No pig has ever lied about or to me. LCPD Codes Officer Juan Valles lied about me when he falsely charged me the five violations. LCPD Chief of Police Patrick Gallagher lied to me when he falsely accused me of maligning Valles by lying when, in fact, I had told the truth about those five lies. Police dishonesty in trivial offenses is not a novelty in Las Cruces or elsewhere. (The hired police auditor will ignore this actual dishonesty because it will find that the LCPD has an excellent policy on honesty.) Not to be left behind in lies for serious offenses by the police in big cities or small towns, White LCPD Officer Christopher Smelser threatened on camera “to choke you out bro,” then claimed in court that he did not intend to kill Latino Antonio Valenzuela by a choke hold.
In the past three weeks, not one pig has shot, strangled, or killed a single person. But in that period, police have shot, strangled, or killed on average of three people a day, over half of them Black and Latino. These facts, with a long record of comparable facts, signify an occupational culture of violence and, in many incidents, pervasive, vicious racism in police departments. Not all police offenders are White; some are of color. These minority police offenders act as they are trained—all target silhouettes are black—and seek to earn or retain the approval and support of their fellow White officers. But in sties, pigs of all colors get along just fine so long as they are fed their slops.
A few people think that pork is not kosher, most like bacon, but none divides pigs into bad and good. Police offenders are often labeled and discounted as a few “bad apples.” The problem, like that of pedophiliac priests in the Catholic Church, is that the many “good apples” shield the “bad apples” with unbroken silence or tacit support. So just how good are the “good apples”? Are they not sympathizers, if not accessories, after, if not before, the fact? Nowhere is the problem more evident than in the positions taken by their unions. Like the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, police union officials defend their members, and their members, most of them “good apples,” approve their positions. The most extreme instance is a recent one in Chicago. CPD union leader John Catanzara said Officer Eric Stillman, who shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo when his empty hands were lifted in response to his order, acted “heroically.” In the eyes of the police, it is easy to be a hero: shoot an unarmed child. No pig ever did such a thing.
The list of police shooting-killings and other lesser violent abuses is long and growing longer. A notable incident in a rural, not urban, setting is the police stop in Windsor, VA, during which Officers Latino Joe Gutierrez and White Daniel Crocker stopped, harassed, threatened, struck, handcuffed, and pepper-sprayed Army 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario, half Black, half Latino, who was in uniform. Police Chief Rodney Riddle initially tried the usual defense, blaming the victim to justify the officers’ conduct. He claimed that the victim “created” the situation because he did not react “immediately” to the officers’ commands. (I'm 81; I react slowly; do I qualify for pepper-spraying?) Only when the public outcry overwhelmed him, did the Chief say—that is, lie—that he deplored the officers’ conduct. What especially infuriates me is that police in uniform showed no respect for a soldier in uniform—a clear case of racism at work.
A comparison of zones of operation indicates the degradation of American police. In Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, American troops operated in a foreign county whose civilians spoke local languages and lived according to local customs, and whose loyalties were neither obvious nor certain. When I was in Vietnam ’65-’66, almost every American soldier felt some fear for his life 24/7/52. I am sure that most veterans there before and after me felt the same. Few could be entirely sure that even a Vietnamese girlfriend was not a spy, a saboteur, or a soldier. I was one of the few. Fear often prompted feelings of resentment and hostility, and led to itchy-fingerness. I felt the fear but responded atypically, with nonchalant fatalism. Except for special operations and the moral, if not legal, abomination of “free-fire zones,” the general rule of engagement was to fire only when fired upon. Of course, the rule was honored in its breaches, and many but not all went unreported or unpunished. War is hell, not least in such environments.
By comparison to soldiers encountering people in a combat zone in a foreign country, police officers operating in peacetime are supposed to protect and serve fellow citizens with whom they share a language and most customs. Police talk of wars on crime, drugs, or whatever, but none is a war or none justifies the stale rationales for shooting first and asking questions later. In case after case, the officer initiates contact, escalates it, and executes the victim. Then, in a U-turn, the police officer justifies the killing because he felt in fear for his life; he claims—a claim often later rendered doubtful or disproven—to have seen, or thought that he saw, the victim holding or reaching for a weapon. Did the officer not know that his work might be dangerous? Does he not know how to manage fear? Does he think that civilians are enemies? Whose or what interest is he serving?
One thing I know: training is no solution. Training is another lie. No pig tells it; only police officers and self-touting police reformers tell it as the easy way to placate public opinion. It is ineffective; no police bigot has ever mended his ways or reformed his conduct because of sensitivity training. And remember: pigs do not need it.
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