Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

125 Lundman llses the term "organizational deviance" to describe behavior that violates rules ornorms mandated by those outside the department, but that is nevertheless supported by internalorganizational norms. "Police misconduct is organizational deviance when actions violateexternal expectations for what the department should do. Simultaneously, the actions must be inconformity with internal operating norms, and supported by socialization, peers, and the administrativepersonnel of the department." Richard J. Lundman, Police and Policy: An Introduction(New Yo rk: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1980), 141. One book outlines the competing explanationsin terms of "Rotten Apples" and "Rotten Barrels." Charles H. McCaghy et aI., DeviantBehavior: Crime, Conflict; and Interest Groups (Boston: Allyn and Brown, 2003), 244.126 In her statement before the NAACP, one former Miami omcer described a field training exercisein which she was reprimanded for not using force against a mentally ill man who shouted ather. Ogletree et al., Beyond the Rodney King Story, 19. Two of the four cops who beat RodneyKing had participated in a training exercise earlier that evening, focusing on baton techniques.Christopher Commission, Report, 12.127 In 1990, a White J ndianapol is police officer received his department's medal of valor for shootingan unarmed African American robbery suspect. Human Rights Watch, Shielded from justice,190. In 2002, Portland (Oregon) Police Chief Mark Kroeker stirred controversy by awardiogmedals to each of the twelve officers involved in fatal shootings during the two previous years.Duin, "Silver Medals."128 Rizzo advised his officers to "break their heads before they break yours." Quoted in James TFyfe, "Police Use of Deadly Force: Research and Reform," in Policing Perspectives: An Anthology,cds. Larry K. Gaines and Gary W. Cordner (Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing, 1999), 429. Fyfe'sresearch quantifies the results of Rino's leadership: "Overall, the [Philadelphia Police Department's]police homicide rates were 2.09 [civilians killed annually, per 1,000 officers] whileRizzo was police commissioner; 2.29 while he was mayor; and 1.05 after he was out of office (ascompared to the annual PPD homicide rate of 0.61 over 1950- 1 960 ... )." Fyfe concludes that"knowing what Frank Rizzo was doing was far more valuable for estimating the PPD homiciderate than were data on public homicides." Fyfe, "Police Use of Deadly Force," 417.129 "To a considerable extent the police regard all citizens as 'outsiders'-as unsympathetic and athreat to order-because the police are a distinctive and relatively socially isolated subculture."Stark, Police Riots, 124. See also: Victor E. Kappeler et al., "Breeding Deviant Conformity: PoliceIdeology and Culture," in The Police and Society: Touchstone Readings, ed. Victor E. Kappeler(Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1999), 251 and 252.130 According to one srudy, police consider excessive force to be of "intermediate seriousness." Askedto evaluate the severity of eleven misconduct cases, police ranked brutality seventh, just ahead ofcovering up an officer-involved traffic accident (number 8), and below management favoritism(number 6), accepting kickbacks (number 4), accepting bribes (number 2), and theft (numberO. Carl B. Klockars et aI., The Measurement of Police Integrity (U.S. Department of Justice,National Institute of Justice, May 2000), 3.131 Fogelson described the police as sutTering from "a strong sense of alienation, a sharp feeling ofpersecution, and other severe anxieties which fo r want of a better term might be called occupationalparanoia." This disorder was characterized by complaints about the incompetence of thecivil authorities, a "frenzied reaction to criticism from outside," and advocacy of reactionary anddraconian measures. Fogelson, Big- City Police, 120. See also: Stark, Police Riots, 92-93.132 In 1994, NYPD officer Bernard Cawley testified before the Mollen Commission: "We'd just beatpeople in general ... to show who was in charge." Quoted in Human Rights Watch, Shieldedfromjustice, 268. Cawley admitted to involvement in 400 beatings, using nightsticks, flashlights, andlead-lined gloves. Only one citizen ever filed a complaint against him, and no officers did. HumanRight, Watch, Shielded from justice, 272.133 William A. Westley, "Violence and the Police," in Police Patrol Readings, ed. Samuel G. Chapman(Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1964), 284.134 Human Righrs Watch, Shielded from justice, 62.135 Amnesty International, Race, Rights, and Police Brutality, 28.136 Quoted in Christopher Commission, Report, 32.137 Weisburd et aI., Police Attitudes, 5. Many supervisors share this perspective: 16.7 percent agreedor strongly agreed that whistle blowing is nor worth it. Almost as many (16.4 percent) felt that itwas acceptable to use illegal levels of force against a suspect who assaults an officer, and 7.6 percent(ahout one in every thirteen supervisors) felt that the Code of Silence was an essential partof policing. Weisburd et aI., Police Attitudes, 11. The Christopher Commission found that policecommanders often enforce the code of silence by singling out whistle blowers fo r discipline.Christopher Commission, Report, 170.138 Weisburd et aI., Police Attitudes, 2.139 Westley, "Violence and the Police," 289-90.243