I completely agree that the death penalty should be abolished. But I do object to the idea of describing the U.S. as a country of police brutality. Does police brutality exist? Of course. But considering the population of the country, and the number of interactions between cops and lawbreakers on a daily basis, police brutality is sporadic and the result of some rogue cops. It is not built into the system. It does not define our country. We also have teachers who sexually abuse their students. So, are we a country of sexually abusive teachers?
I don’t think I expressed myself well earlier. I’m not talking about police brutality in a vacuum. In Europe, police are generally trained to de‑escalate, whereas in the U.S. they are trained to suppress. There are reasons for that.
In the UK, for instance, guns are so difficult to come by that even organized criminals often rent guns not own. Armed units are only called in when police believe there is a real need.
When police come to your door in the UK to take you to the station, they don’t have to fear for their lives. Unless they have good reason to believe you may be violent, they’re not armed and they often won’t even handcuff you. If you’ve committed a serious crime, assaulting the police only makes things worse for you. There’s a significant difference in sentencing between first‑degree murder plus assaulting the police and first‑degree murder alone. The individuals who shoot police in the UK tend to be domestic or international terrorists, not John, who lives around the corner.
In the U.S., however, there are more weapons than people. Easy access isn’t just to defensive weapons but to assault weapons as well. Attacking the police isn’t as taboo. Police can’t just knock on your door to collect you—they have to plan in advance because the suspect might retrieve a gun and shoot at them before opening the door.
In a system where life without parole is handed out so easily, there’s barely any difference in punishment between killing one person and killing several—including police officers. You can get the death penalty for murdering a single civilian or for wiping out half a town and a squad of cops. The punishment isn’t scaled to the crime. So some criminals develop what you might call “what the hell” syndrome—if they’re already facing life or death, what’s stopping them from going all the way?
The problem isn’t just one institution—it’s the whole system. Otherwise, these issues could have been resolved by now.
Going back to the UK example: in the 1970s and ’80s, British police were extremely corrupt—especially at the higher levels. They planted evidence, lied under oath, and were openly homophobic, misogynistic, and racist. They didn’t enforce the law; they were the law. But that was an institutional problem, and with sustained reforms, the police force evolved into what it is today—where more than one in three officers are now women.
Their job was and is easier in many ways. It’s extremely difficult to be an American police officer—but that part is rarely talked about.
Well said. You make many good points. I would only add that the multicultural aspect of our country does make policing more difficult. Let's face it, humans evolved to be wary of otherness, and there is no otherness that stands out more than skin color. it's in our genes. Of course, as Steven Pinker says, we are not slaves to our genes. We can try to overcome our insecurities and build a healthier society. In that regard, we face a battle, though, that no EU country faces. They are mostly 80-95 percent white. We, I recently read, have slipped below 60 percent. That's fine. I think multiculturalism adds a lot to our country. But it does come with its difficulties.
Jonahan Haidt shares some insights from the sociologist Robert Putnam:
"…In a previous chapter I told you about his [Robert
Putnam’s] finding that religions make Americans into
“better neighbors and better citizens.”…Anything that
binds people into dense networks of trust make people
less selfish.
"In an earlier study, Putnam found that ethnic diversity had
the opposite effect. In a paper revealingly titled “E Pluribus
Unum,” Putnam examined the level of social capital in hundreds
of American communities and discovered that high
levels of immigration and ethnic diversity seem to cause
a reduction in social capital. That may not surprise you;
people are racist, you might think, and so they don’t trust
people who don’t look like themselves. But that’s not quite
right. Putnam’s survey was able to distinguish between
two different kinds of social capital: bridging capital refers
to trust between groups, between people who have different
values and identities, while bonding capital refers to
trust within groups. Putnam found that diversity reduced
both kinds of social capital. Here’s his conclusion: ‘Diversity
seems to trigger not in-group/out-group division, but anomie
or social isolation. In colloquial language, people living
in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’"
Good to see an American saying this. It's banned throughout Europe. In UK we banned it after several people whom we hanged turned out later to be innocent.
I completely agree that the death penalty should be abolished. But I do object to the idea of describing the U.S. as a country of police brutality. Does police brutality exist? Of course. But considering the population of the country, and the number of interactions between cops and lawbreakers on a daily basis, police brutality is sporadic and the result of some rogue cops. It is not built into the system. It does not define our country. We also have teachers who sexually abuse their students. So, are we a country of sexually abusive teachers?
Hi Philip,
I don’t think I expressed myself well earlier. I’m not talking about police brutality in a vacuum. In Europe, police are generally trained to de‑escalate, whereas in the U.S. they are trained to suppress. There are reasons for that.
In the UK, for instance, guns are so difficult to come by that even organized criminals often rent guns not own. Armed units are only called in when police believe there is a real need.
When police come to your door in the UK to take you to the station, they don’t have to fear for their lives. Unless they have good reason to believe you may be violent, they’re not armed and they often won’t even handcuff you. If you’ve committed a serious crime, assaulting the police only makes things worse for you. There’s a significant difference in sentencing between first‑degree murder plus assaulting the police and first‑degree murder alone. The individuals who shoot police in the UK tend to be domestic or international terrorists, not John, who lives around the corner.
In the U.S., however, there are more weapons than people. Easy access isn’t just to defensive weapons but to assault weapons as well. Attacking the police isn’t as taboo. Police can’t just knock on your door to collect you—they have to plan in advance because the suspect might retrieve a gun and shoot at them before opening the door.
In a system where life without parole is handed out so easily, there’s barely any difference in punishment between killing one person and killing several—including police officers. You can get the death penalty for murdering a single civilian or for wiping out half a town and a squad of cops. The punishment isn’t scaled to the crime. So some criminals develop what you might call “what the hell” syndrome—if they’re already facing life or death, what’s stopping them from going all the way?
The problem isn’t just one institution—it’s the whole system. Otherwise, these issues could have been resolved by now.
Going back to the UK example: in the 1970s and ’80s, British police were extremely corrupt—especially at the higher levels. They planted evidence, lied under oath, and were openly homophobic, misogynistic, and racist. They didn’t enforce the law; they were the law. But that was an institutional problem, and with sustained reforms, the police force evolved into what it is today—where more than one in three officers are now women.
Their job was and is easier in many ways. It’s extremely difficult to be an American police officer—but that part is rarely talked about.
Hi Tanner,
Well said. You make many good points. I would only add that the multicultural aspect of our country does make policing more difficult. Let's face it, humans evolved to be wary of otherness, and there is no otherness that stands out more than skin color. it's in our genes. Of course, as Steven Pinker says, we are not slaves to our genes. We can try to overcome our insecurities and build a healthier society. In that regard, we face a battle, though, that no EU country faces. They are mostly 80-95 percent white. We, I recently read, have slipped below 60 percent. That's fine. I think multiculturalism adds a lot to our country. But it does come with its difficulties.
Jonahan Haidt shares some insights from the sociologist Robert Putnam:
"…In a previous chapter I told you about his [Robert
Putnam’s] finding that religions make Americans into
“better neighbors and better citizens.”…Anything that
binds people into dense networks of trust make people
less selfish.
"In an earlier study, Putnam found that ethnic diversity had
the opposite effect. In a paper revealingly titled “E Pluribus
Unum,” Putnam examined the level of social capital in hundreds
of American communities and discovered that high
levels of immigration and ethnic diversity seem to cause
a reduction in social capital. That may not surprise you;
people are racist, you might think, and so they don’t trust
people who don’t look like themselves. But that’s not quite
right. Putnam’s survey was able to distinguish between
two different kinds of social capital: bridging capital refers
to trust between groups, between people who have different
values and identities, while bonding capital refers to
trust within groups. Putnam found that diversity reduced
both kinds of social capital. Here’s his conclusion: ‘Diversity
seems to trigger not in-group/out-group division, but anomie
or social isolation. In colloquial language, people living
in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’"
Thanks for listening (reading).
Good to see an American saying this. It's banned throughout Europe. In UK we banned it after several people whom we hanged turned out later to be innocent.