests in parts of the US itself, alongside more modest organized ones. There were protests too in other countries, in direct relation to George Floyd's case. One of these was in Amsterdam the 1st of June, which I attended.
At the central Dam square in Amsterdam it was held, and there were good speakers, and a good atmosphere. Sensible things were said. Police did not intervene, not even for "Covid-19" reasons. Virusses do not survive well in the open air, so that would be quite useless anyway, but that is another issue.
So good speakers, relevant issues, and many homemade/makeshift cardboard signs with relevant, positive message. Not much nonsense, in my opinion. Racism, police violence, and racial inequality, all remained justly the main issue.
RACISM IN THE NETHERLANDS
Some would argue that the Netherlands cannot be compared to the US regarding violent racism and the police. . I would say yes and no. There is structural and institutional racism in Netherlands, mostly present in daily life though subtle and indirect means. Not so often Neo-Nazi's marching on the streets, or mob violent actions against people of another race, or burnt crosses or houses. Neither police officers beating up and killing black people on a daily basis. That is the open kind of racism on which the taboo is more known throughout the world, though found still here and there (US partly, Brazil, Libia recently, parts of Eastern Europe a.o.).
Then there are stereotypes and "verbal racism", as I will call it. People saying openly what they really feel of other races, where their preferences lie. This also has obtained a taboo in the Western world, in the last decades, though again not everywhere to an equal degree. In some parts of Eastern or Southern Europe, among working-class people all over Europe, but also parts of Latin America people seem more "open" in this regard. That is honest, and barking dogs might not bite, but at the same time hateful nonsense should not always be expressed.
In countries like the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and the US, the cautious "political correctness" is particularly strong. This has good and bad aspects, I gather. Bad, because it is not always sincere, and honesty remains the best policy, as the saying goes.
If an employer does not want to hire for his company a Surinamese person because he does not like Surinamese people, he cannot say this openly due to possible legal action this might ensue. Instead, he simply does not hire him or her, and making up an excuse is easy, and largely uncontrolled (e.g. "the other candidate fulfilled our expectations more..").
Demeaning "jokes" during off-guard moments, is another common, sneaky way of racism in the Netherlands, often "masquerading" racial references and stereotypes as actual cause of the antipathy.
It showed some wisdom, that some of the speakers at the Dam protest in Amsterdam, the 1st of June, mentioned this common form of sneaky racism in daily communication with some White Dutch people, as a point where racism really starts - "unpleasant jokes with stereotypes", calling for not condoning it. It might after all end with arresting Black people earlier than White people for the same crimes or misdemeanors, and treating them rougher when arrested. It sounds as quite a leap, but makes some sense, in my opinion. The basic fact remains: you treat people better who you respect as equal.
Also, the critique - also during this protest - of the Sinterklaas & Zwarte Piet tradition, involving "black stereotypes" and demeaning "blackface" characters during this Dutch festivity, in the Netherlands, relates to it.
POVERTY
Social inequality is also important to address. Higher poverty rates among Black people - and as minority groups - is unfortunately a worldwide phenomenon: in the US, in Brazil, and in Europe (including the Netherlands). In some Caribbean countries even the "shade" of your skin determines largely your socioeconomic position and possibilities. The link between poverty and crime need not be clarified, I think, especially when related to theft or illegal trade. You do not really need to do that when you are rich.
The racial difference is not always decisive, for even when cops are the same race as the general population, police actions often discriminate the poorer classes, or perceived "rebellious" groups.
JAMAICA
The repression of and brutality against Rastafari adherents in Jamaica by police in certain epochs (and still going on) is an example of this. Jamaica's large majority is black, as is that of it's police force.
I have been to Jamaica too, and noted their was quite some corruption in the police force there. State police was not present in poorer ghetto areas, where "Dons" (criminal leaders) have taken over all state affairs. This brings a cynical order in a "disorder of poverty", nevertheless experienced by some inhabitants as "still better than no order at all" .
The police practices in Jamaica get quite some attention in Reggae lyrics.
There is a direct link between the police force in the history of (race-based) slavery in Brazil: set up by slaveholding Brazilians/Portuguese to control slaves, or hunt escaped ones. The same applies to a degree to other colonies in the Americas, like Jamaica, Cuba, and including the US.
Brazil is the country in this world with most inhabitants of African descent outside of Africa, showing the historical magnitude of African enslavement there.
The police force after slavery might have evolved, but the structural inequality "logic" essentially remained: keeping people in their place, as well as a racial dichotomy. Even in spite of in time " democratized" and "humanized" laws, on paper based on equal rights.
ACCOUNTABILITY
I will ignore that anarchist inside of me, and let's just say that a civilized, organized society needs laws to be upheld. Then also people "upholding" or "enforcing" these laws are also inevitable: police, military, government officials/agents, a.o. How then to ensure equality?
The problem in several countries in the world, including Brazil and the US, is that police officers can stand and operate too easily - without sanction - "above the law" . The law should simply apply to them too. It makes no sense to uphold or enforce something you are not part of. Also in the Netherlands, such laws are, as I write this, in the making (making police officers less liable than other citizens for e.g. man slaughter).
Yet, a legal system developed, with some type of "immunity" for police officers against legal actions against their behaviour. The logic behind it is a kind of "war" or "military" logic, as some also noted in the many police killings in Brazil in the documentary I mentioned. "Martial law" or "emergency measures" serving largely as excuse for excesses.
This military logic already is in most cases unwise and unnecessary - in my opinion -, and becomes even more dangerous when combined with racism and classism. Using "public order" as a main excuse should have become more suspect in this day and age, after the Nazi era, and other dictatorships. It bypasses individual human rights. Of course, dangerously violent criminals should be sanctioned, and kept away from people they might harm or kill. This is however a "one-on-one" thing, of individual humans. That is what an ideal democracy should be like.
When "members of a group" are singled out, though, democracy is abandoned and repression and discrimination begins. This indirect military logic has slipped in police practice in several "democratic" countries too, including the US, Brazil, or the UK.
This could be the only reason why many legal systems in even such democratic countries, include laws "protecting" police officers from legal sanctions when in line with their duty, even stating that only other police officers can judge or verdict police actions. This can only lead to partisanship and bias. Thus a lack of justice being done in many cases.
The same does not apply in other jobs, after all. Two colleagues in a shop might be racist toward each other, and in a fight one kills the other, or one working in a shop kills a client because of e.g. racism. These ideally are prosecuted for murder independently and from the outside, and not just based on statements of someone else working with them.
MILITARY LOGIC
Police work deals with criminality and law, everything outside it tramples human rights and should be punishable, including choking a black defendant to death for an (alleged) petty crime, as in the case of George Floyd.
The whole idea of "martial law" that suddenly legitimates trampling fundamental rights because of some emergency situation leads generally to abuse. The Covid 19 virus proved in time not to be so deadly as was presented through media, certainly not enough for - as happened - limiting freedoms and rights. Perhaps only slight annoyances for people in rich countries keeping their jobs, who did not go to bars or clubs anyway, but more bothersome or even fatal for others, especially for poor people or those in poor countries, losing their jobs or means of income, for which they had to leave the house.
"Martial" comes from "marte", the Romans' god of war, so again the "war" or "military" logic, outweighs here basic humanity.
This same "war" logic was identified as operative in the case of many (also unlawful) police killings in Brazil, and can be found also in police killings in the US. Racist or not.
RACISM AND WAR
To return to racism in societies. The racism may be more subtle in countries like the UK or the Netherlands, than in the US. Present, but mostly "limited" to unpleasant jokes, or simply - as some people of colour I know described it - not even be able to "talk as equal" with a Dutchman, with some kind of hidden wall of prejudice between them. Not all Dutchmen, of course, but the racist ones, locked in their own sense of superiority. There are also Italians, Britons, Frenchmen, etcetera like that, of course. Likewise, also people of colour or from ethnic minorities, can be prejudiced or negative in their approach toward random White people, that might not be racist.
The statement of one of the speakers at the protest in Amsterdam against racist police violence that I mentioned before, that racism starts with " a demeaning remark and might end with deadly police brutality" does therefore not even seem that far-fetched. Stereotypes should neither be trivialized in this regard, it is after all a way of dehumanizing. Stereotypes of "criminal (young) black men" have proven stubborn in several countries of the world, and is rarely contextualized as it should: within relative poverty and deprivation. Some would say "lack of self-pride" as psychological mechanism behind criminality. I agree with that partly, but think conditions weigh stronger. Many people with inferiority complexes (of all races) tend to need to criticize and seek to degrade other people a lot, but this can be done just verbally if one has no need to rob, e.g. as boss, policeman, politician, or other "bully function".
Demeaning stereotypes thus dehumanize. It starts with such dehumanizing: if you do not care what an "inferior" and "lesser" one than you has to say in a daily conversation, you might neither listen to that same one objecting when you are choking him with your knee, when arresting that one as a police officer. Especially when at the same time working under a "war" or "military" logic (that even further dehumanizes)..
That's why I say that both historical racism, personal racism of officers play their roles in such police brutality, but also this "military logic" legitimizing it. This stems in turn from "(political) ideology", with simply should not be mixed with legality. Separation of politics from legality is what makes democracies truly democratic.
This separation was/is not there in fascist or communist regimes, or other dictatorships, and should neither be there on a lower level in police activities in formal democracies.
With police officers less immune from legal sanctions, and equally accountable as others, they can still stop e.g. violent gangs in poor areas, violent and extreme crime, namely by being "proportional" in their violence.
Yet, this "proportionality" of police action should be evaluated and judged by the entire public, not by other police officers, and overall independently and externally. That is the only way to get rid of this "military logic" legitimizing racism of police in Brazil, the US, Europe, and elsewhere.
As for the other major problems in this world, racism and poverty: of course these should be solved too, but this proves historically difficult. Still worthy of a continuous effort, without a doubt. I guess Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I said it well, in his speech, also used as lyrics for the Bob Marley song War.
Also the phrase "No Justice No Peace", repeated and yelled at the protest in Amsterdam and elsewhere, makes in this regard perfect sense..
CONCLUSION
Some assume, or hypothesize, that the whole George Floyd case has been used or even orchestrated - and promoted as a media hype - by some higher powers - a wealthy elite - to distract mass attention from their hidden plan of global dominion.
There might be some misuse by powerful groups, but the nature of the riots and protests that followed throughout the US were largely wild and free. Manipulative elites wanting world control detest nothing more than popular free and wild gatherings and protests. It seems in contradiction to it, though they might try to manipulate the uproar.
To divide and conquer, some also say, but that is also not that easy. The recurring message "Black Lives Matter" on many protests is not very extreme or radical. It lacks that "military" logic, I mentioned before, and can hardly be considered a "call for war" or race riots.
I think, moreover, that excessive police violence, is in any case a theme worthy of attention, the "military logic" and unjust "cop immunity" part of it likewise, and even more so as it mixed with racism, suggesting : "targeted groups".
The looting and destruction, part of all this uproar, are probably a matter of opportunism or corruption, as occurs within many social movements. It is disturbing, yet not fully undermining of the main message and just cause of protest, in my opinion.
Besides, I also think it is all relative. After world powers lock a large part of the entire world population (!) to differing degrees up/down, trampling basic human rights and limiting freedoms, even causing more problems and deaths in several countries than the coronavirus itself - which even did not show to be so deadly after all (by itself) -, little can top that injustice. Looting in stores in some US cities is nothing compared to that global injustice.
On a personal level, I became deeper convinced after reflection about both these international issues (" pandemic", lockdowns, international protests against police violence and racism), that in my heart of hearts I am not "kind of" an anarchist.. I am actually a full-fledged anarchist, preferring anarchy as much as possible and reasonable.
Maybe I changed, maybe I just came to full realization about myself, developing further from my earlier life experiences and encounters with "police states"..
You might even say that this all "pushed me over the edge".
