There is a problem with US policing. It is caused by Hollywood and body armor. The recurring deaths of African-Americans at the hands of policemen have led to riots and lawlessness and in some cases more deaths, which are equally reprehensible. The Hollywood effect on American policemen and policewomen has been around for decades. There are many cops now of retirement age who will willingly admit that they were first inspired to join the force by the glitzy, fast-talking movies. In these fictional tales, there was frequent and generally spectacular violence, the rules were often bent in the cause of “justice” and the good guys always won in the end. The problem is that the streets of US cities are rarely like the jungles that movie cops enter at their peril. Murder rates across America are falling. In recent years, it has been white gun nuts who have carried out the massacres at schools and colleges. Even gang violence has subsided as the Hispanic and Afro-American street toughs follow the example of the Mafia into legitimate business. As one Italian Mafioso put it: “Crime is just business, without the manners”. Hollywood gives a false impression of policing, which has been taken on board by the cops themselves, as well as the public. Then there is body armor and the Kevlar helmets. It is hard to tell a member of a SWAT team or a riot squad apart from a US trooper on the front line. The only difference is that cops wear blue helmets and have “POLICE” emblazoned on them. This protection has a subtle and insidious effect on the wearer. It serves to isolate the cop from the citizens. Indeed the increasing paramilitary equipment of some US police forces is quite striking. They appear at incidents in heavily armored vehicles and they carry personal weapons of awesome power. Nothing could be better designed to create a “Them and Us” situation, in which the cops lose the essential connection with the citizens they are supposed to be protecting. Permissive US gun laws, championed by the powerful and quite fanatical National Rifle Association invoking the constitutional right to bear arms have been given as one reason that the police have geared up their own weaponry and protection. But it is a dangerous escalation. The spectacle in recent days of heavily armored Baltimore police confronting rioters has shocked viewers in other countries. The issue of color prejudice among white officers is a serious one, but it is in fact secondary to a far more concerning problem. US politicians, who are ultimately responsible for their local police forces, have ushered in the birth of a monster. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the death in police custody 11 days ago of Freddie Gray, it is the subsequent behavior and appearance of the police as a heavily-armed paramilitary force on the city's streets that has been so shocking. Successful policing depends on a consensual relationship between the police and the public. They are in the end public servants, their chiefs often elected to the role. Their job is to protect the citizen and uphold the law. Hollywood it ain't. It is high time US policing was demilitarized and cops found a way to reconnect with the people they are paid to serve.
