Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Cartoon
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

The “Total Anarchy” of Wet Cops
Josmar Trujillo
31 Jul 2019
The “Total Anarchy” of Wet Cops
The “Total Anarchy” of Wet Cops

No matter how many Black people cops kill and abuse, corporate media amplify voices that shift victimhood onto the police force.

“There is little empirical evidence for the notion that disorder sparks serious crime.”

The family of Eric Garner, the Staten Island father infamously choked to death by a New York City cop in 2014 (Extra!, 1–2/15), was told last week by the Justice Department that charges would not be brought against that officer. Family members and activists responded with fury, mostly aimed at Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose refusal to fire the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, allows his abusive run at the NYPD to continue.

Last week, however, an event deemed more outrageous and reprehensible by the press took the spotlight away from the Garner saga: Police officers were doused with water during a record heatwave.

No one was hurt in the two separate water-throwing incidents, which involved squirt guns as well as buckets of water, but unlike copaganda coverage of NYPD officers engaging in a snowball fight with kids—framed as “heartwarming” by local media—this time a moral panic ensued, as media and police brass proclaimed that “disrespect” cannot be tolerated. In the barrage of hand-wringing and finger-wagging stories that ensued, we are given insight into the deep, ideological concern for cops that some media outlets harbor as they amplify voices that distort reality and shift victimhood onto the police force.

“A moral panic ensued, as media and police brass proclaimed that ‘disrespect’ cannot be tolerated.”

Our journey begins in the pages of the New York Post  (7/22/19), which broke the story of the watery carnage on Monday. The original headline, since changed, alluded to a total breakdown of civilized society: “‘Total Anarchy’: NYPD Cops Get Drenched by Buckets of Water.” The “total anarchy” remark was attributed to anonymous police sources, which are often the most-cited voices in the pages of the local tabloids; they added that “there’s lawlessness around here now.”

No, the “lawlessness” the anonymous police source was referring to was not the unpunished killing of black people like Garner by police. Police uniforms were wet, a clear sign of the unraveling of the fabric of society. The head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Pat Lynch (who has long maintained that Garner, in fact, killed himself), went further and made the case in the pages of the Post that “dangerous levels of chaos in our neighborhoods” meant that police should “take action”—whatever that means:

“We are approaching the point of no return. Disorder controls the streets, and our elected leaders refuse to allow us to take them back.”

Police claims of “lawlessness” and “chaos”—uncritically platformed in the Post and the New York Daily News(7/22/19)—are a hard sell today with the city’s crime rate continuing at record-low levels. However, Lynch’s comments about “disorder” and taking back the streets are revealing. Is he suggesting taking back the streets, politically and literally, from anti-police brutality demonstrators, like those who support justice for Eric Garner? Is he clamoring for more aggressive policing in already hyper-policed communities of color?

Claims of “disorder” are not without their political meaning in New York City, where “order” has been a bedrock value for supporters of heavy-handed policing, perhaps most famously articulated through the “Broken Windows” theory. Broken Windows advocates for enforcement of low-level offenses in the name of order, supposedly thereby preventing more serious crimes.

“Is Lynch Is suggesting taking back the streets from anti-police brutality demonstrators?”

The theory came under criticism by myself and others after Garner’s death as the racist policing ideology at the heart of the interaction that led to his killing.Researchers report finding little empirical evidence for the notion that disorder sparks serious crime—but there’s considerable reporting that overpolicing of minor offenses helps create create hostility between law enforcement and the community.

So why do the Post and the News fill their pages with the musings of anonymous cops and the police brutality–denying Lynch? Perhaps because they share their worldview. Both local tabloids have editorialized in support of a host of discriminatory police tactics, from Stop and Frisk and Broken Windows policing (FAIR.org, 7/3/16, 3/8/16) to the NYPD’s controversial gang database (FAIR.org, 6/28/18).

Local crime reporting by the Daily News may also be skewed by sympathetic reporters. Sharing a byline for a follow-up story (7/24/19) on the wet-cop scandal, which covered the arrest of one man allegedly responsible for the “mayhem,” was Larry McShane. McShane, one of the News‘ longest-serving criminal justice reporters, is also the author of the 1999 bookCops Under Fire: The Reign of Terror Against Hero Cops, which reads like a Pat Lynch press release:

“Broken Windows is at the heart of the interaction that led to Garner’s killing.”

“Every day, thousands of police officers willingly put their lives in danger to uphold their pledge to protect and serve the public. Once respected for their dedication and professionalism, police officers are now used as scapegoats—the victims of second-guessing and racial issues. Allegations of excessive force and police brutality are rampant. Cases involving cops are more political, more scrutinized and more explosive than ever before.”

In McShane’s account, it’s (presumably white) cops who are “victims” of “racial issues”—and it’s “allegations,” not abuses, that are rampant.

The adoration of police—and the accompanying anxiety that follows when they are “disrespected”—is a testament to a fascination and solidarity with power and the powerful. When a cop is embarrassed, it can seem like society’s manhood has been denigrated. For some, seeing a cop humiliated suggests a breakdown of society in a way that seeing a cop engaging in the humiliation and abuse of a black person does not.

Take, for example, a viral video posted two weeks ago, showing police officers punching and arresting a black man in the Bronx, apparently for talking back to a group of cops. This is just the latest in a long list of police barbarity. There’s been no media coverage about the video, and hence no growing sense of scandal, because civility, for some, is not threatened when a black person is assaulted and falsely arrested.And in explosive cases like Eric Garner’s death, tens of thousands have to take to the streets so that the injustice can’t be ignored or forgotten.

As this week’s water-bucket panic went national, the Washington Post (7/23/19) published Lynch’s “anti-police rhetoric” claims, without any context as to whether he was referring to public sentiment against police officers killing civilians with impunity, or to Mayor de Blasio—or both. Lynch’s longtime characterization of the mayor as “anti-police” is another gross distortion that the media are unable or unwilling to refute.

“Civility, for some, is not threatened when a black person is assaulted and falsely arrested.”

Is the mayor actually anti-police? While the Post can’t be bothered to look into his record on policing, we know that de Blasio has refused to fire Pantaleo for over five years, shielded officer misconduct from the public, allowed the department to obtain drone technology and added 1,300 cops to the city. If that doesn’t sound like any “anti-police” official you know, don’t worry, Lynch’s point isn’t to say anything that’s true, it’s to drive the political goalposts to the right by accusing a pro-police mayor of the exact opposite—and the media allow it.

The seething outrage of police spokespeople should be analyzed critically by media, because baseless, unchecked police fear-mongering has real world consequences.In 1992, police unions launched a massive protest against then-Mayor David Dinkins, who was trying to create a police misconduct oversight agency. Ten thousand off-duty cops descended on City Hall, broke through police barriers, jumped on cars, assaulted reporters and even called Dinkins, who is black, the n-word.

Those types of actions, however, must not be “total anarchy,” because they’re done by police officers—who are always to be respected, no matter how abusive or unaccountable they may be.

Josmar Trujillo is a former columnist for Extra! who writes at the Huffington Post, Newsday, City Limits and amNY.  He is also an organizer with the Coalition to End Broken Windows and New Yorkers Against Bratton.

This article previously appeared in FAIR.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

Mass Black Incarceration

Trending

Elizabeth Warren Wants Green Bombs, not a Green New Deal
Parallels Between Black and Palestinian Struggles
Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
Bill Cosby Should Have Been Denounced by Black America Long Ago
The Black Wall Around Barack Obama: Who Does It Protect Him Against?
How Complacency, Complicity of Black Misleadership Class Led to Supreme Court Evisceration of the Voting Rights Act

Related Stories

Texas Court Halts Rodney Reed Execution Over Questions of Withheld Evidence, False Testimony
Jordan Smith
Texas Court Halts Rodney Reed Execution Over Questions of Withheld Evidence, False Testimony
20 November 2019
A Black man gets a reprieve from execution in the death of a white woman who may have been killed by her cop husband.
“The Damned Don’t Cry: Pages from the Life of a Black Prisoner and Organizer” -- a Review of a book by Frank Edgar Chapman, Jr. 
Joe Iosbaker 
“The Damned Don’t Cry: Pages from the Life of a Black Prisoner and Organizer” -- a Review of a book by Frank Edgar Chapman, Jr. 
23 October 2019
 Frank Chapman’s book should be on the shelf with the Autobiography of Malcolm X and Soledad Brother.
They Survived Solitary Confinement. Now They’re Fighting to End It.
Victoria Law
They Survived Solitary Confinement. Now They’re Fighting to End It.
11 September 2019
On any given day, 80,000 people are locked in solitary confinement in US prisons and jails.
Sanders Unveils Plan to “Fundamentally Transform” Criminal Legal System
Jake Johnson
Sanders Unveils Plan to “Fundamentally Transform” Criminal Legal System
21 August 2019
The presidential candidate calls for people to “stand together” to end the war on drugs and cut the prison population in half.
Chicago Police Compiling Dossiers on People Who Speak at Police Board Meetings
Monique Judge
Chicago Police Compiling Dossiers on People Who Speak at Police Board Meetings
31 July 2019
Even cops that testify before the board have had their files updated.
There’s No Such Thing as a “Progressive Prosecutor” in a System Designed to Criminalize Blackness
Gyasi Lake
There’s No Such Thing as a “Progressive Prosecutor” in a System Designed to Criminalize Blackness
17 July 2019
Incremental changes are treated as if they are touchdowns when they are just moving the chains.
The Torture of Assange Is Public Policy in U.S. Prisons
Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
The Torture of Assange Is Public Policy in U.S. Prisons
12 June 2019
The psychological torture imposed on Julian Assange is not unlike the decades of torture imposed upon  Black political prisoners in the US. 
Atlanta Jail to be Shut Due to Community Mobilization
People’s Dispatch staff
Atlanta Jail to be Shut Due to Community Mobilization
29 May 2019
Instead of ensuring public safety for all citizens, the jail wrongfully imprisons and abuses people of color.
How Race Made the Opioid Crisis
Donna Murch
How Race Made the Opioid Crisis
01 May 2019
The demonization of urban, nonwhite drug users played a crucial role in the opening of ‘white’ pharmaceutical markets in the 1990s.
Dozens Condemned by Media as ‘Gang Members’ Not Actually Gang Members, Study Confirms
Adam Johnson
Dozens Condemned by Media as ‘Gang Members’ Not Actually Gang Members, Study Confirms
01 May 2019
Corporate media are racist megaphones for the mass Black incarceration state, criminalizing whole communities like electronic lynch mobs.

More Stories


  • “Booming” Economy Means More Bad Jobs and Faster Race to the Bottom
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    “Booming” Economy Means More Bad Jobs and Faster Race to the Bottom
    05 Dec 2019
    For the past 30 years, no matter which party has been in power, the US economy has produced more and more “bad” jobs – because the Race to the Bottom is ruling class policy.
  • Freedom Rider: Liberals Love the Military
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Liberals Love the Military
    04 Dec 2019
    Self-styled liberals believe they are a better class of people than Trump, but are bigger supporters of unjust wars than the so-called “deplorables.”
  • Colin Kaepernick Shows that American Innocence is a White Supremacist Sport
    BAR Contributing Editor Danny Haiphong
    Colin Kaepernick Shows that American Innocence is a White Supremacist Sport
    04 Dec 2019
    The Black struggle for dignity and self-determination will forever be criminalized as a problem by the white elite and their hirelings in the Black misleadership class.
  • Millions Die in Congo While the UN Keeps the Peace
    Contributing Editor Ann Garrison
    Millions Die in Congo While the UN Keeps the Peace
    04 Dec 2019
    The UN Peacekeeping Mission has been in Congo for 20 years without protecting the people or the peace.
  • Boss Tweet’s Blitzkrieg 
    BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
    Boss Tweet’s Blitzkrieg 
    04 Dec 2019
    I wake in a cold sweat, scrambling for the internet— What salvoes were let loose while we slept?  How badly Bombed is the safety net? What rights are left?
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us