Did we learn anything from Danziger?
3rd October 2011 · 0 Comments
By Michael Radcliff
Contributing Writer
Part I of a four-part series
The damage caused by Hurricane Katrina’s fierce winds was minuscule compared to what would eventually take place in the storm’s aftermath. The catastrophe which ensued was hardly a result of a force of nature – an “Act of God” — but more so the man-made disasters that followed, after the levees breached.
Multitudes of people, starving, deserted, and walking around in a daze; murders, rapes and rioting taking place in the Superdome –”the refuge of last resort”; snipers on rooftops shooting at helicopters; stores being looted, the police chief’s daughter being assaulted; alligators eating babies; zombie-like drug addicts breaking into hospitals looking for a fix. A doctor euthanizing her elderly patients. Bodies on top of bodies on top of bodies floating down the river.
Yet in the wake of these headlines, truths, half-truths and outright lies, as a confused governor declared martial law, then issued an order to “shoot to kill,” the police force suffered desertions, suicides, a breakdown within its ranks, ultimately leading to the meltdown of its leader. Too many to protect, too many to serve – no law, only disorder. As chaos and confusion reigned, in the city’s greatest hour of need, the police department was placed on life support. This in and of itself was a crisis of epic proportions. But then we were told that a group of armed deviants engaging in a gun battle with police, on a bridge, a bridge that would ultimately lead to the disgrace of the department, the disgrace of a city and the disgrace of a nation – Danziger.
Over the course of the next four weeks, The Louisiana Weekly shall delve deeper into the processes which brought about the utter breakdown of the NOPD in the aftermath of Katrina. The Weekly assembled a panel of experts in the fields of law enforcement, sociology, criminolog, and social justice to gain insight into the mindset, culture and inner workings of the New Orleans Police Department, its officers and management. The purpose of this article is in no way to further vilify the city’s police department or its officers, but instead to (1.) gain an understanding of a set of problems unique to this institution; (2.) solicit candid discussion of topics heretofore considered taboo; and (3.) offer up expert opinion as to possible solutions which may aid in improving the image, delivery system and overall outcome of the New Orleans Police Department. The panel of experts includes Mr. Larry Preston Williams, a former NOPD intelligence agent and detective who currently works as a forensic security consultant and criminal incident analyst; sociologist Dr. Kathleen Fitzgerald Ph.D., an author and Professor of Sociology at Loyola University at New Orleans; renown criminologist Dr. John Penney, Ph.D., Th.D., the Chair of the Department of Social Sciences, and both Dean and Professor of the School of Criminal Justice at Southern University at New Orleans; and Mr. Jordan Flaherty, a journalist, community organizer, and social commentator.
Why ‘Us vs. Them’?
“The one place you don’t get the ‘Us vs. Them’ attitude from,” Mr. Williams explained to The Louisiana Weekly, “is the police academy. The police academy training that I received in 1969 was really designed to give you good attitudes towards serving people.
“And at that time,” he continued, “my class had the highest number of African Americans ever in a recruit class – there were six of us. And except for a few outside lecturers — about three as I recall — who came in and used the N-word, pretty much all of the department staff were fairly reasonable with regard to being sensitive with the use of that word. It was right after Martin Luther King was killed and maybe that’s why they were sensitive with instructions as to how you should treat people.
“However, after academy training, when you were assigned to your district, that’s when you begin to be re-educated by the veteran police officers. You learn, they tell you things, and of course you see how the older police officers handle situations. Any attitudes or bad habits they have, you pick up on; and this is reinforced by any negative experiences that you encounter on the streets. All of this tends to change your attitude. The ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality is developed because you’re told, and it’s indicated by the way the veteran officers act, that you’re not from this community…you’re not of this community but you simply come to this community to do a job; and like the military, for eight to 12 hours a day you’re an occupation force. You’re there to control… to control their movements, to control the lives of ‘Them,’ which creates a division. You’re not there to serve – you’re not of the people. ‘They’ are not your equals, so you begin to think of yourself as different, you began to see yourself as above the people, especially the lower echelon of society.
“So in essence,” he continues, “you do things to them more so than for them or with them. It becomes ‘Them vs. Us’. And part of the reason for this is that you sit in your car nearly eight hours a day, you see all of these people around you, and you know that at any given time that you might get a call over the radio, and you would have to go clash with ‘those people.’ So after a period of time you began to see a certain wisdom in maintaining that division between you and ‘those people.’ And unfortunately, when you believe it’s ‘Them vs. Us,’ it’s far more easy to get aggressive with these people.”
“The research tells us,” explains Dr. Kathleen Fitzgerald, “that cultural sensitivity training, diversity training, and anti-racism training can work, under specific conditions. One of those conditions is that the department is more than superficially committed to the issue. Meaning, there is the sense that this is important, necessary, can benefit them as individuals and as a department ; that this training is about more than being “politically correct.
“[Additionally], there is research that finds that the more policing experience an officer has, the more resistant they are to cultural sensitivity training,” Fitzgerald told The Louisiana Weekly. “Police cadets are more open to the idea that they may hold racial biases and that these can be addressed through training, while senior officers are more resistant. They often feel such training is a waste of time and that it blames the police for poor police/community relations. We do not know why this is so, although research can help us in our speculation on the matter. For instance, more of a police officer’s job is spent in negative interactions with the public; they overwhelmingly deal with the seedier side of life, for lack of a better phrase, so maybe it is hard for them to remember that most of the citizens they serve are law-abiding when they constantly deal with law breakers. I usually use an anecdote to explain this to my students: I knew a guy once that was a [white] police officer in a predominantly Black community. He started rambling on about race and crime and when I challenged him, his response was ‘That is what I do all day. I arrest Black guys for crimes.’ I pointed out something that he seemed to have forgotten and that is that the bulk of the citizens he serves are Black and law-abiding, but because they are law-abiding, they are off his radar screen.”
How Attitudes and Behavior Taught in the Academy Change on the Streets?
“When you get to your assigned district the only view that you get when you are a newbie, a new recruit, is from the various cops that you work with; the senior officers… and those officers have a rather defensive attitude towards policing in Black neighborhoods,” Williams told The Louisiana Weekly. “And because these guys are experienced officers, you, being a rookie, tend to believe that what they say to you is more valid than the instructors at the academy, who spend most of their time in an office, behind a desk. It does have some validity because the guy working the streets does it every day. The problem with this is that over time the guy in the streets may become very jaded, he may develop anti-Black feelings, he have developed personality issues which has made him more aggressive towards people… but when you’re young, you can’t make those distinctions that quick – so you may end up adopting some or all of his practices.”
“So why was it,” The Louisiana Weekly asked Drs. Fitzgerald and Penney, “that in the aftermath of Katrina, that in addition to the fairly small number of NOPD officers, we had National Guardsmen, as well as state troopers protecting the city; yet, all of the atrocities which occurred resulted almost exclusively as a result our own police officers turning on its citizens?”
“I know of no research that can answer (this) question, which is a great question,” Dr. fitzgerald said. “Why do we only see NOPD officers charged with crimes against citizens and NOT all law enforcement personnel that were in the city … Was it because NOPD officers felt threatened by community members, particularly those that were poor and Black, whereas outsiders saw them as victims? I don’t really know but you ask a great question. It could be a simple matter of numbers, of course. That most of the personnel in the city during Katrina and the aftermath were NOPD, thus, they are going to be overrepresented among those engaging in deviant acts. But if could be more than that. There was all the talk of ‘Marshall Law’ being declared — I believe there is debate over who declared it and if it was ‘official’ — but we can safely say that the members of the NOPD working during Katrina seemed to hear that from someone…and maybe
National Guardsmen didn’t? Or it may just boil down to the ‘us vs. them’ attitude, and maybe you are left with the possibility that an ‘us vs. them’ (among police concerning poor/Black citizens) attitude predated Katrina and was exacerbated by it. In general, the research tells us that this kind of ‘us vs. them’ attitude is at least partially a result of feeling threatened – thus, police stick together in the face of the threat of violence.”
“When you are on the interstate,” Dr. Penny explained, “and you come into contact with state troopers, you immediately notice that there is a different level of courtesy and respect, a higher degree of professionalism that comes from that group, and it’s a direct result these law enforcement officers accepting their professional responsibility more so than you see with our local police officers. And the higher up you go in the ranks, the greater the degree of respect and courtesy.”
The Impenetrable ‘Blue Wall’
“When you start out on the force — and you’re young, and you need support, and you have to develop working relationships — you find that you and those around you, your partners and co-workers, face common adversaries – although the community should not be perceived as a common adversary – it’s just that’s the way too many officers perceive it,” Williams explained to The Louisiana Weekly. “You come to the realization that you have to rely on your fellow officers. You begin to see them as a brother, and you form a brotherhood, a fraternity. And it’s a very strong bond, as you can see from [the] Danziger, Robair [and] Glover [cases] and others.
“Now,” Williams continued, “more so than when I was on the force, even across racial lines, these guys stick together. Today, Black officers are as much members of the fraternity, or ‘Blue Wall,’ as white officers were when I was on the force. In each of those cases both Black and white officers covered up for one another. There’s no longer a racial divide when it comes to the ‘Blue Wall.’
“When I was on the force, I was the first president of the Black Organization of Police, the Black police union,” Williams told The Louisiana Weekly. “Even though the white officers hated what I did, if I needed back-up, I got back-up. That ‘wall’ is strong. It’s good that today there’s less of a racial distinction with regard to relying on your fellow officers for back-up, or when you need them; however, it’s bad when you run into one of those moral or ethical conflicts and you’re supposed to do one thing, and instead, you tend to do as the crowd does because you feel encumbered upon to act as the crowd; and instead of doing that which you know you need to do, or the right thing, you end up resorting to covering up criminal offenses for one another.”
“The Blue Wall, or ‘Invisible Blue Curtain’ as I refer to it,” added Dr. Penney, “is a distinct law enforcement ideology or belief that in essence states that one police officer will protect another police officer at all costs. It doesn’t matter if the guy perpetrated against is a member of your ethnic group. Your loyalty is to your fellow policeman. So instead of looking out for the welfare of the community or individual citizens who can’t defend themselves, you protect each other.. and it’s a tragedy.”
“I think it is linked to the ‘Us vs. Them’ attitude,” Dr. Fitzgerald told The Louisiana Weekly. “[T]he stronger that attitude, the thicker that Blue Wall. In other words, if cops feel threatened by citizens, they are more likely to have their fellow officers’ back, even in questionable circumstances.”
“First of all,” insisted Dr. Penney, “police develop that attitude because once they put on the badge it gives them a sense of empowerment. But beyond that they see themselves as living in a bubble. They begin to believe that the general public does not care about them, so they adopt the attitude that we’ve got to take care of ourselves. This results in the forming of a fraternity, or support group, if you will, with a mission statement to the effect that ‘it’s US and we have to take care of US – because nobody else cares.’ The motto ‘To Protect and To Serve’ has become nothing more than lip service. If it means anything, it’s a meaning applied to the Wall – It no longer has the meaning that it is intended to have.
According to Walker & Katz’s, “Police Officers On the Job,” the concept of a police “subculture” (the Blue Wall) was first identified in William Westley’s definitive study of the Gary, IN police department subculture in 1970. He defined the “Wall” as an extremely complex phenomenon emphasizing secrecy and violence, whereby police officers viewed the public as the “enemy.” Westley went on to explain that this “Blue Wall” came about as a result of (1.) the police officer’s selective (often negative) contact with the public (i.e. officers usually met and interacted with people who required a police presence and/or as a result resented the police); and, (2.) as a response to professionals and laypersons (e.g. defense attorneys, community activists, reporters) who often had negative attitudes toward police, and faced with this public hostility —officers saw themselves as having to exclusively rely on fellow officers in times of crisis.
Accordingly, the fraternal characteristics of this subculture included: (1.) group solidarity; and (2.) a secrecy or code of silence which justifies lying and violence against citizens.
“The average citizen tends to perceive the fraternal nature of NOPD officers in a negative light,” Williams explained “The general populace overwhelmingly sees the ‘Blue Wall’ as hostile to the public; contrary to our constitutional beliefs; and furthermore only serves to promote isolation, prejudice, and opposition to authority. In essence, the concept of a ‘Blue Wall’ tends to paint an appalling view of the officers who uphold it. Yet this ‘Wall’ exists in nearly every police district in the country. It exists because it’s a vital part of an officer’s need for security and camaraderie. I can’t see how you can have a police department where the members support each other in legitimate situations, but you want them to break that wall of silence in other situations. You want them fraternal enough to stick together to fight crime but not fraternal when it comes to lying, covering up, and shooting innocent people.
“I know that there are boundaries, but I don’t know of any successful police department that can successfully navigate those boundaries consistently – because of the nature of the work – you need each other,” Williams continued. “There is no real solution to the ‘Blue Wall’ – yet on the other hand, as we have seen, it can lead to deadly consequences – Danziger shows that.”
“But even the ‘Wall’ is not infallible.” asserts Dr. Penney, “The need for self survival tends to cause one to question the wisdom of misplaced loyalty; and with the recent rash of arrests and convictions of police officers, the ‘Wall’ has been cracked, it’s been cracked if for no other reason than these officers attempting to save their own hides.”
This article was originally published in the October 3, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
