Osler's Razor

Lack of training, poor selection of officer candidates, poor supervision, the "Blue Wall of Silence", the pattern of police getting away with misbehavior. E.G., breaking a tail light to have an excuse for a racist traffic stop. We could hope that, at least occasionally, a judge will see the broken tail light for what it really is, vandalism by an officer to justify an illegal stop.
 

I see scientific articles from time to time that purport to account for some destructive and antisocial behaviors, relating them to genetic predispositions. Others emphasize emphasize environmental factors, and others disease.

I don't think anyone has as yet quantified the percentage of individuals in the general population who have a predisposition to violence. But, even were that possible, the problem is identifying individuals in the police academy applicant pool, and that is not easy to do.

Furthermore, the distinction between those qualities which make for a good and effective police officer, including the willingness to use reasonable force when occasion demands and not shrink from it, and those qualities which presage trouble are probably related.

In any event available psychological tests are by no means foolproof, and so being able to discriminate between likely troublemakers and desirable candidates in all cases is a fond hope

I doubt that genetics accounts for all instances of police misconduct, including murder, theft, corruption, abrasive and callous interfaces with the public, etc.. But, it may play a role.

If an individual is genetically predisposed to spontaneous and irrational violence, I doubt that good training and nurturing will do much good.

And so we can and should do our best to identify the potentially "rogue" officer. But, in my opinion, police departments with the best of screening and training will continue to attract and eventually hire "unsuitable candidates."

And, their unsuitability will show up in abuse of citizens of all races, creeds, ethnicities. Recent studies of which i have read debunk the notion that police departments across the country have a worse track in regard to targeting one race over the other when it comes to shootings and incidents resulting in death.

I am sure that racial animosity plays a role in some of this, but I don't think we are likely to get to heart of the broader problem if it is cast in racial terms.

Neither do I think that great training and a changed "culture" will eradicate the problem, although those worthy means are certainly necessary to minimize improper actions by the educable and earnest officer.

Maybe, as seems the case with malignant forms of income disparity, wars to solve international disputes, armed conflict to resolve internal conflict, and all the rest of it, abuse of authority will just continue to be one of civilization's seemingly ineradicable scourges.

There are many things individuals can do with sound prospects of reducing risk.

The very best way to avoid being a victim of some "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" is not to drive drunk, not to play with fire, not to frequent arenas of temptation, keep good company, obey the laws, not provoke superior force, not resist arrest, and in the case at hand, not flee from an armed policeman in defiance of a stop order.

Finally, as will happen in this situation, it is essential that crimes and alleged perpetrators be subject to investigation and that appropriate criminal procedures be followed in every case. Maybe that too will play some role as a deterrent to others. We can only hope.






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Disgusted is what I am and thankful that the officer has been charged with murder and fired.

It is so unfortunate that they apparently don't train an officer to shoot to injure. One shot to the leg should stop a fleeing suspect. The number of shots fired and one apparently grazed his ear astound me. He was running away from the officer not toward him.

A revenue stop... and sadly this mans children will have no source for that back child support which was his reason for running.

So many lives destroyed by this one death.
 

What struck me about this video was that the officer seemed to be firing at a target rather than a person, as if the officer were shooting at the outline of a man on a piece of paper tacked to a wall, and not a human being with a life and a soul.
 

Although he was addressing recent situations much murkier than this egregious and seemingly manifestly criminal abuse of power, I continue to see James Comey's "Hard Truths" Speech from February as a most thoughtful and nuanced public rumination on the "how we got here."

http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/hard-truths-law-enforcement-and-race
 

What else? To address Waco Farmer's “how we got here” with the cliffs notes on Anon2's genetics theory, it is genetic alright! A degenerate monster mutant called the getting-away-with-it-for-too-long gene.