Rain through the night, heavy rain with thunder and lightning, soaking rain. The garden is lush and cool.
Thinking about the toxic culture of police, I thought also about how bad doctors once were. Little gods with no accountability, then the lawsuits poured over, and they had to change. They had to learn how to police themselves, and hospitals set up procedures, and doctors had to testify against unethical doctors, explaining why they didn't step in and protect the patients over the egos of the doctors. Still imperfect, but the culture has improved vastly in the past 10-20 years. Our health care system is still an unholy mess, but this aspect has improved vastly. The old MDs who could do no wrong are aging out.
Wrong site surgeries are also way down, due to processes based on airplane checklists.
Plane crashes are way down because of procedures put in place after way too many fell out of the sky and killed people.
The police issue seems intractable, but it's a matter of changing the culture with systemic processes along with oversight and accountability.
Medicine actually started this process, of M&Ms, Morbidity and Mortality, to address poor outcomes. Then failed to make it public and themselves accountable. Emphasising confidentiality is a mistake at the heart of what should have been a potent check/balance.
Everything must be up for scrutiny, and we must all take responsibility. The danger is less in power than in unchecked power. Turn on the light, and really look.
There is an article about how fake news spreads faster than truth. Not surprising, a story can be crafted to appeal to what people want to believe. Facts are often not appealing, raw and naked - belief doesn't change them, magical thinking does not alter them. Lies can shape shift to fill any gaping fear or unfulfilled wish, they don't have to be consistent or provable. Facts sit like rocks, unconforming.
So, we have to tell better stories, like laminar water over the boulders, keeping the shape and bringing out the colors, while still warning of the danger truthfully. Facts have to be churned into truth butter, with a dash of salt.
3 comments:
Wonderful post, Z! Right on the money, in my opinion, about how to help law enforcement agencies change, and citizens' responsibilities to help bring it about.
Defunding police departments is not the answer; holding them openly accountable when officers go outside the guidelines, laws and procedures is the answer.
Crow,
I think the threat of defunding, and using the money on public mental health, social services, homeless housing and research, is part of the answer. It's not the whole answer, because it is a complex problem. It may be that police departments need to be disbanded completely, then rethought and built from the ground up. Public Safety Departments that will include detectives and neighborhood peace officers, de-escalation specialists, domestic violence experts, child protection, animal protection, property, addiction, road safety... the list goes on and on, and a traditionally trained cop expected to do it all is futile.
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