“Specialized” Combat Units
Welcome back to Sunday Morning Coffee. Unless it’s your first time here, then, Hola! Glad you’re here. And unless you aren’t drinking coffee. In that case, enjoy whatever beverage you’ve chosen. Or it’s not Sunday morning for you. Ok, well, what’s in a name anyway? :)
What IS in a name? The events over the past month of yet another young Black man losing his life to violence at the hands of peace officers has been heavy on my mind. Wow. There’s so much to unpack in that sentence, isn’t there? I want to focus on what we call things and how that impacts results. Am I the only one who finds tragic irony in the fact that something with the name ‘peace’ in it can be the actual perpetuator of the exact opposite of peace? I know I’m not. It was a rhetorical question.
In my personal experiences of being employed in various correctional systems and working with others and police departments, I’ve always been perplexed by this common practice of creating “specialized units” to combat violence, contraband, gang activity, whatever the problem appears to be at the time. The source of my perplexity is that, in my own observational experiences, the specialized units are always given a name (sometimes clever and sometimes not so clever), a uniform that sets them apart from all other employees, “specialized” training, and a specific mission. I can’t recall one time in my career that I did not observe these units end up using violence, threats, and other nefarious means to either get to the stated mission or somehow, autonomously have a different mission altogether. I feel sure there are some examples out there that do good, but honestly, I haven’t worked with any thus far.
There was a lot of discussion about the recent death of Tyre Nichol being Black-on-Black violence. Race aside, when I think about specialized units being formed, in my experience, they end up being privilege-on-non-privilege violence, or maliciousness, or whatever negative thing becomes the result. As organizations, so-called peace-keeping organizations, form a group of people with the purpose of diminishing violence (whether in a prison, jail, or community), set them apart by uniform and status, give them training no one else gets, etc., we set up a system of privilege and unfortunately a sense of the “untouchables.” I think this is human nature, sadly enough. “Absolute power absolutely corrupts.” And we seem to default to violence as the answer to violence. Or to any behavior we deem as aberrant. I’m not sure how many centuries we have to survive as a species before we catch on that violence only begets more violence. It’s not the answer. Force may be necessary in some instances to save lives, yes I get that, but there is so much more that can be done, to prevent and mitigate anti-social behaviors and to deal with them in the moment.
Force when no force is warranted is simply unconscionable. It is. It just is. This stands for people in and out of uniform.
I’ve also witnessed these units, time and again, threaten, bully, and coerce other staff members. That’s a form of privilege that should never go unchecked. If a group of people feel empowered to treat their colleagues and supervisors in this way, the folks with no power at all are completely vulnerable.
The emergence of body cameras have also shown us that sometimes, it doesn’t matter to some people who know their acts will be seen and just do them any way. That’s someone who thinks they are untouchable. Add a few other bodies with the same mindset, and you have a mob, outfitted with weapons and power and privilege (even if that privilege is in their own minds).
My team developed and implemented a course in which law enforcement and correctional officers participate, taking the course with returning citizens and currently incarcerated individuals, to get to the root of why peace officers are feared by the community, and why certain elements of a community instill fear in peace officers. Where does trust break down? We can start there for a solution. It seems a better solution than forming specialized combat units that bully, threaten, and in some instances, kill, all in the name of “keeping the peace.” Hearing the discussions in those classes was sometimes heartbreaking, but most importantly, uplifting, as we saw understanding dawn and commitments made to do better, to be better, on both sides.
I feel encouraged that we can and will lessen these horrific events. We do have to stop watching the news and just shaking our heads, and instead, discuss and solve. It’s not a police problem, or a corrections problem, or a school problem, or a criminal problem…it’s a societal problem, and between all of our brilliant brains, there are solutions. If we’re brave enough to name them.
Cheerio, my favorite Sunday morning beverage-drinking-blog-readers! If you have ideas on any of this, or if you want to know more about the course we conduct to build community trust, contact me here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
