I have been thinking about this a bit, as events unfold in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
Sir Robert Peel, the lauded Home Secretary that brought about the very idea of “policing by consent” in 1829 London, proposed these nine principles of policing.
- To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
- To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
- To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
- To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
- To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
- To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.
- To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
- To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary, of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.
- To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.
I know that many of the police forces in the US do not subscribe to the British model, but, many were indeed modeled after the Metropolitan Police Force (including the NYPD), and need be reminded of their origins.
We, the Public, are policed by consent, not by force.
We, the Public, recognize the badge and office of our police as a responsibility TO us, not as power OVER us.
We, the Public, through elections, advocacy, legal challenge, and social demonstration, have told our police repeatedly that they need to shape up, improve, and otherwise continually earn their license and authority to act as our protectors.
Right now, our police are FAILING in their duty to the public. They have become security guards, enforcers, and tax collectors for the officials and businessmen that preside over them, or provide revenue to them. They no longer serve the Public’s interest. In this, they have broken their oaths of service to their communities.
Our current POTUS, Donald Trump, has made it clear that he expects our police to be loyal to him, and him alone, not to us. He has finalized the transition from police force to occupying force, a change that has been in process for decades, but is readily apparent now.
This is NOT a call to resist. This is a call for civil disobedience, emphasis on ‘civil’. Do not break the laws, do not provoke, do not engage. The uniform and badge should no longer be respected in and of themselves; the person wearing that uniform needs to EARN your respect and cooperation at every interaction from this point forward.
We are being occupied by a hostile force. They will try anything to subjugate us, to regain that power they assumed they had simply by wearing a shiny piece of metal. They need to be told, “if you treat us like the Enemy, then you cannot expect us to respect you as fellow citizens and neighbors.”
Stay safe, watch out for each other in lieu of responsible police, and let your local officers (the ones you are on speaking terms with) know that the actions of their comrades have caused this shift in our trust, and to regain it, they need to fix the problem instead of just throwing brute force at the symptoms.