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| Art and Healing: In the Moment is an exhibition of artwork made by community artists in response to police execution of Philando Castile in 2016. The exhibit is on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) from June 17-July 29. From MIA: "In the months after Castile’s funeral, artists across the community were motivated to make art, some of which they gave to his family – gifts intended to help the people closest to Castile process their grief and start to heal, while also bearing collective witness to the tragedy of his untimely death. The family, moved by this generosity, approached Mia with a desire to publicly share these artworks, which includes video, sculpture, posters, paintings, and quilts." |
Bearing witness to America's cop problem
Cop problem denialists abound.
For a revealing look at America's cop problem, Google "officer-involved shooting," and set an alert to deliver news to you email In Box. Cancel the alert after two days because your In Box will be overwhelmed very quickly.
Of course, police shooting people is a numerically small part of the cop problem.
The anti-social police mind-set is dangerous and ambushes the community in unexpected and many ways.
Consider Madison, Wisconsin Police Chief Mike Koval who excoriated the grandmother of an unarmed, 19-year-old black man gunned down by Madison Police in 2015. The Madison Police Chief dubbed the grandmother, a "raging lunatic," capturing well the attitudes and intentions of the thugs that populate the Madison Police Dept, inducing a psychic toll on police victims, (Daily Cardinal).
In San Francisco this weekend a news report reads, "An officer-involved shooting captured on body camera and surveillance video in a popular San Francisco neighborhood has left the community outraged," (ABC News). "Both body cam and surveillance video captured the officer running after, and then shooting 28-year-old San Francisco resident Oliver Barcenas in the back in between a crowd on the sidewalk."
In Minneapolis the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports police are asking medical EMS responders to inject suspects with ketamine, a powerful sedative and date-rape drug. Minneapolis police are in full-CYA mode following the news report.
In some instances, the forced-ketamine injections caused several victims hearts and breathing to stop, forcing drastic measures to revive the cop victims.
ThinkProgress notes:
The (forced-ketamine) practice had been increasing, up from three injections in 2012 to more than 60 last year, even as there had been no policy regarding such injections. Earlier this year, before the (requested and finally obtained) report was made public, the department’s commander issued an order that officers 'shall never suggest or demand EMS Personnel ‘sedated’ a subject. This is a decision that needs to be clearly made by EMS Personnel, not MPD Officers.' ...
The Minnesota ACLU said such a drugging practice would amount to a 'horrible abuse of power' if the report is accurate.
The Pulitizer-worthy piece by Andy Mannix is a must-read.
Mannix notes the cops refer to ketamine as the "Big K." Cops also refer to the drug-induced delirium as the "K-hole" Mannix does not report on what the cops call it when the victims' heart and breathing stop.
Speaking of Minneapolis, the police execution of Philando Castile and human healing from police violence are the subjects of a new exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) opening today and running through July 29.
The exhibition is entitled "Art and Healing: In the Moment," the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.
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So, who acts with such hate and violence towards people? What is wrong with the cops?
Note first, cops are not a logical necessity for communities. We don't need police.
One can offer many reasons explaining why municipal police have become an anti-social, often deadly menace. Cops have long been the designed tool for killing and terrorizing labor and civil rights movements, ala central American death squads and para-military terrorists. You won't find many human rights workers and social justice activists among cops.
Excellent academic and lay work exists on the historical, structural, and institutional operation of cop squads. Recent major policy initiatives — the drug war and post-911 everyone-could-be-a-terrorist — help to explain in part why cops act out the way they do.
It's imperative as well to understand the cop problem by examining the ideological composition, personality disorders and psychopathology cops manifest. We need help from behavioral science certainly but not sure the FBI is approachable on the topic, (worth looking into).
But social critics — writers, civil rights activists, comedians, neighborhood advocates, abolish-the- police, police abolition intellectuals — offer critical analyses.
This weekend, Bill Maher, social critic and comedian, offers this insightful critique of cops: Roughly, cops are resentful outcasts — grudge hoarders — who had a tough time in high school and want revenge. Give Maher a listen:
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