In Defense of Tyrants
When I see stories like last Saturday’s arrest on Bourbon Street, I think of America’s first police brutality scandal.
It began on the snowy Boston night of March 5, 1770, when two boys threw snowballs at two British soldiers who were posted at a customhouse. Several adults joined in and as the minutes passed, the growing crowd began throwing larger chunks of snow, ice, oyster shells, and anything else they could get their hands on. The soldiers stayed at their post, even as the mob swelled with rougher dock workers and sailors.
Six more soldiers soon joined the guards’ defense as the chanting mob grew larger and louder. Several rioters shouted, “Kill them, kill them!†and one soldier was knocked down and clubbed when he tried to stand. Fearing for their lives, the soldiers stopped the riot by opening fire. When the smoke cleared, five colonists lay dead.
Americans already upset by King George’s Stamp Tax were outraged by what Paul Revere called the Boston Massacre. The press called it “Bloody Butchery†and local attorneys refused to take the case. But when passions had cooled and the hot summer had passed, prosecutors sent the soldiers and their captain to trial. Attorney John Adams represented the defense.
Seven months after the soldiers killed five Americans, a Boston jury acquitted all of the defendants except two, who they convicted on lesser manslaughter charges. The soldiers were spared not because the shootings hadn’t occurred, but because they had followed the flawed policies of King George.
“Facts Are Stubborn Thingsâ€Â
This was not only John Adams’ primary defense, but also that of the Rodney King defendants. From the onset of that trial, the question was not whether King was beaten, but whether LAPD officers had followed the brutal policies of Mayor Bradley’s handpicked Police Commission. As I attended that trial, I thought of Nuremberg and how pleased the Nazis would have been had their attorneys lead a commission to investigate the deaths of six million Jews and other undesirables. That Bradley selected his own attorney to investigate the consequence of his flawed policies is something that Kenneth Lay can only dream about.
It wasn’t that LA City politicians didn’t know. Brutality was rampant among LA cops back then. Sergeant Ken Dionne, who headed LAPD’s Physical Training Unit, had warned Bradley’s Police Commission in 1983 that policy changes would result in excessive force, unnecessary brutality, and death. When they refused to rescind their decision, Dionne left the Academy in protest along with most of his staff. And from 1983 through 1991, thousands of LA residents were unnecessarily beaten and shot at the hands of LAPD officers. Politicians, judges, prosecutors, the press, and trial lawyers all knew but did nothing.
As LA’s annual lawsuit liability approached $150 million, trial lawyers got rich and laundered kickbacks through their associations to local politicians - including the city attorney (and later mayor), who blamed “out-of-control cops†for the brutality. And as they marginalized the police, the corrupt forces that the LAPD had kept at bay for fifty years grew stronger until it became, in the words of one recently retired deputy chief, the political arm of the Mayor’s Office – just as it was during the 1930s at the height of Mayor Frank Shaw’s reign.
NOPD - 2005
Now we have New Orleans. No, the arrest wasn’t pretty. Yes, the news photographer was yelled at. But like most agencies, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) doesn’t publish their policies online. As a use-of-force expert, I can’t make opinions without the facts, but from the media reports I can tell you this:
- If the AP photographers hadn’t been there that night, the judges, prosecutors, jailers, politicians and medical staff who saw Davis’ bruised and swollen face wouldn’t have asked a single question.
- Had Mr. Davis followed the officer’s directions, he wouldn’t have been injured.
- Had a female officer shot Mr. Davis no one would’ve cared.
- Had Davis been white, his arrest wouldn’t have made the news.
When America sees white male police officers treating intoxicated and resisting blacks the same way they treat whites under similar circumstances, the image triggers our racial paranoia. Those who defend what’s obvious to others are vilified because the rest of us are too preoccupied to examine the complicated realities of law enforcement and racial politics. To save ourselves, we take the easy road and scapegoat the officers to reaffirm our own racial virtue. When officers are defined by single incidents, the “presumption of innocence†no longer matters. Americans will protect themselves, just as we can expect Louisiana’s backwater politicians will.
Other than fame and a modest check, Mr. Davis’ life probably won’t change much. But for the officers who kept Bourbon Street safe last Saturday night, their lives are forever altered. And unlike the doctors, lawyers, politicians, and sports figures who get repeated chances to learn from their mistakes, Americans have already rendered their own career-ending verdicts.
Clark Baker is an author, filmaker, father and retired LAPD officer. He is a contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org and you can read more of his work here.