The Galli Report: 08.07.20

The police debate, words as guns, the ultimate cancel culture, and "O Canada!"

Police Stats Galore!
As Mark Twain famously said, “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”  Well, they don’t so much lie as only tell part of the story.  This is especially true of statistics on police brutality and racism.

Before the links, let me clarify where I’m coming from. I think most American police do an outstanding job and are absolutely necessary for us to enjoy a just order.  Most police are under incredible pressures today, and they are good men and women who strive to be fair and just with anyone they encounter. I think the “defund police” movement is mistaken at its core. 

At the same time, there really are bad police, and even whole departments that turn a blind eye to heavy handed tactics and protect guilty police from prosecution. Still, the vast majority of police are the first to say there is need for reform in many places.

I also believe that most police are indeed prejudiced, and some may be racist (meaning they actually hate minorities).  But I’m not yet convinced that they are more prejudiced than your typical American.  All of us—white, black, hispanic, Asian, Native American, etc.--harbor prejudices of many sorts in our hearts, just as we all struggle with greed, lust, envy, and a host of other sins.  We do our best to keep these vices in check, but also know that they leak out now and then, to our shame.  Most police, like most people everywhere, do not want to be prejudiced, and they work to inhibit their prejudicial feelings, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

As far as “structural racism,” the term is so vague that I usually find it unhelpful.  But I don’t doubt that there is such a reality, just as in our economic system there is structural greed and envy, and in our political system, structural injustice, and so forth.  Sins inhabit not just the hearts of individuals, but also pervade institutions.  So it doesn’t surprise me that racism is embedded in systems.  At the same time, while we must work mightily to rid systems of racism, we should recognize that just as we will never in this life rid our hearts of prejudice, neither will we be able to create perfectly just institutions.   We live both by grace and a hope.

Anyway, I’m almost too old to learn something new, but not quite too old. If you want to tell me what you think of police violence, shoot me a line or comment (forgive the pun). All that being said, here are four offerings that gave me insight into different aspects of policing in America.

1.     The first is the most radical, a pushback to the mainstream narrative that asserts that Blacks are unjustly targeted and brutalized by police.  In this video, Heather MacDonald argues that we should analyze police behavior not in regard to demographic percentages but in regard to crime rates.  She shows that the vast majority of crime is committed by blacks, so the vast majority of blacks with whom the police deal with are are offenders.  That’s the key to understanding police behavior, she says, not that they are dealing with African-Americans. 

I think she’s on to something that should be discussed more in the national debate (although I will say she takes needless jabs at her opponents, thus undermining the possibility of having a civil conversation). 

What she doesn’t explore, of course, is why blacks are overly represented in crime. Here is where racism is a larger part of the picture. Most people don’t turn to a life of crime if their life prospects are good.  And one reason life prospects have not been good for black youth are legal and cultural barriers, many of which have been erected by the predominate culture to keep them marginalized. Thus one can argue that, yes, the key correlation when it comes to police is crime and still believe that racism is a serious problem that plays into the realities of police work. MacDonald says we need more police crime-ridden black communities and mocks the need for more social workers.  We need both, it seems to me.  And continued efforts from faith-based communities, who bring a much needed transcendent perspective.

2.     “When Police Kill” and 3.  “Global Lessons in Police Reform” helps us see that American police are trained in and use violent tactics more than do police from other nations, and more than is often necessary.  The only counter-argument I’ve heard in this regard is that the police are doing their work in a country that is fundamentally more violent than most, and one in which more people own and carry guns. This suggests, of course, that the problem of police violence is not just a police problem, but a larger cultural problem.  We need to also get a handle on why America continues to be so fascinated with guns and so easily prone to violence.

4.   Turning to solutions, the final piece looks at “How Memphis Kept Protests Peaceful While Other Cities Burned,” and this in a city listed as one of the most dangerous in the country.

The key to Memphis’ peaceful protests lies in an intricate web of relationships forged over time between churches and police, business leaders and community activists. These intentional efforts have made Memphis a model for how a torn city can come together again.

A License to Write?
Speaking of guns, “The Loaded Gun of Language,” by Bonnie Kristian at The Week reminds us of the power—for good and for ill—of words. She begins,

Language in the public square is an "instrument of power," author and theologian Dorothy L. Sayers wrote, and it is an instrument few have been taught to handle aright.

I belong to a sportsman club to shoot sporting clays and trap. Not only am I required to have a gun permit, I also had to pass a test to show that I know how to safely operate a shotgun.  As a result of the club’s strict safety rules, it hasn’t had a gun accident in decades.

Maybe we should require everyone who wants to join in social media to get a “Word License” and training in how to use these dangerous things—and maybe we should even require a background check!  :-)

COVID Cancel Culture
COVID has cancelled many an event we thought we couldn’t live without.  Which got this author to thinking about the biggest cancellation of all, and how “normal” it really is:

This Season, it has become undeniably clear that everything we create can be cancelled. Was it ever any different?

O Canada!
Here’s an excerpt from Jim Gaffigan’s new special on Amazon.  Since he was doing his thing before a Canadian audience and they were laughing, I assume my Canadian readers will not be offended.  I know this American laughed a lot!

Grace and peace,

Mark Galli
markgalli.com