White police attacks on young black men are common, and are surely racist. But now we have a black man brutally beaten to death by five black policemen. Some (e.g., Rev Al Sharpton) are saying that’s racist, too, but that doesn’t make sense. Racism has to do with different skin colors and/or different cultures; the six men in this tragedy all had the same color skin and are of the same culture as the victim. Therefore, I don’t think it’s racism. It’s something else.
But if not racism, what is it? Saying it is racism because the victim was black, or because he was not-white, not only doesn’t make sense, it enables one to avoid having to answer the question: If the beating was not racism, what was it?
No-one I’ve heard yet is asking that question, It’s not a difficult question so I think people must not want to face the answer because it opens up a bigger can of worms. Here’s the answer: it’s sociopathy. The police who did that beating were behaving like sociopaths.
For any who don’t know, a sociopath is a person who has little or no conscience, little or no sense of right and wrong, a person who lacks empathy, who shows no guilt or remorse for harming others, who is prone to violence, who is cynical and disrespectful of others, who is often deceitful, and so on. I’m sure you get the idea. Since there are probably 3 million or so sociopaths in the U. S., you likely know one or two yourself.
(Psychopaths are like sociopaths, but worse; more dangerous, like a mass murderer.)
I can’t say whether those black policemen are certifiable sociopaths or not. That diagnosis would have to be made by a mental health professional, but they behaved like sociopaths when they beat that poor young man to death and then stood around chatting.
How does a person get to be a sociopath? You can be born with a predisposition, or you can learn it from a parent or family member. Sociopathy also tends to be associated with harmful childhood experiences, including sexual abuse, physical violence, neglect, or parental instability. People learn sociopathic behaviors to cope with unstable or chaotic living environments. In other words, bad or no parenting.
Can a person be a racist and a sociopath? Of course, and it’s a really bad combination. I expect a lot of the worst racist acts are done by racist sociopaths.
I’m not qualified to say whether the policemen who did the beating are sociopaths or not. But I can say that were behaving like sociopaths and obviously need more or better or different training. Many others have said this, many times. A recent report by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), an independent research organization that focuses on critical issues in policing, shows significant gaps in how police in the U.S. are trained when compared to their international counterparts. For example, the programs we do have seem to be more militaristic than is desirable.
Since problems with police behavior keep happening, clearly little is being done. What a tough problem! There are nearly 18,000 law enforcement departments in the country. They can’t each plan and offer a quality officer training program. A Federal training program? Not going to happen, and anyway we don’t want a National police force. States might do it, but just imagine the variety of programs that would result! Chaos!!
Again, I am not qualified to say what a police training should be, but I can, from experience, say what one critical element must be included. There must be training that provides officers with the ability to overcome their emotional reactions and follow their rational training calmly when they are in fear (say for their life), angry, hateful, being swept up by mob psychology, or being disobeyed (e.g., when a person resists arrest). This is not easy. Police are human; emotions can take over anyone. But police have to learn to resist acting or reacting on their emotions. Got to be an essential part of the training. The best training in the world is no good if emotions take over.
I’m Just Sayin’. I leave it to the experts to figure out how to do that.
John R. Dixon 